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Don’t Sleep On Sleep

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With fi­nals quickly ap­proach­ing it is im­por­tant to un­der­stand how to stay ahead in the class­room. Eat­ing right, ex­er­cis­ing and stay­ing on top of your work are all vi­tal to suc­cess in col­lege. How­ever, there is an­other im­por­tant fac­tor in suc­ceed­ing in school that is of­ten over­looked: sleep.

Ac­cord­ing to the Jour­nal of Na­ture and Sci­ence of Sleep, roughly 70 per­cent of col­lege stu­dents get in­suf­fi­cient amounts of sleep. Nurse Pam said, “Qual­ity sleep for some­one in col­lege is be­tween seven and nine hours a night.”

Qual­ity sleep is so im­por­tant for col­lege stu­dents, be­cause it has a ma­jor im­pact on brain func­tion and abil­ity. Our abil­ity to un­der­stand math and ex­press lan­guage is in­creased sim­ply by get­ting proper amounts of sleep. Also, sleep has an im­por­tant role to play in mem­ory. Sim­ply put, a good night sleep could be the dif­fer­ence be­tween re­mem­ber­ing all of what you stud­ied the night be­fore and just re­mem­ber­ing only parts of the in­for­ma­tion.

Nurse Pam said, “Sleep on it to re­mem­ber is not just a say­ing. It is true. When we sleep, in­for­ma­tion can go from short-term mem­ory to our long-term mem­ory so it is eas­ier to re­call when needed. I rec­om­mend not stay­ing up all night cram­ming for a test. In­stead, try get­ting a qual­ity night sleep.” Nurse Pam said. In ad­di­tion to help­ing with mem­ory, sleep­ing be­tween seven and nine hours every night can also help im­prove at­ten­tion in the class­room. Lack of sleep causes stu­dents to be dis­tracted eas­ier than those with proper amounts of sleep.

In addition to helping students succeed in the classroom, sleep also helps many other aspects of one’s life. Getting proper amounts of sleep can help you lose weight and can also lower stress levels. An adequate amount of sleep also has mental health benefits that can help every college student. According to Nurse Pam, “Not only is there a correlation between lack of sleep and lower grades… sleep also helps other aspects of our lives. Lack of sleep can lead to a lack of motivation, moodiness and irritability. I think getting the proper amount of sleep is just as important as eating right, exercising and not smoking.”

If you are some­one that strug­gles to get a good night of sleep, there are many things you can do to help you im­prove your qual­ity of sleep. First, do not use tech­nol­ogy be­fore go­ing to bed. The bright lights and in­ter­ac­tive qual­i­ties of phones and com­put­ers can stim­u­late the brain and pre­vent it from falling asleep. Sec­ond, limit caf­feine, nico­tine, al­co­hol and large meals at night, as these will keep your body awake longer than it wants. Next, try to cre­ate time for re­lax­ing ac­tiv­i­ties be­fore go­ing to sleep. Fi­nally, if you are some­one that takes a nap dur­ing the day, try to take a short nap that does not in­ter­fere with your sleep cy­cle. If you have time, naps can be very ben­e­fi­cial. Naps have been shown to help your body recharge, elim­i­nate stress, and boost ones over­all mood. Nurse Pam said, “Naps should not in­ter­fere with your over­all sleep cy­cle, but a 30-90 minute nap can be very use­ful for stu­dents.”

Photo of Nurse Pam. Photo courtesy of Maryville University.
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