Importance of Adequate Sleep

For College Students

By Chengyuan Zhang

Photo by Haley Truong on Unsplash

How Long Do You Sleep
Every Night?

Photo by Krista Mangulsone on Unsplash

7 hours or more?

6 hours or less?

A survey related to sleeping duration was conducted among 364 students from Auburn University's Harrison School of Pharmacy. Of those 318 students who responded to the survey, 174 students reported having an average of 6 hours or less sleep, and 144 students had an average of 7 hours or more sleep during a typical school week. The average sleep duration was 6.34 hours.⁶

When approaching examinations, the statistics get even worst. For the night prior to examinations, 259 students reported slept 6 hours or less, and only 58 students had 7 hours or more sleep. The average sleep duration was 5.01 hours.⁶

How Much Sleep Do You Need?

Photo by Lux Graves on Unsplash

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC),

for adults aged from 18 to 60 years old, a minimum of 7 hours of sleep per night is strongly recommended.²

Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash

Sleeping Less
For
Good Grades?

Not Necessary!!!

woman sitting on bed with MacBook on lap

Photo by Victoria Heath on Unsplash

Adequate sleep helps you get good grades. When keeping track of the academic performance of all the students who took the survey, researchers found that students with academic performance greater than 89.5% have an average of 6.59 hours of sleep during a typical school week. Academic performance of 79.5-89.4% sleep an average of 6.31 hours. Academic performance of 69.5-79.4% sleeps an average of 6.29 hours, and less than 69.4% academic performance has an average of 6.12 hours of sleep per night.⁶

Comparing the number of hours slept the night prior to examinations, the gap becomes even more significant. Those with academic performance greater than 89.5% slept an average of 5.56 hours, and those in 79.5-89.4% had an average of 5.03 hours of sleep. Students in 69.5-79.4% or less have average 4.83 and 4.24 hours.⁶

When comparing the results, especially for the amount of sleep the night prior to examinations, students with adequate amount of sleep have a better academic performance.⁶

Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash

The conclusion drawn from the study is that

Increasing sleep by 1 hour increases 11% in course grades.⁶

Inadequate Sleep Can Damage Your Health
And Even
TAKE AWAY YOUR LIFE

a man holds his head while sitting on a sofa

Photo by Nik Shuliahin 💛💙 on Unsplash

Sleep Deprivation

links to 7 out of 15 leading causes

of death in America¹

selective focus photo of brown and blue hourglass on stones

Photo by Aron Visuals on Unsplash

Among young adults aged 20-24 years old, depression, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease are the leading causes of injury or death in the United States.⁵

In 2019, more than 1 in 10 people were injured or dead because of those diseases.⁵

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

Why Sleep Is So Important

boy in gray hoodie lying on black leather couch

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

Sleep More

Starts

Now

Photo by Matheus Vinicius on Unsplash

Resources For Getting Adequate Sleep

How To Train Yourself To Go To Sleep Earlier

Sleep Foundation

Resources – Sleep and Sleep Disorders

CDC

Resources:

Bansal, M. (n.d.). Can sleep deprivation kill you? WebMD. Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://www.webmd.com/connect-to-care/sleep-apnea/can-sleep-deprivation-kill-you
CDC. (2020, September 10). Sleep in Middle and high school students. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved October 10, 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/features/students-sleep.htm#:~:text=Importance%20of%20Sleep&text=The%20American%20Academy%20of%20Sleep,10%20hours%20per%2024%20hours.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, September 13). Resources - sleep and sleep disorders. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/resources.html
Shoen, S. (2022, March 11). How to go to sleep earlier. Sleep Foundation. Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene/how-to-go-to-sleep-earlier
University of Washington. (n.d.). GBD Death and Injuriy Data. Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-results/?params=gbd-api-2019-permalink%2Fd780dffbe8a381b25e1416884959e88b
Zeek, M. L., Savoie, M. J., Song, M., Kennemur, L. M., Qian, J., Jungnickel, P. W., & Westrick, S. C. (2015, June 25). Sleep duration and academic performance among student pharmacists. American journal of pharmaceutical education. Retrieved October 10, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4571043/

Background Images are found on Unsplash and Canva.
GIFs and Small Icons are from Canva Free Icon Library.

How Long Do You Sleep Every Night?