You might be tired of your parents telling you to stop scrolling through reels at night and go to sleep, isn’t it? They might also be telling you that sleep is important right? To your eternal disappointment, what they say is true, you need quality sleep and that doesn’t count the ‘sleeping in’ hours after sunrise.
This article will explain why sleep is important for students and the consequences of lack of sleep.
Importance of Sleep for Students
Sleep is crucial for your physical and mental health. Yet, it is the first and most common thing students sacrifice. With the toll of balancing academic and extracurricular activities, social life, the pressure to excel in studies, and coping with busy schedules, students tend to skip sleep as a quick fix.
However, this is largely affecting your academic performance, physical health, and mental well-being
All the late-night study sessions, scrolling through social media, and extracurricular commitments cause severe sleep deprivation. You must understand that sleep is not just a time for rest; it’s a vital process for the body and brain to recover. Sleep helps the body process information, and prepare it for the next day.
Sleep can be defined as a complex biological process with multiple stages, such as light, deep, and REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. During this time, the body performs various restorative processes such as
- Repairing muscles, tissues, and cells, to help you recover from physical activities of the day.
- It helps the brain consolidate new information or lessons that you studied throughout the day and turn short-term memories into long-term ones.
- Sleep helps regulate hormones associated with your growth, appetite, and stress to maintain hormone balance.
The minimum sleeping hours for students depend on their age. Teenagers aged 12-18 will need 8-10 hrs of sleep while young adults aged 19-25 require 7-9 hrs of sleep per day. The gap between what you need and what you get can impact your daily functioning and overall health.
Why Sleep is Important for Students?
From a student’s perspective, sleep is important mainly for two aspects- memory and concentration.
1. Memory Consolidation
For students, sleep is essential for memory consolidation. It is a process where the brain transforms short-term memories into long-term ones. As students learn new information throughout the day, the brain needs time to process it properly and store this data systematically. This will later help in recalling information as needed.
Deep sleep and REM sleep stages play important roles in this processing. They help improve your ability to recall and do better in exams.
2. Concentration and Focus
One of the major drawbacks of sleep deprivation is a lack of focus or concentration. It affects cognitive functions such as problem-solving, decision-making, and your ability to pay attention to the task at hand.
Students who suffer from sleep deprivation often have to face concentration issues in class, making it difficult to understand and retain information. Consistent and quality sleep can help maintain focus, improve alertness, and ability to effectively solve complex problems.
How Does Sleep Deprivation Affect Academic Performance
Lack of sleep can affect the physical and mental well-being of the students who are in critical stages of learning.
1. Physical Health Risks
Sleep deprivation can lead to various physical health problems,as mentioned below.
- Weakened Immunity: Sleep deprivation causes your immune system to be weak. It may become common to suffer from cold, fever etc.
- Increased Risk of Obesity: Lack of sleep affects the hormone balance of the body triggering fat deposition, weight gain, and sometimes obesity.
- Diabetes and Heart Disease: Prolonged sleep deprivation can show long-term causes of chronic health conditions such as heart issues or diabetes.
- Physical Exhaustion: Even if you are not at any risk of getting any serious health issues, you may still be exhausted during the day and feel sleepy or drowsy. Either way, it will render you unable to pay attention to the class of study properly.
- Reduced Athletic Performance: Athletes who suffer from sleep deprivation may be affected in their speed, coordination, strength etc, which will impact their overall performance.
2. Mental Health Concerns
Sleep deprivation can have profound mental health issues for students. Lack of quality sleep also results in the same.
- Anxiety and Depression: Anxiety or depression is common amongst students who often compromise their sleep. This will in turn cause you to lose sleep or disrupt whatever sleep you get at night. It is a snowball rolling which you must contain at the earliest.
- Mood Swings and Irritability: Sleep affects your emotional well-being and lack of sleep increases your emotional responses. This is one of the reasons why teenagers are moody, irritable and frustrated.
Sleep is essential for emotional regulation and processing feelings. The brain sorts them out during REM sleep and integrates them into memories. Without proper sleep, you may experience heightened emotional responses, leading to difficult everyday challenges
As mentioned, lack of sleep causes stress and high levels of sleep make it difficult to fall asleep. Maintaining good sleep hygiene and ensuring adequate sleep is the only way out. It will help you with better concentration, focus, and improved memory.
Tips for Better Sleep Hygiene
To improve sleep quality, students can adopt the following practices:
- Set a Consistent Sleep Schedule: Make sure that you keep a sleep schedule. Going to bed and waking up at the exact time every day. As your body gets used to this schedule it will adjust the internal clock and it will be easier to fall asleep.
- Bedtime Routine: You can create a bedtime routine with some activities that are exclusive before bedtime. It can be simply reading books, listening to music, writing a journal, a warm bath, yoga, meditation, breathing exercises, etc. Gradually, your body can relate these activities with sleep and take it as an indication to be prepared to shut down for the day.
- Limit Screen Time: The blue light from smartphones and computers interferes with the melatonin production of melatonin and affects sleep. Prolonged use, especially 2 hours before bedtime can make it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep. Adjust your phone settings to shut it down at least 2 hours before sleep time.
- Sleep Environment: Create a cool, quiet and dark room. This will help you fall asleep better. You may use some meditation or soothing music to help you fall asleep.
- Warm Milk: Drink a glass of warm milk without sugar, at least an hour before your bedtime. Milk contains tryptophan, an essential amino acid for producing melatonin, the sleep hormone.
- Eat Light: Keep your supper light. Avoid too much sugar, fats, and oils. Try to have your last meal between 7-8 to allow adequate time to have it digested before bedtime.
Conclusion
Sleep is a basic necessity for a student’s health and academic success. While the body is resting, the brain gets time to process information, regulate emotions, and recover physical health.
Students need to prioritise sleep to improve their cognitive abilities, improve their academic performance, and maintain better mental well-being. Lack of sleep especially before exams can affect your concentration and ability to recall.
So use this time to prepare for exams with a proper sleep schedule to ensure that you get enough amount of quality sleep.
