With a tough combination of late-night studying and early morning exams, students feel the powerful effects of sleep deprivation.
Doctors say every human being requires a certain number of hours of sleep every day to revive brain cells and other body systems.
This is the only way humans are able to continue functioning effectively in their everyday activities.
Students feel the stress of the lack of sleep even more during exam time.
“I require tons of sleep,” said Sarah Keenan, a mass communication sophomore. “It is hell when I have a lot of tests and can’t get my required eight to ten hours.”
Keenan says she often spends the late hours of the night studying as hard as possible for exams she has the next day.
The National Sleep Foundation Web site says sleep is extremely vital to a human’s health and well being.
NSF surveys reveal more than 40 percent of adults experience daytime sleepiness severe enough to interfere with normal daily activities.
“Poor sleep has a price,” the NSF Web site says. “Millions of individuals struggle to stay alert at home, in school, on the job and on the road.”
While students who fall asleep in class are in danger of missing important information, there are much bigger problems caused by a lack of sleep.
“Tragically, fatigue contributes to more than 100,000 police-reported highway crashes, causing 71,000 injuries and 1,500 deaths each year in the United States alone,” according to the NSF Web site.
People suffering from sleep deprivation endanger themselves and everyone around them when they get behind the wheel.
Despite the dangers, many students still say they never get enough rest and probably will not be able to quit studying at night.
Lindsey Galliano, a human ecology sophomore, says she actually studies better late at night.
“I don’t get any sleep during exam time,” said Lindsey Galliano. “I’d actually rather stay up and cram then have to study when I’m supposed to. I do fine, even though I look and feel like a wreck.”
Although she gets a lot of studying done after dark, Galliano is still eagerly anticipating the end of exams.
“After exams are over, I’ll probably sleep for like a day and a half,” Galliano said.