How many of you already feel exhausted as soon as you hit the “off” button on your alarm clock? If so, you are not alone, as the National Sleep Foundation says that 63% of college students suffer from sleep deprivation. We are all far too familiar with sleepless nights before an exam or paper is due, staying out too late before an early morning class, or being so stressed and anxious that we restlessly lay awake until 4am.

Sleep deprivation has become a pervasive problem for college students, making it essential that we learn about the mental, physical and emotional consequences of not getting enough sleep, and what we can to combat zombie syndrome.

 With our fast-paced, 24-7 lifestyles, it often seems that there just aren’t enough hours in the day to successfully balance our academic, social and work pressures, without sacrificing a few hours of shut eye. With midterm season just around the corner and students are preparing to take exams, is it important that to prioritize sleep in order to perform at your best.

First, let’s start with the mental costs of sleep deprivation. A study done by Stanford University shows that after two weeks of sleeping six hours or less per night, students feel as bad and perform as poorly, as someone who has gone without sleep for 48 hours. Sleeplessness impairs the ability to learn new information, causes concentration levels to drop and impairs short term memory. Our brain patterns change altering our ability to generate new ideas, as well as our ability to be multitask.

Sleep deprived students perform as much as 40% worse than those who have slept normally, which is the difference between acing an exam and failing it miserably. Now I know what many of you are thinking, you only sleep 5 hours a night and you are doing just fine. Well, while the amount of sleep one needs varies depending on the individual, 8 hours is the average amount necessary.

Often times people who are sleep deprived complain of symptoms that they don’t realize are a direct result of not getting enough rest. These include frequent illness, general fatigue, increased anxiety, and impaired concentration and memory retrieval. Our emotional moods are also affected by exhaustion, which can lead to pessimism, sadness, stress and anger. These symptoms can cause students, in particular, to turn to risky ways to make up for a lack of energy.

Only getting a few hours of sleep per night decreases the effectiveness of your immune system, thus causing you to get sick more frequently. People who don’t prioritize sleep can often experience irritability, moodiness, impatience, weight gain, forgetfulness, depression and poor judgment. The statistics linking sleep deprivation to traffic accidents and death are alarming, as falling asleep at the wheel is the cause of 65 hundred traffic deaths each year.

As many of you know, students frequently rely on caffeine, energy drinks and even medications such as adderall just to get through the day. New research is even beginning to show that students diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder may actually be suffering from extreme sleep deprivation instead.

When we don’t get enough sleep we lose control of our emotions, often causing us to act impulsively or to overreact to situations we would normally handle calmly and logically. For example, when you stay up all night typing that 10 page history paper, and accidentally forget to save it, you will have a complete and utter breakdown. However, if this happened when you were well rested, you would be better equipped to problem solve, by asking the teacher for an extension or getting some help from the IT expert. Sleep deprivations is basically self-inflicted misery as we do this to ourselves, and only human beings would ever deprive themselves of something so vital.

Sometimes we don’t get enough sleep because we fail to manage our time effectively. One way to solve this is to plan out your study and sleep schedule the week before exams, to insure that you will have enough time to get everything done. Essentially, you are prioritizing your own well being. Try not to drink caffeine or alcohol before bed as they can disrupt digestion and keep you awake. Get regular exercise, develop a regular go-to-bed and wake-up time, and minimize noise. Use your bed only for sleeping, as doing your homework or talking on the phone in bed causes you to associate your bed with things other than sleep. If you are lying awake, get up and do something boring until you feel sleepy. Limit naps, and if you take a nap keep it brief, napping for less than an hour before 3pm.  It can also help to give yourself time to wind down before going to bed and have a light bedtime snack so you don’t go to bed hungry.

 Seems easy enough right? As students we are often naive to the effects of sleep deprivation or have a hard time putting our own well being in front of studying or raging at that Monday night party. With exams coming up, if you do not prioritize sleep the facts show that your grades will indeed suffer. So if you have come to the realization that you are suffering from sleep deprivation, look on the bright side, at least you now have a good excuse to hit that snooze button every once in a while.