Catching Z’s to Make an A by Faith

Catching Z’s to Make an A by Faith - January 2016 Scholarship Essay

We all say we’re going to do it regularly—we’ll sneak in an extra 30 minutes here or there. We’ll put our phones down and our computers up and actually get in the hours. We know we need it; we know how terrible we feel without it, how our personal and professional relationships can suffer. And yet so few people actually get the recommended amount of sleep per night, college students especially. Sleep deprivation is almost undoubtedly one of the most common issues cited by young adults, be it for the purpose of a test the next day or a research paper, or simply because they accidentally stayed out or stay up too late. I’m no exception to this—too many nights I’ve stayed awake studying (or trying to), and it isn’t always as beneficial as I had wanted. More often than not, I was too tired the next day to remember the information I had crammed into my brain. However, this year I am adamant that I will create and follow a normal sleep schedule, and I’m equally adamant that my grades will benefit from it.
If you looked into the vast expanse of the internet a few years ago, you would see several hundred websites and posts claiming to hold the secret to a 4.0 GPA. Time management was—and still is—almost always the top suggestion, along with actually showing up to class and taking notes during your lecture, as if that really needs to be stated as a tip for doing well in school. However, with the progression of time, more people are suggesting a healthy sleep schedule as an essential study device. As a pre-vet major (and hopefully an eventual vet student), I spend an embarrassing amount of time searching through the internet for advice from current vet students or veterinarians. An overwhelming number of people who said that a good night’s sleep is altogether more important than pulling an all-nighter to cram. The message seemed to be that while the program might be difficult and competitive, you won’t be able to save the life of anything if you’re too busy trying to stay awake.
In addition to academic benefits, we’re all too aware of the biological benefits sleep offers. Even a quick nap can revitalize us long enough to get through a short list of chores or a couple more hours of studying. But we also know that we can’t sustain a healthy life off sporadic napping. In order to truly refresh ourselves, we need hours of sleep—and hours of the right kind of sleep. Lying in bed for seven hours in a state of fitful tossing is not the same as going through a normal sleep cycle. This cycle, which is guided in part by our circadian rhythm, lasts roughly ninety minutes and takes us from a state of lucidity into one of deep relaxation, where our bodies are able to recharge. Within this cycle, too, is REM sleep, which our bodies and our minds need to rejuvenate themselves. However, this type of sleep is also the least utilized, as it is at the end of the cycle and is the most difficult to cultivate. Because of this, many college students have a deficiency of deep and REM sleep, which can cause health problems as well as education ones.
Looking at the list of benefits, it’s difficult to see why more people—especially students—aren’t listing sleep as one of their New Year’s resolutions. And it may be because we don’t realize how little sleep we get until after the fact, when we’re left to battle the consequences. Using myself as an example, I pulled my first all-nighter over New Year’s Eve this year, and I didn’t think anything about it until I realized the toll it took on my body. I was agitated, moody, and generally incoherent. And, after I had slept most of New Year’s Day away, I thought about how I never wanted to feel that way during the school year. While I may not get a perfect eight or nine hours a night, I can definitely do my best to keep my mind refreshed and ready to take on this upcoming semester. So, I’m taking a page from childhood and reinstating a mandatory bedtime at 10:30, and I think I will be the better for it.