Exam season is a time of stress, overworking, and a lack of sleep for most students as they sacrifice their social life for grades.
Not only do students do this for exams, but for their deadlines as well.
However, sleep is important as it boosts immunity, helps with pain tolerance, and plays an important role in memory.
A lack of sleep can affect mood, motivation and productivity.
Yasmin King, a University of Nottingham student, said: “I’m always working up to the last minute so have pulled some rather late nights for the few essays and dissertation deadlines that medical students do get.”
Yasmin is not alone, with many other students delaying sleep to reach a deadline, or get work done.
However, adults, according to the NHS website, need from seven to 9 hours of sleep.
#Insomnia can become such a problem that people don't bother going to bed in case it's another one of those nights! If you've suffered with Insomnia, but have overcome it, share your tips and guidance and let's help more people get a proper nights' rest #mentalhealth #sleep
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Despite some students getting this much sleep, a lack of a sleep schedule can make sleep harder to come by.
People should be going to bed and waking up at around the same time each day to teach your body to sleep better.
Yasmin doesn’t do this, and is most likely not alone in their habits.
Their sleep may be consistent in the amount of hours they get but Yasmin may sleep from 11pm to 7am or 2am to 10am.
Eight hours seems to work best for them, but that’s an average, not a recommendation.
Some people may find seven hours better for them, or nine.
A lot of this information can be found on the internet for those curious, but there may not be that information everywhere for people, especially students, to find.
Yasmin said, in reference to support: “I don’t think it’s necessarily talked about enough in the general community.
“I’ve been very aware of it having been a medical student and being interested in psychology but I don’t know how much its covered in the wider student population.”
“There is a high amount of pressure to perform and attend, with poor welfare support.”
Yasmin King, University of Nottingham medical student
Yasmin mentioned that their sleep can affect their productivity, anything less than seven hours for them results in an unproductive day.
They said: “There is a high amount of pressure to perform and attend, with poor welfare support.”
Amalia Ried, a Nottingham Trent University student, said: “Going to sleep is so hard. I go to sleep thinking about everything I need to do, everything that I need to work on, everything else.
“Then I wake up and I can’t get myself out of bed because I know it’s just another day of just however many hours in the library.”
She also agreed that there wasn’t enough support in place.
Amalia, like many other students have skipped sleep, or delayed it to make sure that they meet a deadline and has seen a change in their productivity because of this.
They can’t bring themselves to do the same amount of work when tired and it doesn’t help that their sleeping habits have seemed to get worse with the transition to university.
She snoozes her alarm more, gets up later than she used to, and struggles to get up early more.
She added: “I know so many people who sacrificed their sleep to get something done, or to do something, and I don’t think people realise how your physical wellbeing, or memory is effected.
“I feel like more needs to be put out there.”
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