By Emily Schoch | Staff Writer
Late nights cramming for exams, early morning classes and constant screen time are leaving many college students running on empty due to the lack of sleep received in the constant chaos of college life.
Most college students are involved in a multitude of organizations around campus alongside school and a job, resulting in a lack of time left for sleep.
Micheal Scullin, associate professor of physiology and neuroscience, explained just how important sleep is for college students in order to be able to perform at full cognitive function. Scullin said that the 8 a.m. class is specifically what leads most students into negative sleep patterns.
“There are institutional level factors that influence sleep — 8 a.m. classes for individuals who are night owls … the math doesn’t add up,” Scullin said.
College students are notorious for staying up late to do homework. In many cases, having to get up for an 8 a.m. class the next day leads students to get less sleep. It then leaves them with lower mental cognition going into their next day.
“During late adolescence, we are in a delayed circadian phase. You go to bed later and wake up later, because that’s your natural biological rhythm. So the 8 a.m. class is an institutional-level factor that influences the sleep that students can get,” Scullin said.
There are many other factors that lead to college students becoming victims of sleep deprivation.
“We might choose a late bedtime because we are opting for entertainment, social media scrolling or for other forms of socializing, which may or may not be advantageous to the individual,” Scullin said.
Minnetonka, Minn., sophomore Clare Ostlie said that being involved in many activities is a main factor that leads to her lack of sleep. Ostlie said that she goes from one thing to the next all day, leaving no time to do homework. For her, this results in studying at night after her days are done, getting less sleep.
“I like to get done with everything I have to do in my day and then do my homework. Being in a sorority and also being involved in organization and other programs on campus, it’s difficult to do so. [It] leaves me doing my homework at night and getting about four hours of sleep during the week nightly, which is not nearly enough to fully function at my best during the rest of my week,” Ostlie said.
