If you are a college student, there is a significant chance that you are sleep deprived. Over 70% of college students don’t get enough sleep each night, according to the Harvard Summer School (2021), and about half of students complain about regularly being tired during the day (section 2). The widespread nature of sleep deprivation is an indicator of this issue’s seriousness and not something to be taken lightly. According to the CDC (2020), staying awake for 18 hours has the same effect as having a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.05 and 24 hours without sleep equals a BAC of about 0.10. Therefore, not getting enough sleep carries similar risks, in terms of physical and mental functionality, as intoxication. Research by the American Automobile Association (AAA) backs up the CDC, discovering that missing just two to three hours from your regular night’s sleep can “quadruple your risk for a crash” when driving (para. 4). Beyond basic functionality, failing to get enough sleep can be a significant detriment to your physical and mental health, according to an article by the University of the People (2022, section 2). Sleep is the body’s time for repairing itself and resetting hormonal cycles in the body, therefore, loss of sleep will end up lowering your immune system and increasing your likelihood of developing anxiety and depression, as well as increased fatigue and low motivation. Sleep deprivation can also exacerbate these conditions for people that already have them.
At this point, you may be wondering what counts as enough sleep. According to the Sleep Foundation, people ages 18-64 years old should get between 7-9 hours of sleep each night. Persons aged 18-25 have an “acceptable” range, of 6-11 hours per night and for persons aged 26-64, that range is 6-10 hours (Suni, Table 1). For the majority of your life, 6 hours of sleep per night is the lowest you should consider “acceptable,” without causing unwanted negative effects to your life. While it is true that some individuals do fall outside of these ranges, college students should be wary about automatically assuming that this is also true for them. How can you determine the best amount of sleep for you personally? To do this, you must consider various aspects of your life that have an effect on how much sleep your body needs. Fortunately, there is a series of questions provided by the Sleep Foundation that will help you:
Are you productive, healthy, and happy on seven hours of sleep? Or have you noticed that you require more hours of sleep to get into high gear? Do you have coexisting health issues? Are you at higher risk for any disease? Do you have a high level of daily energy expenditure? Do you frequently play sports or work in a labor-intensive job? Do your daily activities require alertness to do them safely? Do you drive every day and/or operate heavy machinery? Do you ever feel sleepy when doing these activities? Are you experiencing or do you have a history of sleeping problems? Do you depend on caffeine to get you through the day? When you have an open schedule, do you sleep more than you do on a typical workday?
Coexisting health issues and a highly active lifestyle are both elements of a person’s life that cause their sleep requirements to be more than the average. Additionally, if you have noticed that you are regularly sleepy during the day, have a caffeine dependency, or both, you likely need to increase the amount of sleep you get per night. By gauging your own responses to these questions, you can assess if you need more sleep and the relative seriousness of your situation, from which point you can figure out your body’s optimal amount of sleep by marginally increasing your sleep time as needed.
Work, college, and life are hard and very likely prevent you from being able to get as much sleep as you need with some regularity. Ultimately, the most important things you should know include how risky and dangerous sleep deprivation can be, the negative and detrimental effects it can have both short-term and in the long run, and how you can assess your life in order to determine the right amount of sleep for you. If you find that you are sleep deprived but can (not figure out how to fit more sleep into your daily routine or are feeling stressed about the amount of college and work struggles in your life, please seek more information and assistance from Counseling Services here at OTC.
