Pulling an ‘all-nighter’ should be the last thing college students pull off. Many college students are not getting the proper eight hours of sleep at night. With students’ fluctuating schedules it could be hard to stay on track. Between exams, projects, work and a social life, how does one ever do it?

It is times like these when independence could bite you in the butt. For some, college is the first time students have control over their schedule, including what time they go to sleep.

According to Maria Berrio, a licensed vocational nurse at West Hills Sleep Disorders Center, about 10 percent of their patients are students who come in for issues related to sleep deprivation. Berrio says they had a patient who was a student that would always fall asleep in his chair and sometimes could not be woken up. This was interfering with his daily activities including going to school and the center is still performing tests in order to treat the patient properly.

“Car accidents, not functioning well, memory loss and diabetes” are just some of the long-term and short-term side affects people experience when not having adequate sleep says Maria Berrio. In order to live well and be alert we must discipline ourselves into everyday regimens including going to bed at a reasonable hour. No more staying up late to watch television or waiting for the last minute to cram for a test or write a ten-page paper.

Dr. Ashwin Kashyap, internist and hematologist, says “Some students these days push themselves to the limit and not giving yourself the proper rest can damage students mentally and physically” because he says “in order to function properly and to the best of our ability, sleep is a must.”   CSUN student Marissa Clement says, “As students we have the tendency to leave things to the last minute and sleeping ends up being something we do only in the weekends.”  Freshman Jonathan Bauer says, “I live with other students and sometimes going to sleep early is hard when everyone has different schedules.”

College students have busy lives but they must take into perspective their health and what is really important. We all only have one life to live and living it to the fullest includes some ZZZZZZZZZZs.