Benefits of Getting A Good Night’s Sleep in College

The benefit of a good night's sleep. Photo: Sol S. on Flickr

Can you remember the last time you got a full night’s sleep in college? While 8-hours’ sleep may be uncommon on campus, it’s absolutely critical to thinking clearly and functioning properly in class and study sessions. If you want to maintain a good GPA, you may be surprised at how much sleep can help.

Today’s back to school tip: get a good night’s sleep!

1. Sleep helps you retain information better. Studies show that people who get 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night will retain more information and learned skills compared to the person who stayed up all night cramming. Incredibly helpful in calculus class, no?
2. Sleep helps you control your hunger. A study conducted by the University of Chicago in 2004 found that skimping on sleep “could reduce the body’s ability to regulate hormones that control hunger.” (Source: CBC) Getting extra sleep will help you manage your appetite. In the study, people who had two consecutive nights of poor sleep, the volunteers were craving less nutritious food like cookies and candy over healthier alternatives.
3. Sleep helps prevent illness. If catching the stomach flu at the beginning of the term has totally thrown the rest of your semester, a good night’s sleep might have prevented that. Getting 7-8 hours sleep will help your immune system stay strong and fight off impending germs or illnesses.
4. Sleep makes you attractive. In order to stay attractive to members of the opposite sex, get lots of sleep! Without it, you’ll start to see the appearance of dark circles under your eyes and your skin will begin to look older. And we’re not talking the “I’m-old-enough-to-date-senior-boys older” either.
5. Sleep makes you perform better on the court. “Athletes who get an extra amount of sleep are more likely to improve their performance in a game,” Stanford graduate researcher Cheri Mah told USA Today.

If you need any more convincing that sleep is beneficial for you as a college student, just read USA Today’s article entitled “College students’ performance suffers from lack of sleep.” ‘Nuff said.