Back to the original question:
Goldielox: you don’t want to sleep less if you’re a student. Your brain consolidates what you’ve learned while you’re sleeping. Less sleep = less remembered. That’s why if you throw an all-nighter before a test the “knowledge” doesn’t last past the next day. Trust me – I just got a graduate degree in psychology and we had to take bio-psychology from a very, very good neuropsychologist. She used to lecture us constantly on getting enough sleep.
If you have trouble falling asleep, are you using your computer right up to the time you go to bed? The concentrated light from the screen will keep you from getting to sleep for quite some time. So an hour before you want to go to sleep turn off the computer, get a nice dull book and settle in with a reading-light and soft music. Try a statistics textbook – that worked every time for me!