Sleep

It's no secret that many college students get far too little sleep. Your academic studies, social life, part-time or full-time jobs, and relationships are often given priority over sleep, right? And it gets even worse as prelims and final exams approach. Then it feels like staying awake is critical.

At Cornell, nearly 25% of students surveyed indicate that sleep difficulties are an impediment to their academic performance. Whether you're nodding off during class or moving through each day feeling sluggish, cloudy-headed, and tired, you're probably not making the most of your tuition dollars. Additionally, you may be taxing both your immune system, and quality of life.

If you're like many undergraduate students and averaging only 6 hours of sleep a night, then you may be surprised to learn that you're sleep deprived! In fact, according to current research, most undergraduates need 8.5 – 9.25 hours of sleep (most adults, 7 – 9 hours) in order to avoid daytime drowsiness (inability to concentrate or remember and slowed reaction time), altered mood states (anxiety, irritability and depression), weight gain, poor health and low energy. The bottom line is that sleep is a necessity, not a luxury. Your top academic and/or athletic performance depend on adequate sleep.

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Some helpful resources

Power Sleep is the website of James B. Maas, PhD, Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow and Professor in the Department of Psychology at Cornell University. Dr. Maas is well-known at Cornell for his popular introductory psychology class and his research on the relationship between sleep and performance.

"Pulling an all-nighter doesn't work because learning requires a good night's sleep." Don't believe it? Check out this article from On Science. 

The National Sleep Foundation offers tips for improving sleep, information about sleep disorders, and many interesting links to other sleep sites.  

SleepNet.com provides "everything you wanted to know about sleep but were too tired to ask," including sleep tips, a "sleep test," and a "snoozeletter."

DrowsyDriving.Cornell.edu is an informative site that reminds us that driving under the influence of sleep deprivation has a lot in common with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. It makes a persuasive case about the importance of adequate sleep and suggests ways to get it.

The Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School posts in informative video entitled "Sleep, Learning, and Memory" (1:52) that makes the case for good sleep both before and after learning occurs. The video is located half-way down the web page.

Doing research on sleep for yourself or for a paper? The Sleep Well at Stanford maintains a list of recent articles about sleep research.

The University of Florida has an informative podcast (narrated presentation)about sleep that is tailored to the problems of university students.