As a college student, I can relate to the feeling that you're not getting enough sleep. Whether I'm staying up to finish a paper, to study for a test the next day, to finish a project, or just because I'm out with friends, I often find that I am crawling into bed at 3 or 4 in the morning, planning to get up only a few hours later for class. Every night before I go to sleep, I count in my head how many hours of sleep I will probably get, and the numbers seem to get smaller and smaller as each semester goes on. I would estimate that I average about 6 hours of sleep a night, and possibly an hour-long nap during the day if I am extremely lucky. An article from the New York Times, however, suggests that this is not enough sleep per night.
The article says that most people need 8 hours of sleep a night. This might seem like old news, but they actually did a study on how much sleep people need to test this. They had groups of people sleep for 4, 6, or 8 hours a night for two weeks, and tested their alertness every couple hours each day to see how the amount of sleep they got affected them. The study suggests that people who get 6 hours of sleep a day (like me) have a declining level of alertness each day. After two weeks of sleeping 6 hours a night, these subjects were as impaired as people who are legally drunk. Wake up call! I need to make sure that I try my hardest to get 8 hours of sleep every night, or else I will be going to class and taking tests like I am drunk. Not exactly the impression I want to make on teachers...
Article Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sleep-t.html?ref=health
Image Source: http://blog.visiondecor.com/index.php/2008/08/30/dont-ruin-your-college-sleep-schedule/
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