By Rubina Bala
With many deadlines and exams coming up, students need all th
e sleep they can get to cope healthily with their workload.
However, not many are getting even seven hours of sleep every night, which is the minimal of what is considered healthy.
Ryan Morgan, a first year Finance student at De Montfort University, said: “Since I’ve come to university my sleeping pattern is all over the place. Sometimes you have to work at night and make up for it during the day.”
Recent online research from the University of Hertfordshire has shown that about 59% of people in Britain suffer from sleeplessness.
One possible cause for this may be the use of smartphones and computers before sleep, which was evident in most of the sample, even more so in young people of ages 18-24.
University students are especially at risk of suffering from insomnia due to several factors such as stress, excessive drinking on long nights out, and especially working very close to deadlines and leaving everything to last minute which means many are staying up all night long to finish essays and projects.
Annie Exell, a Psychology and Criminology student, said: “I have no sleep because I leave everything to the last minute and then have to stay up and do it.”
Coming to university in itself and being away from home is for many a big change and this may contribute to stress factors that may cause sleeplessness.
Lewis Bagshaw, a first year Creative Writing and Journalism student, said: “It’s a struggle. I don’t get as much sleep as I do at home. I try to make up over the weekends, but it never works. I’m usually playing video games, talking to people or doing work.”
This is a worrying trend for students, as not getting enough sleep may lead to problems concentrating and remembering what they’ve learnt, which is not ideal near the end of term.
