By Brittney Bruner
Lindsey Bogadi said she gets about six hours of sleep each night, and according to experts, she’s below the national average.
“I definitely didn’t sleep enough in high school and I still don’t,” said Bogadi, a University of Louisville freshman biology major.
The National Sleep Foundation released a poll in 2006 that revealed that many young adults are suffering from sleep deprivation.? These people are averaging 6.8 hours of rest each night while many others are trying to run on much less.
“In high school I went to bed at a decent hour, I still didn’t get the ‘right amount’ of sleep but it was good enough,” said Jason Payne, freshman biology and chemistry major. “Now, in college, I’m doing great if I get 3-4 hours of sleep. Normally I get about 2-3 hours.”
These averages are much less than the recommended amount by many physicians and doctors.
Elana Pearl Ben-Joseph and Mena T. Scavina of http://www.kidshealth.org, stated that “most teens need about 8 to more than 9 hours of sleep each night.”
Many college students, especially freshmen, are prone to a change in sleep schedule during their transition from high school to college. With this transition, mostly comes an overall loss of sleep.
According to Jim Acuri “College Students, Getting Enough Sleep is Vital to Academic Success,” Lawrence Epstein, medical director of Sleep Health Centers in Brighton, Mass., said, “sleep deprivation effects not only whether a student can stay awake in class but how they perform as well.”
With events always on the calendar on and off U of L’s campus, freshmen have an overwhelming opportunity to be social and active, but more importantly, responsible for their own decisions.
“The main difference is the increase of responsibility; the fact that most of your professors could care less about how well you do,” said Payne. “However, beer pong tournaments until 5 in the morning and parties really don’t help.”
Freshman undeclared major Erin Roberts said, “Being in college, I get to make my own decisions and I’m still learning time management.”
However, others are convinced that naps during the day can trump out late nights, all-nighters and everything in between.
Naps are ultimately not the solution for students to redeem sleep lost the night before. It can even result in even more sleep deprivation, or insomnia.
“When I first started college, I didn’t really get into bed at a reasonable hour and I found myself napping every day between classes, which made it even harder to get to sleep at night,” said freshman undeclared major Danielle Churchill.
This week being finals week, and the ultimate crunch period, it seems inevitable that students are going to be at loss for a little shut-eye.
While checking with freshman across campus, one was able to provide some support for this assumption – being awake at 3 a.m. on a Thursday night.
Acuri shares some advice for students to avoid cases of sleeplessness, especially during the week. “Go to bed early, limit naps, wake up early on the weekend, avoid caffeine, adjust the lights, wind down and eat a little just before bedtime.”
