"I'm so good at sleeping, I can do it with my eyes closed."
Do you ever reminisce about when you were in kindergarten and all you had to worry about was what color marker you were going to use? Do you remember that there was actually this foreign thing called nap time? All the five-year-olds hated it because, c’mon, they would rather be swinging on the monkey bars! Well to any five-year-old reading this, don’t take naptime for granted, kid. You’ll miss it when you turn 18 and leave the nest for college.
I am halfway through my junior year of college and I can promise you there’s nothing that any college student loves more than sleeping.
A college student’s daily routine is basically this: waking up around 8:00 AM (but you have alarms going off since 6:30 AM), going to classes, stopping for lunch, going to more classes, going to the library to do your homework, procrastinating in the library with your friends until nightfall, finally finishing your homework at midnight, then taking the trek back to your dorm to get some “sleep.” And if you’re lucky, maybe you were able to fit a 15-minute nap somewhere in your day (yes, we’re that desperate for sleep).
Okay, so now you’re finally in your twin XL bed and if you’re anything like me, you usually can’t get to sleep right away because you’re thinking about the many assignments and duties that the next day will consist of, or you’re just over-analyzing something that your boyfriend said. Then, there are the nights of insomnia, which totally and completely suck when you have a major exam the next day. Or you are so stressed about your exam that you pull an all-nighter studying for it. Even though you think you are doing the right thing by staying up and studying, it is actually really bad for your health because sleep actually helps you retain information! So, basically sleep = studying, right? (I wish!)
So, after examining a typical college students’ day, it is clear that there isn’t really much time for sleep. According to the Huffington Post, the University of California – Los Angeles raised awareness about the importance of sleep. They set up a “nap room” where students were able to rest during their day, and in this room they also had free yoga sessions to help reduce stress and anxiety (Huffington Post).
So, why do college students love sleeping so much? Well, there are so many answers. One reason is simply because we never get enough of it. Between classes, the workload, having a job, and having a social life, sleep is extremely hard to balance in that equation. This is why holiday breaks are so important because we are able to go home and get to sleep in our own beds, which makes the sleep 100 times better and more comfortable. Sleep, for me, also is a way to escape the business of the day. This is a main reason that I believe college students take naps regularly is they just need a break.
Even though sleep is hard to get, especially for college students, it is a very important and necessary part of keeping yourself healthy. So, I challenge you to study for that exam in advance so that you do not have to pull an all-nighter, and instead, you can get the right amount of sleep.