College is known for partying, socializing, making more friends, going to class and pursuing a major, etc. However, a HUGE part of college is sleep deprivation. College students develop sleep deprivation throughout the quarter/semester, or it hits them straight off the bat. The number of all-nighters pulled by college students is ridiculously high as well. My medical anthropology professor actually asked us one day in lecture how many hours of sleep we get a night. A few said they get 8 or more hours a night, the majority of the class said 6-7 hours, and the rest said 5 hour or less. We are supposed to be receiving about 8 hours of sleep a night in order to wake up feeling refreshed and in order to function at our best. However, in college getting 8 hours a sleep a night is rare. Students stay up to the wee hours of the night studying in their rooms or at the library, leaving students trudging around campus and complaining about how tired they are the next day.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, we are supposed to be receiving 8 to 10 hours of sleep a night; however, many teens don't get enough sleep, with a study reporting that only 15 percent of the teens that participated in the study got 8 1/2 hours of sleep per night. That means that the 85 percent that were also in the study got less than 8 1/2 hours of sleep a night. That is ridiculous. Teens also tend to stay up really late during the week and sleep in on the weekends. College students, in my opinion, do that same thing. Speaking from my own perspective and what I observe from my roommmates' actions, we all stay up pretty late during school nights studying and doing homework, and "make up" for our lost sleep by sleeping in really late on the weekends. Although we may think that this system works for our body, the National Sleep Foundation says that this system is harmful to our health. Staying up late during the week and sleeping in on the weekends disrupts our biological clocks and actually affect the quality of our sleep.
It is all too common on my campus to walk somewhere, whether to the dining hall, to class, or even be on the bus, and hear students yawning, or telling their friends about how tired they are. It is universally known that college students are sleep deprived. If you talk to any college student, you will probably figure out within 5 minutes of talking to them how busy they are at school with class plus extracurriculars, which leads to their sleep deprivation. I believe this widespread sleep deprivation across all colleges and universities in the United States is really harmful and detrimental to all college students' health. Not getting enough sleep can affect our school work, our GPAs, make us perform worse on tests, and can even cause us to eat really unhealthy. The National Sleep Foundation says that not receiving enough sleep or having difficulty sleeping limits our ability to learn, listen, and concentrate, and can even make us more prone to breaking out in pimples. I have read other articles stating that staying up late to study, combined with sleep deprivation, makes us more likely to snack on sugary foods that are really unhealthy for us, because we need that sugar rush to keep us awake during the night. However, this is a problem. We do get this immediate sugar rush from snacking on candy, chips, and whatnot, but then we have a bigger sugar crash that makes us feel extremely tired later on in the night. We also tend to drink a lot of caffeine and energy drinks. This is okay when having them occasionally, but when you are drinking them every night to stay awake, taking days off when you don't have these drinks will cause you to go into withdrawal.
Regarding solutions to this sleep deprivation problem, the National Sleep Foundation suggests making sleep our priority. Taking naps will provide us with a little bit of sleep during the day and will provide us with a new burst of energy. Also establishing a set bed time and wake up time and sticking to it 7 days a week will make us less tired, as following a set sleep schedule will allow our body to sync to that schedule. Also, make sure that you avoid electronics or anything with a bright screen an hour or two before you go to sleep. The last thing so many college students see before they go to sleep are their phones, and seeing a screen that bright before going to sleep can disrupt your sleep cycle.
As you can see, sleep deprivation is a serious issue. So many people in the world today wave it off and rely on caffeine or sugary foods to give them a wake up boost in the morning. But doing this will not solve their problems. Making sure that you get enough sleep at night, even if that means setting a strict sleep schedule for yourself, will help reverse your sleep deprivation and allow you to wake up every morning refreshed and ready to start the day instead of snoozing your alarm clock 5 times in the morning and trudging out of bed irritated.
National Sleep Foundation: https://sleepfoundation.org/
According to the National Sleep Foundation, we are supposed to be receiving 8 to 10 hours of sleep a night; however, many teens don't get enough sleep, with a study reporting that only 15 percent of the teens that participated in the study got 8 1/2 hours of sleep per night. That means that the 85 percent that were also in the study got less than 8 1/2 hours of sleep a night. That is ridiculous. Teens also tend to stay up really late during the week and sleep in on the weekends. College students, in my opinion, do that same thing. Speaking from my own perspective and what I observe from my roommmates' actions, we all stay up pretty late during school nights studying and doing homework, and "make up" for our lost sleep by sleeping in really late on the weekends. Although we may think that this system works for our body, the National Sleep Foundation says that this system is harmful to our health. Staying up late during the week and sleeping in on the weekends disrupts our biological clocks and actually affect the quality of our sleep.
It is all too common on my campus to walk somewhere, whether to the dining hall, to class, or even be on the bus, and hear students yawning, or telling their friends about how tired they are. It is universally known that college students are sleep deprived. If you talk to any college student, you will probably figure out within 5 minutes of talking to them how busy they are at school with class plus extracurriculars, which leads to their sleep deprivation. I believe this widespread sleep deprivation across all colleges and universities in the United States is really harmful and detrimental to all college students' health. Not getting enough sleep can affect our school work, our GPAs, make us perform worse on tests, and can even cause us to eat really unhealthy. The National Sleep Foundation says that not receiving enough sleep or having difficulty sleeping limits our ability to learn, listen, and concentrate, and can even make us more prone to breaking out in pimples. I have read other articles stating that staying up late to study, combined with sleep deprivation, makes us more likely to snack on sugary foods that are really unhealthy for us, because we need that sugar rush to keep us awake during the night. However, this is a problem. We do get this immediate sugar rush from snacking on candy, chips, and whatnot, but then we have a bigger sugar crash that makes us feel extremely tired later on in the night. We also tend to drink a lot of caffeine and energy drinks. This is okay when having them occasionally, but when you are drinking them every night to stay awake, taking days off when you don't have these drinks will cause you to go into withdrawal.
Regarding solutions to this sleep deprivation problem, the National Sleep Foundation suggests making sleep our priority. Taking naps will provide us with a little bit of sleep during the day and will provide us with a new burst of energy. Also establishing a set bed time and wake up time and sticking to it 7 days a week will make us less tired, as following a set sleep schedule will allow our body to sync to that schedule. Also, make sure that you avoid electronics or anything with a bright screen an hour or two before you go to sleep. The last thing so many college students see before they go to sleep are their phones, and seeing a screen that bright before going to sleep can disrupt your sleep cycle.
As you can see, sleep deprivation is a serious issue. So many people in the world today wave it off and rely on caffeine or sugary foods to give them a wake up boost in the morning. But doing this will not solve their problems. Making sure that you get enough sleep at night, even if that means setting a strict sleep schedule for yourself, will help reverse your sleep deprivation and allow you to wake up every morning refreshed and ready to start the day instead of snoozing your alarm clock 5 times in the morning and trudging out of bed irritated.
National Sleep Foundation: https://sleepfoundation.org/
