The Young And The Sleepless: Why College Students Don't Get Enough Rest

We all thought getting into college was the hard part. Juggling the last two years of high school, grades, SATs, extracurriculars and a social life - it was difficult but we knew it was temporary. We knew that when we got that big envelope in the mail, we could take one big sigh of relief. No one said that college was going to be easy, and it's not by any means. I will say that I did not expect the rest of my life to be one big juggling circus act, where another ball gets thrown into the mix each day. You arrive at university first semester ready to get involved, meet new people, and make the Dean's List. That dream pans out well for a select few, but even they drop the ball on one very important, yet rarely-acknowledged aspect of college life.

I am talking about sleep. That's right, REM sleep, the one acronym that we didn't invent for a midterm. Sleep is the thing that we sacrifice for our real priorities, like research papers and 4 a.m. McDonald's runs. No one comes into college, steps one foot on the university seal and proclaims, "I really want to catch up on sleep!" There are so many other "important" things to do than get a good night's rest. Our to-do lists and planners are bursting at the seams with deadlines and assignments. No one ever thinks to pencil in eight hours of sleep every day.

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