By: Louis Durand, News Reporter, Carter Goodson, Videographer
MOUNT BERRY, Ga. – College and university students often need to put in tons of time and effort to pass their classes. Many students sacrifice sleep in order to maintain high grades. Berry College students are not exempt from this trend, and often pull all-nighters to complete their assignments.
Chase Ellis, a Berry College senior majoring in Creative Technologies explained that he often has to sacrifice sleep in order to succeed.
“There’s some days where I might get eight hors (of sleep), there might be some days where I might get five to six hours, then I still got homework on top of that, and you know there’s been a couple times where I’ve pulled all-nighters, so you know it’s really inconsistent,” said Ellis.
Such inconsistency in sleep can have negative effects on a student’s mental health. Studies on sleep have affirmed that it can have many benefits, and conversely, a lack of sleep can be detrimental.
Columbia University’s Department of Psychiatry listed the symptoms of sleep deprivation, which include anxiety, lack of focus, depression, and many others.
Dr. Elizabeth Blake Zakarin, Assistant Professor of Psychology at the Columbia University Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders, said “Sleep helps maintain cognitive skills, such as attention, learning, and memory, such that poor sleep can make it more difficult to cope with even relatively minor stressors and can even impact our ability to perceive the world accurately.”
One step in preventing sleep deprivation and its impact is setting a schedule. Many students do not practice time management, and are left pushing last minute deadlines. Ayden Plumlee, a freshman at Berry studying environmental science, expressed how she thinks this strategy can help students balance their workloads.
“I mean I know that’s easier said than done, but trying to schedule out like certain times to do things,” says Plumlee. “Like seeing when your assignments are due and everything and seeing how much time you actually have and like what it a realistic time that you can dedicate to each thing.”
Regardless of whether you manage your time or commit to another strategy to help get ahead of assignments, it is important to get adequate sleep. A lack of sleep can impact more than just your mood, and can prove harmful to grades. As students go further into the semester it can be helpful to remember just how much sleep can affect the mind.