(Newswire.net — December 23, 2017) — Colleges can be hotbeds for social phenomena, whether good or bad, because they cluster large numbers of young people together under similar conditions. One relatively recent public health concern is particularly evident in colleges, and it’s growing worse with every passing year.
Despite the recommendation of getting 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night, the national average for college students is currently at just 5.5 hours per night—which is less than the overall national average of 6.3 hours. Unsurprisingly, 43 percent of students admit to feeling tired while in class every day, with another 28 percent saying they felt tired in class 3 to 5 times a week.
Ramifications of Sleep Deprivation in College
Of course, the ramifications of sleep deprivation extend far beyond just “feeling tired,” and may have a drastic effect on your overall college performance.
These are just some of the short-term and long-term symptoms of sleep deprivation:
- Alertness. If you don’t get enough sleep, you won’t be as alert, and you’ll have more difficulty paying attention in class.
- Learning and memory. Everything will seem harder to learn, and if you’re trying to cram for a test, you’ll be less likely to remember what you’ve studied.
- Mood. Missing a night of sleep can severely impair your mood, and chronically missing sleep can leave you vulnerable to mood swings and unpredictable temperaments.
- Judgment. Sleep deprivation impairs your judgment, leaving you open to making poor decisions in your daily life.
- Accidents and injury. Because of your perceptual and cognitive impairments, you’ll be more likely to be involved in an accident, or get injured.
- Physical symptoms and diseases. Long-term sleep deprivation can even leave you vulnerable to physical conditions, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease and early mortality.
Why Colleges?
So why are colleges such a central point for sleep deprivation?
There are several motivating factors here:
- New autonomy. College students are young adults who are often living on their own for the first time. They have no parents or authorities telling them when to go to bed or supervising their lifestyle habits. Accordingly, they often mismanage their time and make poor long-term decisions.
- High stress. College is also a high-stress environment. This is a place where people prepare for their distant futures, and in some cases, everything can ride on a single exam or a single class. Stress makes it much harder to sleep peacefully.
- Packed schedules. Most college students have packed, full-time class schedules, and on top of that, try to manage part-time jobs and a thriving social life. Those over-packed schedules make it exceedingly difficult to find 7 to 9 hours to sleep every night.
- Noise and distractions. Many college students end up living in dorms, fraternity or sorority houses, or other types of housing with roommates. This can leave them exposed to high levels of noise and distractions, which make it harder to sleep.
- Peer influence. When surrounded by other sleep-deprived people, sleep deprivation becomes the norm, and it becomes more readily accepted as an unavoidable fact of life.
How to Get More Sleep
So what can college students do to catch up on sleep, despite the high-stress environment and busy schedules?
- Take more naps. Napping holds many benefits, including increased alertness, stronger cognitive functions, and perhaps most importantly, it contributes to your overall sleep total. That means, if you miss a few hours of sleep one night, you can try to nap to make up for it.
- Be consistent. You’ll sleep better if you sleep and wake on a consistent schedule, go to bed at the same time every night, and wake up at the same time each morning.
- Make sleep a priority. Even though you might want to stay up another hour studying or go to your friend’s party, sleep should be one of your top priorities. Without sleep, you won’t be able to learn as efficiently or enjoy those social activities as much.
- Find the right environment. If your dorm is noisy, try to find somewhere else to stay, either temporarily or permanently. You need a dark, quiet environment if you’re going to get a good night’s sleep.
The college sleep deprivation epidemic is in full swing, but it might only take a few habit adjustments—and an improved awareness of the problem—to start addressing it. Hopefully, the statistics become more commonly cited, and college students can start prioritizing the importance of a good night’s sleep.
Otherwise, their grades or even their health could suffer.