Today is the third day of the National Sleep Foundation’s (NSF’s) 2024 Sleep Awareness Week. It is no mystery that good sleep is one of the most important contributors to a healthy life. As young adults it can be especially important to clock in those extra hours on the pillow– according to the NSF, people between the ages 18-25 need seven to nine hours of sleep per night, and it’s not a suggestion to take lightly. A 2018 study performed by Dr. Monica E. Hartmann and Dr. J. Roxanne Prichard at St. Thomas University found that, “each additional day per week an undergraduate student reported a sleep problem (e.g., daytime sleepiness, difficulty falling asleep, waking up too early), the student’s cumulative GPA decreased by 0.02 and the likelihood of dropping a course increased 10%.”
A dropping GPA isn’t the only side effect of poor sleep. The CDC found that staying awake for extended periods of time can have similar effects to drinking. Those who are awake for 17 hours straight can experience similar effects to having a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.05 percent and those who stay up for longer than 24 hours may feel effects akin to a BAC of 0.10 percent, which is 0.02 percent over the legal limit of 0.08.
Sleep is important. To improve your sleep, it is most important to hold a consistent sleep schedule, get to bed and get up at the same time every day, even on weekends and holidays. Stay away from caffeine, alcohol, and large meals right before bed, they can all be detrimental to sleep quality. Lastly, go for a walk or hit the gym, because physical activity during the day can improve your chances of falling asleep easily.
