Kailey Krantz | Staff Writer
It’s known that getting the right amount of sleep improves your mental health and your academic performance. So why is getting a wink of sleep hard to come by – especially as a university student?
Researchers suggest college students should get about seven to nine hours of sleep to avoid drowsiness, poor health, and low energy throughout the day.
That’s great, but it’s easier said than done.
The only things I have to worry about as a student right now are my assignments for the four classes I have every semester and working on articles for PantherNOW, and yet the busy weekly schedule keeps me up at night.
Just the other day, I was working on one of my final projects for the semester, on top of working on peer reviews for another final project that I had and it took me all day to work on it.
Up until 10:00pm. That has never happened to me before this semester.
I used to have a somewhat strict sleeping schedule of going to bed at 10:00 pm or 10:30 pm back in middle and high school, so I could get 8 hours of sleep in before waking up at 5:45 am, but that has been thrown out the window since I got into college.
I’m aware that I don’t have to wake up that early anymore and I chose to wake up a little later, but I still wish I could have that sleep schedule back in my daily routine.
Now I go to bed at 12:00 am, 1:00 am, or even 2:00 am at the latest, which has never happened to me on a weekday up until this point.
If I’m having trouble losing sleep, I can’t even imagine students who not only have school to worry about but also keeping up with their multiple off-campus jobs, running a household and/or taking care of a family, worrying about bills and other adult responsibilities.
Despite the challenges, there are ways for students to get a good night’s sleep.
One way is by students learning how to better manage their time by figuring out a schedule that balances their school/work priorities and their free time. Doing so would allow students to optimize the opportunities to set times within their day to rest and disconnect from their studies.
Professors should also take into consideration the workload when designing their courses, so students have the time to take breaks and recharge.
This could be done through students openly communicating about the amount of assignments they get each week and negotiating the best amount of work that covers the entire syllabus while giving enough time for students to handle the workload from other classes more effectively.
I’ll sleep easy knowing I don’t have to worry about the massive amount of assignments due by the end of the week.
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