By I’yonna Taylor-Smith
Jambar Contributor
It’s a dark, chilly night and it’s time to lay down and go to sleep.
The entire day has been absolutely exhausting. There were classes all day and more importantly, there is an assignment due at 11:59 p.m. on Blackboard.
Between classes, work and social events, students can become used to little-to-no sleep nights.
School can be so impactful on a student to the point where they risk their psychological and mental health as well as their physical.
In fact, more sleep increases an individual’s chances of good grades and a healthy mental state.
What adult doesn’t just love the end of the night? That ultimate end of the day, “ahh” moment.
In college, a student getting seven to nine hours of sleep a night can drastically improve one’s life overall.
They have more energy, they are happy and everything feels accomplishable.
According to healthline.com, sleep patterns are just as important as getting sleep in general.
“For me personally, when I get more sleep at night I noticed that my mood is always better, my ability to stay on task and stay focus is better. Whereas if I’m tired or fatigued I have a harder time wanting to be engaged in whatever I’m doing so sweet for me is best for daily activities,”
Myreah Williams, a senior business major at Youngstown State University, said.
Sleeping one night for eight hours, and then the next day sleeping for five hours and falling asleep at different times causes a disruption.
At the University of California, San Francisco scientists, psychologists and researchers sprayed a live cold virus into 164 men and women’s noses.
During this weeklong study, researchers monitored each person’s sleep.
The 2015 study concluded that people who sleep more catch less colds.
“It didn’t matter how old people were, their stress levels, their race, education or income. It didn’t matter if they were a smoker,” Aric Prather, an assistant professor of psychiatry at UCSF, said when describing the factors of the people who caught colds.
Fatigue throughout the day will become very prominent to the point where students begin to miss alarms, events, work and even class.
Cramming information all night isn’t usually beneficial because by the time class begins the next day, the questions seem like they’re in another language.
Studies show that people with offset sleep patterns often lack of productivity during the day.
When Williams’ sleep pattern gets thrown out of whack, she’ll try to return earlier the next day and catch up on sleep.
“Sleep at a good time for me is sometimes 11 p.m. to midnight. If I’m going to sleep by 10 p.m., then that means I was obviously exhausted from the day and I need to take a break,” she said.
Malayja Jackson, a sophmore chemical engineering major, said she does better on tests and is more productive when she gets enough rest.
“It’s like, you’re not tired, so you remember everything. I’m a lot less anxious so it’s easier to just get it done,” she said.
When tired, information isn’t retained due to “brain fog,” according to Mental Health Daily.
Brain fog is described as “cloudiness” and not being able to think at all which is curable by sleep, detoxing and supplemental pills.
Ways to get more sleep in college could be as simple as scheduling the entire day and including time for sleep.
When there is enough sleep at night, there will be a drastic change in memory retention, energy, mood and productivity.
