We grew up with studies showing that teenagers and young adults need at least 8 hours of sleep each night to be able to properly function. While that may seem ideal, do we all get even remotely close to 8 hours? A majority of teenagers and young adults said no. An article, reviewed by Rupal Christine Gupta, MD, states that there are many reasons as to why teens cannot get the proper sleep they need. Going into any college classroom asking the question, ‘how many of you get a good night’s sleep of eight hours?’, many students giggle a little and automatically have something to say about how they learned to function off 4 hours of sleep.
“ I would say the last couple weeks i’ve only been sleeping for around five or six hours, I know I need to be sleeping more but with all the stress and anxiety with the school year wrapping up , it’ s just impossible to get more than five hours.’
Emma Fairgrieve, student at Fanshawe College, says when asked how many hours of sleep she gets typically
Photo from google
There are many factors for not being able to get sleep, it is not just the internet as various people seem to believe. Busy schedules, exams, sleeping disorders, other illnesses and even stress can have an influence on hour sleep. Furthermore, often students begin to accept the fact that a good night sleep is just not in the agenda anymore. However, even if it may only be an extra hour or two, there are things people have tried to help them go to sleep faster despite their reasons why they can’t, that actually helped. Some strategies are, reading a book you consider boring to help you doze off, listen to soothing music or maybe just working out a little before bed to tucker themselves out. If you are having trouble sleeping, try talking to your doctor and doing some of the things listed above to make yourself tired. It is never too late to figure out how to catch some extra Z’s, especially when you are a student with a busy agenda.