Lack Of Sleep In College Students

Think back to your first year in college. It’s 11:00 pm on a Tuesday night and you realize that you have a test in your 8:00 am class the next morning. Even though you are already tired, studying for that test is more important. Fighting your bodies desire to go to bed, you stay up all night studying for this test. Halfway through the test your eyes start to feel heavy, you can’t seem to recall the information you just studied. By not sleeping you have now set your body up for failure. Did you know that college students are one of the most sleep-deprived populations? Think about how busy the average college student is. They spend most of their day in class, then outside of class they are studying. When they aren’t studying they might have a part time job and still want to maintain a social life on the weekends. All this time adds up very quickly and with 24 hours in the day, sleep is the last thing a twenty-one-year-old is worried about. The definition of sleep states, “a condition of body and mind which typically recurs for several hours every night, the nervous system is relatively …show more content…
Lack of sleep is causing a lower grade point average, increased risk of academic failure and compromised learning. Being tired during the day causes these students not to focus well, which leads to more homework later in the day. Getting behind in their classes can easily get the best of them. Impaired mood, weight gain and increased stress are a few more of the very common side effect that sleep has on an individual. The ‘Freshmen 15’ is consequently linked to not getting enough sleep. As is stress, 68% of students say that they have trouble falling asleep at night because they are stressed about their academics. Sleeping less and less also causes a lot of potential mental health issues, anxiety and depression being two of the