There is always a class paper that has to be written. There is always a project that must be completed. There is always football and track practice. There is always an organizational meeting to attend. And there is always a party to hit up. The life of a college student is constantly on the move with very little time for breaks.
According to a study by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), an independent nonprofit organization headquartered in District of Columbia, 63 percent of college students do not get enough sleep.
The study further showed that sleep deprivation has been linked to many health and emotional problems, the most common being that people are less efficient and highly irritable during the day.
According to WebMD, lack of sleep can also be a root cause of weight problems, headaches, nausea, muscle aches, memory loss, depression, weakening of the immune system and even death.
A healthy sleep pattern is eight or nine consecutive hours a night. The average student gets about five to seven.
College students who have difficulty finding time to sleep are the largest group of the growing community with sleep disorders - 77 percent - according to a national study. Adults age 18 to 29 are the most affected demographic.
Some students admitted that the lack of sleep interferes with their daily habits.
Senior fashion merchandising major, Marsha Wilson said she gets about seven hours of sleep and that she “always feels tired during the day.”
However, some students disagreed that not getting an adequate amount of sleep affects their daily habits.
Priscilla Richards, a sophomore architecture major, said on average that she gets about six hours of sleep a night but said, “that’s on a good night. Most of the time my schedule only permits for me to get only four to five hours of sleep.” She also said that she functions during the day just fine. “After a month or two, you get used to the new sleep pattern.”
The best way to overcome lack of sleep is to establish and set good sleep habits. The Northern Indiana Center for Sleep Medicine suggests that students set a regular sleep schedule and should set a goal of at least eight consecutive hours of sleep.
Studies show that most students do not get enough sleep because their sleep hours changed based on their workload and stress. Sophomore architecture major Sade Ogun argues time simply does not permit for large amounts of sleep.
“There is really nothing I can do. I have to go to work and class and I have to study so I am not able to get eight hours of sleep.” Ogun said she gets from four-to six hours of sleep a night.
“College students are notorious for staying up late,” said Mark Muehlbach, clinical director of the Clinics at Clayton Sleep Institute, an organization that researches sleep disorders located in St. Louis according to a story posted in the Feb. 4 edition of The Journal, the newspaper for Webster University in St. Louis, by one its students Brittney French, sleep deprivation is a serious problem for college students.
Also in the Journal story, Muehlbach said that unlike most adults, college students do not have a daily routine that allows them to wake up and go to sleep around the same time each night.
“It’s very hard for most college students to maintain a constant schedule.” He also said students cut out sleep whenever they plan their day around their schedule because it’s the easiest option to remove.
Some studies argued that college students have an issue with sleeping because they do not manage their time properly and always have to cram to complete their assignments.
Ogun disagrees with that argument. “We [college students] can also work from the time we get an assignment and still have no time to sleep.”
Wilson said that she felt her lack of sleep had to deal with how she ate. “Pizza and other junk food that I did not used to eat before I got to college interferes with how I sleep. [It] depletes my nutrients and drains me.”
Marsha Stein, spokeswoman for the National Sleep Foundation, said people are not making the connection between sleep and health. “The proper amount of sleep is needed to get the health benefits people are looking for. Sleep impacts your immune system and helps avoid injuries.”
“Sleep is a good thing that needs to be taken seriously,” Muehlbach said.
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