How Much Sleep Does A Student Need?
Are you a student who’s burning the candle at both ends? Wondering how to fit school, social events, work, and sleep into your schedule?
We know you’re busy, but you need to get enough sleep to function while doing everything else.
So let’s talk about being a student and getting enough sleep.
What Are The Benefits Of Sleep?
We need sleep. Like, we really need it
It can be difficult because, a lot of the time, the only thing we notice when we don’t get enough sleep is that we feel bad. But sleep does so much more than make us feel bad or good.
Sleep helps us:
- Boost our immunity so we get less sick less often
- Improve heart health
- Prevents weight gain
- Makes you feel better which puts you in a better mood
- Increase our productivity
- Increase exercise performance
- Improves memory
So, as you can see, you legit need sleep. If you don’t get enough sleep, small health problems will start to pile up until, eventually, you have something serious to deal with.
That’s true even if you’re a busy student.
How Much Sleep Does The Average College Student Get?
The CDC says that teens (13-18 years old) should get anywhere between 8-10 hours of sleep and adults (19-60 years old) need about 7 hours a night. So depending on their age, students should get at least 7 hours of sleep, but possibly more.
But there’s one problem.
The average college student gets somewhere between 6 and 6,9 hours of sleep a night. Between heavy school loads, work, busy social lives, and Netflix marathons, college students tend to stay up later than most people.
And while your body may be able to handle a lack of sleep better when you’re a young student, you’ll still notice the effects over time.
What Happens When You Don’t Get Enough Sleep
What happens if you stay up late, and wake up tired? If it’s only for a day, probably not much. You might feel tired and might get more easily confused or flustered, but other than that, nothing really.
But if you don’t get enough sleep for several days, weeks, or months, you’ll start seeing problems. Think of the benefits of sleep we talk about already and what the opposites would be.
If you don’t get enough sleep, you’re more likely to get sick. And if you get sick, you’re probably gonna feel worse than if you were getting enough sleep.
Your body will start looking for energy from elsewhere. This means you’ll start craving and eating more and more junk food. And that’ll lead to weight gain.
You’ll start forgetting things more often and will probably be a real bummer at the next dinner party or study group.
So while you can cut corners once in a while, it’s best to get enough sleep whenever possible.
Is 5 Hours Of Sleep Enough For A College Student?
If the average student needs 7 hours of sleep to function, and you’re getting 5 hours, you’re probably not going to feel good for very long.
So while the occasional late night and couple of cups of coffee aren’t terrible, consistently getting only 5 hours of sleep will probably make school that much harder.
A Good Mattress Will Help You Get The Sleep You Need
Sometimes it’s not the quantity, but the quality of sleep you’re missing out on. If you have an old mattress and you’re tossing and turning all night, you might still wake up feeling tired, even if you technically got 7 hours of sleep.
A new Simmons mattress might be the thing you need to get the sleep you need. They can give you the support you need while giving you the comfort you need. And they’re some of the most affordable mattresses out there for students too!
So come and check out our Simmons’ mattresses today!