Study vs. Sleep

           Sleep is one of the most important factors in survival.  People can die from sleep deprivation before dying from starvation.  Imagine never getting enough sleep and always feeling tired, just counting the hours until you can go back to bed.  Well, this experience can be a daily occurrence in college.  College students are prime examples of how a lack of sleep can affect one’s daily life.  We struggle each day trying to manage our schedules, trying to balance studying, working, experiencing the “college life”, etc., but at what expense?  Should college students sleep less to study more?  In my experience, this is what I do, but I might not be making the right choice.

On average, people get approximately 7 hours of sleep.  College students can attest that 7 hours of sleep is usually just a dream.  Researchers predict humans should sleep an average of 9.55 hours each day.  In a study I found, researchers estimate that people spend 1.56 hours of sleep in rapid eye movement sleep (REM), which is within the range that should be spent in this stage.  However, by their calculations, people should spend an average of 8.42 hours in non-REM sleep daily.  This is where humans fall short by only reaching 5.41 hours of sleep.  According to the American Sleep Apnea Association, the third stage of NREM is, “… a regenerative period where your body heals and repairs itself.”  Therefore, if students don’t get enough sleep, they can experience adverse effects resulting from sleep deprivation.  Sleep deprivation can cause cognitive loss such as memory, concentration, and moodiness. 

Based on this information, I believe I’m making the wrong decision.  Students stay up all night trying to memorize their notes, but if they don’t get enough sleep, this can result in memory loss.  This is because over-worked neurons can no longer function to coordinate information properly, losing the ability to access previously learned information.  Depending on people’s majors, they could experience this conundrum frequently.  However, I believe every student goes through this journey during finals week.  Each student wants to study as much as they can to retain every piece of knowledge.  Thus, sacrificing their sleep schedule. 

            I wasn’t quite sold about sleeping more, but through more research, I found further evidence to support this argument.  In the journal Child Development, there was a study done on 535 high school students tracking how long they slept and comparing this to their performance in the classroom.  The students were tracked for two weeks and the researchers concluded that students with less sleep performed worse on tests, quizzes, and homework.  Although this is only one study, there have been plenty of others supporting this evidence ranging from Science Daily to a research team at the University of York.  I’ve concluded that students should choose an adequate night of sleep instead of studying throughout the night.  Maybe now I will start going to bed at a reasonable time the day before an exam instead of trying to cram large amounts of information, but is it worth the risk?

Bower, B. (2018, March 07). Humans don’t get enough sleep. Just ask other primates. Retrieved March 07, 2018, from https://www.sciencenews.org/article/humans-primates-sleep-evolution

Sleep, Learning, and Memory. (n.d.). Retrieved March 07, 2018, from http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/benefits-of-sleep/learning-memory

Why Sleeping May Be More Important Than Studying | MindShift | KQED News. (2013, January 11). Retrieved March 07, 2018, from https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/26079/why-sleeping-may-be-more-important-than-studying