College Sleep Trends and Tips

By JB Ricks

STATESBORO- With finals and the end of the school year rapidly approaching, getting a good night's rest is now more important than ever. Your body takes time to rest, recover and repair during sleep.

While sleep is important, many college students admit that they do not get as much rest as they should. Adults should be getting seven to nine hours of sleep a night to stay healthy. Constantly getting less than seven hours of sleep a night can be linked to poor health, according to Mayo Clinic. 

Alex Furman is a senior Biology major at Georgia Southern. On average, he gets about 5 hours of sleep a night. He admits that his work and school responsibilities often interfere with his sleep.

“I’ve had a lot of projects during this semester. I’ve definitely had to pull an all-nighter a couple of times as well,” said Furman.

Students pull an all-nighter or stay up all night to catch up on school work or do something else productive. According to Houston Methodist, going a full day without sleep can make it more difficult to retain or form memories and can inhibit the ability to problem-solve and think creatively. Long-term sleep deprivation can even lead to high blood pressure and heart disease. 

During sleep, your body goes through four different sleep cycles: three non-rapid eye movement stages and one rapid eye movement stage. According to the National Sleep Foundation., the first three stages are used to relax your body, slow your heart rate, and repair muscle and tissue.

The fourth stage, REM sleep, is when brain activity picks up. This stage helps with cognitive functions like memory, learning and creativity. Normally a body does not enter REM sleep until about 90 minutes of rest.

Your body continuously goes through these cycles as you rest. Meaning the longer you rest, the more REM sleep you’ll get and the more restful you’ll feel.

Out of the eight total GSU students interviewed for this story, only two reported getting the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep a night on average. The other six said they got below the recommended amount, some reporting as low as four to three hours a night. 

“I know sleep is important and I should probably try to sleep longer at night. I just have a difficult time balancing my school work and sleep,” said Daniel Whitman-Agan, a music performance major at Southern.

Whitman-Agan is a freshman at Georgia Southern and admits that being a performance major comes with a lot of work outside of class. He spends most of his free time and nights in a practice room at the Foy building. 

School work tends to be the main reason students stay up later than they should. Other students say they also tend to stay up late on their phones. Here’s a list of things you can do to ensure healthy sleep habits.

• Dim the lights an hour before you go to sleep

• Limit caffeine and alcohol consumption before bed

• Keep naps during the day short, 30 minutes or less

• Set a consistent sleep schedule

• Avoid doomscolling in bed

• Keep a balanced diet, don’t eat a meal before bedtime, small snacks are okay

• Turn off electronic devices 30 minutes before bed

• Keep your bedroom quiet and at a cool temp