Sleeping Patterns in College Students
By MacKenzie Berg
How many times a week do you wake up feeling rested? You’re going to your first class of the day and while sitting in class you notice your eyes become very heavy. You find it incredibly hard to keep your eyes open and stay awake. Now you are missing notes and other important information from your professor. So, after class, you decide to grab caffeine before your next class and this cycle repeats itself. This is a very common routine college students have. According to "Why You Should Make a Good Night’s Sleep a Priority," (2021) on average college students should be getting 7-9 hours of sleep a night. However, over half of college students sleep less than 7 hours a night.
But why is sleep so important? “Sleep is very important for consolidating memories," (Why You Should Make a Good Night’s Sleep a Priority, 2021). In any sort of experimental setting, study results show better performance if you learn material and then sleep on it, instead of remaining awake. So there’s lots and lots of evidence now indicating that sleep promotes memory strengthening and memory consolidation.” Sleep is very important especially for college students because there is a strong connection between sleep and academic performance. Those who prioritize their sleep schedule are more likely to succeed academically. This also applies to stress levels in students, students who get better quality of sleep are more able to cope with stress. Those who don’t prioritize their sleep are more likely to go down a black hole of less sleep and more stress which then can lead to mental health disorders like depression or anxiety. But on the flip side, those who do get 7-9 hours of sleep tend to feel less stressed and more productive during the day. The less stressed you feel during the day, the better you will sleep at night. As you can see sleep is very important as these positive and negative loopholes related to sleep continue until something is changed.
Buckhalt (2019) looked at a study with 223 undergraduate students where the students wore an actigraph to monitor what time they went to bed and woke up every morning. The students who had the more consistent sleep schedule had an overall better well-being than those who did not have a consistent sleep schedule. Because lack of sleep is linked to so many mental health illnesses and other cognitive functions, university counseling centers have started to add programs to help students establish a healthy sleep routine. Having these programs available to students can help them in many ways, especially in the first and second years. The first and second years have a high prevalence of adjustment and mental health problems (Buckhalt, 2019). First and second-year students are still transitioning into the college lifestyle and not having a set school time 8am-3pm like high school. It can be difficult for them, especially with days you don’t have class until 2pm so you decide to sleep in.
But lucky for you there are ways you can improve your sleep routine on your own, starting with making sleep your number one priority. Next, you need to establish a bedtime and wake-up time keeping the times you go to bed and wake up every morning consistent and relatively close to the same time every day and making sure you’re getting between 7-9 hours of sleep. And yes, this includes the weekends as well which is what college students struggle the most with. Other tips for improving your sleep routine include avoiding alcohol and caffeine intake close to bedtime. Make sure you're getting daily exercise and exposure to sunlight. Lastly, try to avoid electronic screens within an hour of going to bed and try to read a book instead. All of these tips and more can help you improve your sleep routine.
Refeerences
Buckhalt, J. (2019, December 19). Irregular sleeping patterns in college students. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/child-sleep-zzzs/201912/irregular-sleeping-patterns-in-college-students
Ducharme, J. (2019, October 2). The sleep habits that can improve your grades, according to a new study. Time. https://time.com/5689957/sleep-college-students-grades/
What happens to your body if you sleep 8 hours every day. (2019, August 7). Bright Side. https://brightside.me/inspiration-health/what-happens-to-your-body-if-you-sleep-8-hours-every-day-783910
Why you should make a good night’s sleep a priority. (2021, May 28). Harvard Summer School. https://summer.harvard.edu/blog/why-you-should-make-a-good-nights-sleep-a-priority/