Consistently being able to get the necessary eight hours of sleep every night can be quite difficult, especially for college students. Whether partying, studying or cramming assignments, students often sacrifice sleep without considering the implications that come with it.
Sleep deprivation is increasingly common, affecting approximately one-third of adults in the United States, according to Sleep Foundation. Over half of all college students get less than seven hours of sleep each night, according to Harvard Summer School. Consistent sleep deprivation of this sort impacts a person’s cognitive abilities and mood, and also contributes to drowsiness during the day.
Lifepoint Medical nurse practitioner Hannah Wilker noted that sleep disorders such as insomnia can be developed as a result of consistent sleep deprivation. To combat this, she described the importance of sleep hygiene, which involves limiting stimuli that keep a person’s mind active. “Avoiding using your phone prior to sleeping, avoiding caffeine in the late afternoon and keeping your bedroom dark and cool, things like that are good sleep hygiene,” said Wilker.
Pulling an all-nighter can be considered a staple in the life of a college student. The impact that periods of acute sleep deprivation such as this can have on a person are drastic, but generally ignored. Students prioritize powering through an assignment or having fun with friends in those cases because they are unaware of how much an all-nighter affects them.
Staying awake for 24 hours straight can have the same cognitive impairment effects as a blood alcohol content of 0.1%, higher than the legal limit of 0.08%, according to the CDC. Cognitive impairment to that extent can be dangerous for driving and diminishes reaction time.
Sleep deprivation can also serve as an obstacle by causing students to miss out on certain aspects of every-day life. “This semester with my 8 a.m.’s, I have slept through a lot of those,” said Becca Lerzo, junior at Georgia Southern University. “Then sometimes if I take naps, I’ll only want to sleep for 30 minutes, but it’ll end up being like three hours.”
Allowing sleep deprivation to reach that extent is harmful to a student’s grades, social life and overall health. Beyond just the immediate impacts, consistent lack of sleep can have lingering effects that can be felt for an extended period afterward.
Reed Johnson has been out of college for over a year and still feels the impact of his poor sleeping habits. “I did all-nighters in college and it was bad on my body, and I still have not really recovered to this day,” Johnson said. While Johnson already suffers from sleep apnea, his habits of neglecting sleep altogether took a toll and would leave him feeling continuously exhausted.
It is unrealistic to expect college students not to have relatively poor sleeping habits due to the nature of being in college to begin with, but it is important that students understand what they are doing to their body with continuous neglect of sleep. Impaired cognition as a result of an all-nighter could lead to lower quality work being done, negating the purpose of staying up all night in the first place.
Balancing the negative effects is what it comes down to for students. Being able to keep a good sleep schedule that is relatively consistent while also partaking in other usual college activities should be the ultimate goal.