College students get about 6-6.9 hours of sleep, according to the University Health Center at the University of Georgia.
However, the National Sleep Foundation states that individuals between the ages of 18-25 should get at least seven to nine hours of sleep per night.
The Wellness Center at San Jose State University held a “Sleep Better Feel Better” workshop for students struggling to get sleep on Wednesday morning.
Clinical psychologist Alexandria Gerrick spoke to students about reasons why they might be struggling with sleep, quizzed them on sleep myths and provided various tips for them to get a better night’s sleep.
The main reasons she cited for lack of sleep included irregular sleep patterns, mood, stress and use of electronics.
“Sleep is really vital to everything . . . it can affect our mood, and our physical body as well,” Gerrick said.
Gerrick thinks college students struggle with finding time to sleep because they have various stressors in their life. Gerrick thinks changing schedules and studying are possible reasons.
She also thinks adjusting to being away from home for the first time could also be stressful.
One of the sleep myths Gerrick tested students on was whether they missed sleep during the week could be made up on the weekend.
According to Gerrick, it depends on the individual. If someone constantly loses sleep, that amount cannot be made up, whereas a few hours lost during the week can certainly be made up over the weekend.
Students became particularly engaged when Gerrick told them to discuss each sleep myth in groups.
Communication studies junior Seth Furtado came to the workshop because he was interested in learning how to improve his sleeping schedule.
“I think [college students struggle with sleep] because this is one of the first times in our lives where we’re really balancing a lot of different things,” Furtado said.
He said he thinks students tend to put off sleeping because they think they can get away with only a few hours per night, but he believes this is harmful to health in the long term.
Furtado said he liked the tips Gerrick shared with students during the workshop.
He said he found the tips not only helpful, but realistic.
Communications studies junior Syboney Caballero also felt the same way.
“I really liked how [Gerrick] threw in some ideas of listening to a podcast to help you get bored and fall asleep and working out at different times,” Caballero said.
Caballero said she doesn’t get enough sleep and wanted to attend the workshop because she thought it would be helpful.
She said she wanted to try the list of 17 sleep tips Gerrick provided to students at the end of the workshop.
Some of the tips to improve sleep included turning off electronics/lights, not looking at the time, and getting up to do something else when you can’t sleep.
Gerrick said she is glad students found the information beneficial.
“[Students] coming in here, listening to a very short presentation, and they’re like ‘I’m going to apply this’ . . . That’s great. It sounds like we’re making a difference,” Gerrick said.
