Sleep! Just Sleep!

The clock is ticking. Your eyes beg to be closed. Yet you force them to be open even when the clock strikes midnight because… If you fail this exam… If you don’t turn in this assignment… Sounds familiar? We have all been there. It’s called Sleep deprivation. This is a major problem in today’s world. Both adults and adolescents forgo hours of sleep due to the pressures of our modern society, but this has major consequences on productivity, memory, health and emotional well-being.  

Sleep deprivation affects the very reason why we students don’t sleep well: our academic performance. It damages our attention span and worsens our concentration. Less sleep affects our short-term memory, which is how our long-term memories are created. All this means is that the ability to learn gets hindered when you don’t get enough sleep. You aren’t doing yourself any help academically by staying up late or pulling an all-nighter.

Forgoing good sleep can create serious problems for your health. It has been researched that when you are sleep deprived you are more likely to make impulsive decisions which can lead you to eat unhealthy foods and bad eating habits, which will lead to obesity. Add to that, there is a link between problems with sleeping and abnormal blood glucose tolerance, which may develop into type 2 diabetes. You also risk developing cancer, which is proven by the discoveries of the WHO. This lead the organization to classify night shifts as a probable cause of cancer.

Another discovery is that a lack of sleep can cause you to develop Alzheimer’s disease; no academic achievement is worth you putting your health on the line like this.

There are numerous ways to improve your sleep. Firstly, only have caffeine intake early in the day. Set a regular, fixed sleep schedule. Make your room colder. Turn off electronics well before you go to sleep as they affect how well you sleep.

 I know it can seem that there is no other choice but to not sleep. However, it’s not worth it; the consequences far outweigh the benefits. So remember to just…. SLEEP! JUST SLEEP!