A Writer's Everything

College students aren’t getting the amount of sleep they really need. Sleep is one of the things everyone needs in order to live and work well.

Sleep is one thing college students become good at making time for, whether it is a quick nap in some free time after a bad night, or scheduling it in when they have to wake up for class on time.

Several articles, such as those written by the University of Georgia’s Health Center and Terri Williams at Goodcall.com, tell about how lack of sleep affects, and is important for, college students.

The common points between the two articles are about why we need sleep, how much we need, and why not sleeping enough can be very harmful.

Though mainly pointed at college students, especially a negative side effect of sleep deprivation affecting memory recall and disrupting academic performance, these reasons can all be applied to everyone on Earth.

The University of Georgia’s Health Center has a bolded section headline titled “CONSEQUENCES of sleep loss,” which gives some physical and mental health issues that come with sleep loss, such as “impact[ing] the immune system function,” “obesity,” “impact[ing] brain function, attention span, mood and reaction times,” depression, and anxiety.

Williams reports about a recent survey showing “college students consider sleep to be an important factor in their success – but admit that they’re not sleeping as much as they should.”

According to the study, as many as 84% of students say they “would like to sleep 8 hours or more” on a school night, but only 16% actually do.

The University site says “Establishing A Sleep Ritual” and avoiding caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol will help students get enough sleep.

Williams at Goodcall.com also relays tips from a professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, such as “Setting a cut-off time for studying – and then sticking to it – is helpful, as is keeping that schedule regularly.”

Overall, both of the articles give compelling reasons and statistics for why sleep is important, but not always probable for students.

Anya Kamenetz on npr.org gives a different viewpoint, believing that college students are getting the right amount of sleep.

“Students aren’t as sleep-deprived as we might think. The overall average was 7 hours and 3 minutes during the week, and 7 hours 38 minutes on the weekends,” Kamenetz reports on a study released by Jawbone, a developer of wearable sleep and activity trackers.

The study also tells that students at more difficult/high level universities are night owls, or more likely to go to sleep later, though they still get within the appropriate range of time asleep.