With Elizabethtown College’s students’ busy schedules growing in intensity as they progress through their college careers, they may understandably find themselves lacking the time to get an adequate amount of sleep. However, that raises a question: what constitutes an acceptable amount of sleep? Most people will say eight hours of sleep, but how do we know eight hours satisfies one’s physical and mental needs? Furthermore, what happens if one cannot get eight hours? 

Various organizations and studies seem to agree on what constitutes the best amount of sleep. Sources like the Harvard Medical School, the Sleep Foundation and the Center for Disease Control agree that seven hours is the baseline amount of sleep a typical adult should get every night. These organizations show people aged 18 and above only needed seven hours of sleep, whereas people heading into college needed anywhere from eight to ten hours. This data reinforces the commonplace idea that everyone needs roughly eight hours of sleep a night, even if the amount of necessary sleep is slightly lower than what people already think it is.

Of course, just because someone knows they need eight hours of sleep a night does not mean they can achieve this goal. People’s schedules often end up overloaded, especially when in college. Most people reading this can presumably understand how courses held at 8 a.m. and heavy workloads can severely impact the amount of sleep one gets a night. This can become a problem as sleep deprivation can lead to significant issues like “reduced alertness, slow reaction times…reduced cognitive ability and impaired logical reasoning,” according to the Sleep Foundation.

Getting extra sleep on the weekends does not circumvent this problem either. Jill Zwarensteyn discusses in an article for Sleep Advisor how changing your typical weekday sleep schedule on the weekends can lead to a phenomenon known as Social Jet Lag. Zwarenstyen also notes how this not only leads to grogginess throughout the day but also eventually leads to mental and physical issues. These issues demand solutions that allow people to get enough sleep so they do not suffer from these health issues but will not harm either one’s schedule or productivity.

While there is no absolute solution to this issue, the best way to alleviate this problem could  involve proper time management. If a massive workload prevents someone from sleeping at a suitable time, then understanding how to tackle responsibilities and priorities could solve that problem. Etown students can find resources from the Learning Zone that can help them manage both their time and workload, allowing them to get a good night’s rest and have more energy to tackle tomorrow. Of course, becoming more organized may not help one get more rest, but it can act as a good first step to developing better habits and getting a good night’s sleep.