We all know about the ‘student lifestyle’ cliché. Students are universally mocked (or envied) for their late-night, party-hard lives that are often more about having fun than studying. But the reality is that while students may enjoy themselves, most lead a chaotic and challenging existence on a daily basis, balancing their studies with jobs to pay for them.
Burning the candle at both ends might sound appealing for a while, but naturally it catches up with everyone. And it’s no surprise to learn students are the most sleep deprived demographic. The Journal of Adolescent Health has recently released a study that only 30 percent of American college students get eight or more hours of sleep a day.
But sleep deprivation isn’t just due to late night studying or all night partying. The same study revealed that 68 percent of students have trouble falling asleep due to academic and emotional stress. That means that they go to bed later and wake up earlier and the problem gets progressively worse.
This shows that stress impacts our sleep quality more than significantly than other factors like drinking alcohol or overworking. The problem is that the issue is cyclical; the more stressed that a student gets, the more likely they are to lose sleep. Then as they become more tired they become even more stressed.
It might seem like a rite of passage to pull at least one all-nighter when you first start your university experience, but doing it more than once of month is just idiotic. And it’s very bad for you. Sleeping six to eight hours a night is completely essential for the health of our minds and our bodies. Sleep deprivation can have detrimental effects on daily performance, including academics and driving.
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