In college, I have found that there is toxicity happening between my peers, that we need to put an end to. Whether it's intentional or not, college students are constantly comparing the hours of sleep they get a night and the hours of studying they did a day.
Most of the time I don't think it's intentional, it's usually in casual conversation. Your roommate comes home and says "UGH, I am so tired. I only got 4 hours of sleep last night and I was at the library for 8 hours today." While they may just be telling you about their day, you're sitting there thinking about how many hours of sleep you got, and if you studied for that long too. While this one single interaction might not have a huge effect on you, it will start to if this happens over and over again between multiple people a week.
When you start comparing hours, you start to question if you are good enough.
If you do spend less time at the library than your friend and if you get more sleep than them a night, you wonder "am I trying enough?" "Should I be getting less hours of sleep and more time studying?" The answer is no. You are doing what works for you, and that's okay.
Everyone's college experience is different. We all study differently, but everyone needs sleep in order to function. What might work for you might not work for your roommate. This doesn't mean you are any better or worse of a student, you're just a human. We all work in their own ways.
College can foster toxic cultures. We need to stop adding to that. Instead of comparing hours, talk about how tough of a school day it was, what about it made it rough, what you're going to do to make tomorrow better, and what you can do to get more sleep. The moment we start comparing our experiences to someone else's is the moment we start to feel inferior, and that's not okay.
