New studies show that college students not only get less then the recommended hours of sleep on average per night, but also that pulling all-nighters can cause a student to have a lower GPA.
A study done by St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y, observed the sleeping patterns of 111 students and showed that there is indeed a correlation between the amount of sleep a student gets and that students GPA. The study said that if a student frequently stayed up all night to study that their GPA is slightly lower on average.
” I think extra sleep does result in better grades, but sometimes you have to sacrifice sleep for grades,” said Haleigh Engler, Chemical Engineering Freshman.
“The American College Health Association National College Health Assessment Fall 2009 reports 20 percent of college students reported sleep difficulties affected their individual academic performance within the last 12 months. The sample size is 34,208 from 57 campuses. The major complaint is stress with 27 percent reporting and third is cold/flu/sore throat with 19 percent reporting,” said Ashley Granger, Health Promotion Coordinator with the Student Health Center.
Diane Mohler, a learning strategies consultant with the Center for Academic Success suggests breaking study time up into intense study sessions where a student studies for smaller segments of time and takes breaks in-between.
 ”I think the first thing to do is to shorten up our study sessions, especially if we are felling stressed and allow ourselves to focus in for however long, it might be 15 to 20 minutes it might be 35 to 45 minutes, depends on the subject, depends on your stress level, but take short breaks in-between,” said Mohler.
Mohler also suggest taking a small nap in-between study sessions to help retain information.
“What they’ve found is that the small nap, a 6 to 10 minute nap really does seem to help people and lets information settle in and make connections. A short nap is good. When we do these shorter sessions and take these short naps in-between it can be really helpful, but in everything that I’ve read, nothing more then say 30 minutes because that can interrupt your evening sleep,” said Mohler.    
“So short segments of study, maybe short naps throughout the day and then good sleep at night will certainly help you to stay on track,” said Mohler.
“The body is so amazing. If you take these short naps, you keep yourself healthy, you eat well, you exercise, and you try to study throughout the day and get that good rest and get onto a good schedule it can make a huge difference,” said Mohler.
Mohler also mentioned how when you are deprived of sleep it causes your brain to switch back and forth between feeling like it is asleep and like it is awake.
 ”I feel like if I don’t get enough sleep sometimes I definitely start going worse to class especially if I skip a couple of my classes to got to sleep.  As long as I show up for my classes I feel like I still do well as long as I’m staying up during the night to complete coursework,” said Kit Simonson, English Sophomore.
The Center for Academic Success offers workshops throughout the semester to help students get organized, to find out their learning styles, and to learn how to reduce stress. They also offer online workshops. Students can also make an appointment to see a consultant.  The Center for Academic Success is located in B-31 Coates Hall.
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Helpful Links:
http://cas.lsu.edu 
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-09-16-sleep-deprivation_N.htm