Class. Work. Gym. Write a paper. Study for that exam. Catch up on "House of Cards." Try to sleep four hours. Repeat.
This is the college student daily struggle. We all heard the stereotypes before we came to school. Netflix on constantly, pulling all-nighters to study, going downtown until 3 a.m. We should have seen this coming, but no one truly knows how exhausted college can make you until you are actually there experiencing it.
Speaking from experience, sleeping at least eight hours a night in college — which is advised — is as rare as an episode of "Grey's Anatomy" not causing water works. There's this primal instinct inside all of us that awakens once you enter the dorm room your freshman year. You now realize you will not sleep as much as you want or need. It just won't happen. Stress from work, anxiety about school, that new season of "Orange is the New Black;" all of these things will keep you up at night. But you're in college, you're young, and you don't need sleep, right? Wrong. Very wrong. And here is why:
1. Your brain is dumbing down.
You're in college, you need your brain to be functioning at full capacity. But if you're not sleeping, you can begin to have memory problems, lose your ability to concentrate, and have difficulty logically reasoning through things. So whenever you wonder why you bombed that exam that you stayed up all night studying for, this may be why.
2. You could gain some serious weight.
Did you ever wonder why you were so hungry? All those late night cravings coming back to haunt you the week before spring break when that bathing suit no longer looks good on you? Not sleeping can increase your appetite — and the cravings for high-fat foods with lots of carbs — causing you to eat more than your body should have.
3. Trying to "catch up on sleep" over the weekend does not work.
You may feel like those long nights of sleep on a weekend could be helping, but sleep debt is something that cannot be caught up after a certain point. One long night of sleep for the week will not fix your overall health or your sleep cycle.
4. You could be at risk for serious health problems.
There have been studies showing that people who have problems falling and staying asleep also tend to have other, comorbid health problems. Not sleeping enough can lead to strokes, high blood pressure, and heart attacks.
5. Exhaustion can be very depressing.
People with anxiety already sleep, on average, less than six hours per night. But sleeping that little can also lead your brain to become exhausted, causing your mood to go down and your energy levels to plummet. That feeling of being constantly tired then makes you stressed that you aren't sleeping more, which then inhibits you from falling asleep because all you're doing is counting how many hours you might get if you fall asleep right that minute.
I will be the first to admit that making sure I sleep enough is not my top priority while I am in school. But after reading all of the problems that can come along with not sleeping enough — even just for these few years of school — I realized that it is really something I need to work on. Our "no sleep in college" stereotype needs to end. Yes, we are here to learn, work, and have social lives, but we also need to take care of ourselves.
So go take a nap if you need to and sleep eight hours tonight, and you will not regret it. You'll do better in school, get along better with your friends, and even save money on all that coffee you are constantly having to buy yourself. Stay healthy, college student, you deserve it.
