College students are known to get little sleep, often caused when sleep patterns become disrupted due to stress, sickness, extracurricular activities, work, academics and a variety of personal reasons. Staying up late at night can also contribute to sleep disturbance.
“Twenty percent of students pull all-nighters at least once a month and 35 percent stay up past three in the morning once or more weekly,” according to FastWeb.
Students don’t always get the sleep they need to keep up with their daily activities and responsibilities.
“An average adult typically needs between seven and nine hours of sleep a night. College students may need a little more than that depending on individual differences, but I would say a minimum of seven but probably a little bit more.” Pam Garverick, instructor and assistant chair for the Department of Psychology, stated.
Caffeine, exercising late at night, and bright lights are some common examples as to why students may struggle to sleep. Beds are used for texting or reading on their phones, rather than sleeping. Falling asleep becomes more difficult because they associate their bed with more than one thing, according to Gaverick. They may look for other ways to help them fall asleep. Alcohol and drugs can also impair your ability to sleep.
“These are mostly things that are influencing your ability to get to sleep. Another thing is alcohol consumption late at night. We know that although sometimes it makes you sleepy, it also tends to disrupt the patterns of sleep, so your sleep doesn’t go through the normal patterns,” Garverick said.
Lack of sleep can affect a student’s academic and extracurricular performances. They can become reliant on drugs and alcohol, which is linked to depression and anxiety. “Sleep is probably more important than you think it is and it’s good for mental and physical health,” Gaverick said.
