Health is Wealth

Benefits of Quality Sleep in a Student’s Life

BY ADMIN PUBLISHED March 18, 2024, UPDATED March 18, 2024

While on the quest for academic excellence, many students ignore the value of sleep in their lives. They spend weeks completing their assignments and dedicating most of their time to other valuable chores. But little do they know that this ignorance can have tremendous consequences in their lives.

As sleep is a state of physical inactivity, a bodily being when our body rejuvenates without any exertion, it holds importance in everyone’s life. In a way, the state reactivates every cell of our body to continue regular work with great energy and enthusiasm. Students must be on their toes to keep themselves at par in scholastic and co-scholastic endeavors. If they don’t sleep enough, they can suffer fatigue and much more, decelerating their learning process. As parents, it’s your responsibility to take care of your child’s well-being while they work hard to achieve success in the future.

At Delhi Public School Ghaziabad (DPSG), we want our students to flourish and reach their best potential. To address this, quality sleep is absolutely necessary. This blog guides parents on understanding the benefits of getting enough sleep for students. It also highlights the causes and effects of sleeplessness, along with a few more critical areas associated with sleep deprivation.

What Makes Sleep Important in a Student’s Life?

The importance of sleep for students should never be understated. But the truth is, most people undervalue sleep. Many parents think it is fine for students to have a sleep of 5 to 6 hours as it ensures long study hours. But we all know quantity does not always equal quality. Most students fail to reach their maximum potential when they remain sleep-deprived. It can lead to several physical and mental issues, as mentioned below.

Mood Swings

Students in their teenage years are susceptible to mood swings, and sleep deprivation aggravates this condition. Short sleep makes them cranky, and they are often irritated by minute discomforts. This not only affects their mental well-being but also hampers their studies and other activities.

Issues with Memorising

Sleeping allows cognition by helping process new information. It enables your brain to create new connections with acquired information without hindrance. When your body lacks enough rest or sleep, it notably reduces information acquisition and processing, which leads to issues with memorizing.

Rise in Blood Pressure

Many medical pieces of research indicate that our blood pressure increases when we are devoid of adequate sleep. It has been observed that when a person has 4 to 5 hours of sleep or even less, they face a rise in blood pressure.

5 Benefits of Healthy Sleep in Student Life

Just like drinking, eating, and breathing, quality sleep is crucial at any point in life. Maintaining a balanced mental and physical state requires you to get a considerable amount of sleep. Here are the key benefits of getting enough sleep for students.

Balances Hormone Levels

Sleep is crucial for balancing hormonal levels. When we have enough sleep, our body releases enough cortisol, a steroid hormone that regulates stress. This hormone is produced by the adrenal gland, which is also essential for the regulation of various other hormones in our bodies. As adequate sleep diminishes stress and tension, it helps you manage tedious tasks efficiently.

Boosts Immune System

Proper sleep improves our immune system. There is scientific evidence on how sleep is a powerful way to enhance the functioning of the immune system.

Reduces Chances of Critical Ailments

According to studies, regular sleep reduces the chances of critical ailments like heart diseases and mental conditions considerably. Plus, when a person suffers from a critical health issue, sleep aids as a catalyst to healing.

Helps Maintain Body Weight

Sleep is essential to maintain a decent BMI (Body Mass Index). As per Harvard T.H., Chan School of Public Health, there is evidence that several sleep-deprived people are at a higher risk of gaining weight and suffering from obesity than the ones who get between seven and eight hours of sleep.

Regulates Blood Sugar Levels

If you have a history of diabetes running in your family, you should value sleep more. Your child is prone to diabetes, and sleep is something that can help keep sugar levels to normal.

What Causes Sleep Deprivation Among Students?

For physical and mental fitness, sleep acts as an important fuel. However, many students cannot sleep at night, and the underlying reasons are multiple. To understand the causes of sleeplessness among students, read further.

Sleeping Habits

In today’s world of OTT platforms, students are attracted towards binge-watching web series and movies late at night. Plus, social media is another finding of the digital world that gets students addicted to them, making them sleep late hours. These habits lead to short sleeping spans leading to various issues.

Anxiety and Stress

Many students are anxious about their performance, which leads to stress. While some amount of stress is good for boosting performance, when it gets out of hand, it leads to sleeplessness that can trigger several other physical and psychological problems, further degrading sleep.

Medical Conditions

If your child is suffering from sleeplessness while following a healthy lifestyle and routine, then there can be an underlying medical condition behind the problem. In such cases, it is recommended to consult a physician and learn about the cause.

Environmental Causes

Our surroundings are crucial to having a healthy sleep. Many times, our neighborhood is noisy which stops us from sleeping. Sometimes, the streetlight shining right inside our room can also be a reason. We should assess such external factors that can be omitted to simplify mitigating sleep deprivation.

Effects Students May Face Due to Sleep Deprivation

The consequence of losing sleep can be impactful. It can deteriorate the quality of life and degrade academic performance among students. Here are the primary effects students may witness when they lack sleep.

Reduced Attention Span

Students with poor sleep or irregular sleep cycles can have reduced attention spans. It can even be a simple task, but the student can face many hurdles while completing it. A study published on SpringerLink shows that in a set of 41 students under the age of 21 years, the ones with shorter sleep hours face issues focusing on classes compared to those with a healthy sleep cycle.

Behavioral Issues

Lack of sleep can increase irritability among students. They often become short-tempered and get annoyed with little matters. The University of Pennsylvania conducted a study on people who sleep around 4.5 hours every night and found that they are stressed and frequently get angry and unhappy. They also get mentally exhausted within a short time. The subjects were studied after they improved their sleep cycle. It was found they felt drastic improvement in their mental health after the new development.

Weight Increase

Students having less than 7 hours of sleep are susceptible to weight gain. As smaller sleep length reduces leptin levels (a chemical that makes you feel full) and increases ghrelin levels, a person tends to eat far more than required, resulting in weight gain.

How Much Sleep Should a Student Get Each Day?

Many parents ask how much sleep is necessary for a student. The duration of sleep depends on the age of the student. Here is a table showing the amount of sleep required for each age group.

Age Group	Sleep Required (per day)
Infants	14-17 hours
Toddlers	12-13 hours
Preschool	10-13 hours
Middle School	9-12 hours
Teens	8-10 hours
Adult	9 hours
Seniors	7-8 hours

From the table, we can deduce that the sleep duration decreases with the increase in age. While preschool students need at least 10 hours of sleep, middle school students require around 8 to 10 hours of sound sleep.

Best Time for Students to Sleep

With the hours of sleep, bedtime is also a crucial factor affecting a student’s agility and activeness. When students sleep by 9:30 or 10 pm, they wake up fresh in the morning, enabling them to have long, active hours to fulfill their routine tasks. As our biological clock adjusts according to the time of sunrise, a person naturally feels sleepy after sunset. Students can enhance their body clock response by making it a habit to complete dinner before 9 pm. With that, they can indulge in small walks post-dinner to fasten digestion. They can also read interesting stories during bedtime to sleep faster.

Takeaway

In summary, parents should look after their children’s sleep cycle just like they check their academic and non-academic progress. It is an integral aspect of life that can make or break a person’s physical and mental health. From attention span to behavioral attributes, sleep can affect numerous aspects of our lives.

At DPSG, we work hand in hand with parents to secure a bright future for each of our students. We want them to thrive in their personal and professional life with agility and enthusiasm. Sleep is often an ignored aspect when it comes to well-being, and this blog was meant to address this gap to ensure an all-rounded development of our students.

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