College Students and Sleep Deprivation

After three years in college, I've definitely had my share of all-nighters. Mainly during finals week or during big projects. I try really hard to not to stay up all night anymore, because now I know how bad it is for your body, and your brain.

Sleep deprivation affects 60% of college students today, and that's not an exaggeration. According to one study, only 30% of students get at least 8 hours of sleep most of the time. 20% of students said they pulled all nighters at least once a month, and 45% said they usually stay up until 3 A.M. at least once or twice a week. Many students, including myself, will sacrifice precious hours of sleep so they can get their homework and projects finished.

The biggest problem is that students really underestimate the importance of sleep, and don't realize that they are sabotaging their mental and physical health. Everyone is different when it comes to the effects of sleep deprivation, but from what I've experienced, things can get pretty scary. Last year, I went 2 weeks with only about a total of 15 hours of sleep. From what I remember, I had really bad mood swings, I went from extremely tired to extremely hyper, I had a difficult time putting sentences together, and suffered from mild hallucinations.

Students are not likely to complete their best work while they are sleep deprived, and all-nighters have become more of a habit in recent years. Even if students pull one all-nighter and then use the next two days to catch up on sleep, sleep deprivation is still going to affect their ability to retain information and pay attention during class.

The good news, is that as college students become more mature and get older, most of them tend to grow out of all nighters and learn to prioritize their health while balancing appropriate times to study. I've found that all of my friends, that I've had since freshman year, don't pull all nighters anymore like we all used to. I think it's because when we're younger, we don't know how to prioritize our workload so we wait till the day before it's due and stay up all night getting it done.