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Omar Zeitoun
Professor Paige
ENGL 100
25 May 2025
Creative Title that Hints at Your Topic, Purpose, and Tone
College is supposed to be a time of growth and opportunity; however, this often brings a
sense of overwhelming pressure. Between looming deadlines and a constant drive to succeed,
students often find themselves caught in a cycle of late nights and early mornings. Sleep often
becomes one of the first sacrifices in this hectic environment, a tradeoff that students make
without fully realizing the cost. Even though research shows that this habit of deprioritizing rest
undermines the goals these students strive to achieve, it is still the first thing students decide to
cut in their adjustment period to college. Sleep is more than just a biological need, it is a
stabilizing force that supports academic performance, emotional resilience and overall wellbeing. Developing strong sleep habits is not just beneficial, but foundational as consistent,
quality rest supports the mental sharpness, emotional stability and academic endurance needed to
thrive in higher education.
A student’s mental and emotional state shapes nearly every aspect of their college
experience, and sleep plays a vital role in regulating both. During sleep is when the brain
recalibrates its emotional centers, allowing students to approach stressors with greater calmness
and clarity. Without this rest, emotional responses become more reactive, moods become more
volatile, and resilience is harder to achieve. Bodziony and Stetson note that students who
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experience poor sleep quality are at a greater risk of both emotional difficulties and physical
consequences such as fatigue (1058). These outcomes tend to compound over time, affecting
students’ ability to remain emotionally present and mentally engaged in academic and social life.
Estevan et al. further emphasize that cultivating healthy sleep habits is not only one of the most
cost-effective strategies for enhancing academic performance but is also a crucial foundation for
sustaining emotional well-being throughout a student’s college experience (6). When students
adopt more structured sleep habits, they give their minds the opportunity to recharge and
rebalance. In doing so, they strengthen their ability to recover from setbacks, sustain motivation
and remain mentally grounded throughout the academic year. Sleep then becomes not only a
source of energy, but a force that sustains emotional endurance.
Just as sleep helps the heart manage stress, it helps the brain’s ability to process
information, solve problems, and perform under pressure. College classes require sustained
attention, and flexible problem solving; all of which are linked to how well a student sleeps.
Students with poorer sleep health, including irregular sleep timing and lower sleep efficiency,
showed increased brain activation during cognitive control tasks, suggesting their brains were
working harder to compensate for the effects of inadequate rest (Smevik et al. 7100). The extra
effort exerted drains the brain’s cognitive resources, leaving students more mentally fatigued and
less capable of sustaining focus throughout the day. Even slight inconsistencies in sleep routines
can affect the brain’s efficiency, which can impact everything from short-term memory to
sustained attention. Consistent and efficient sleep patterns, rather than a student’s subjective
impression of their sleep quality, show a stronger connection to optimal cognitive functioning in
healthy individuals (Smevik et al. 7113). While students might find temporary boosts from
alternative sources of energy, like caffeine, sleep is what builds the foundation for long-term
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mental clarity. A well-rested morning is the foundation in a student’s ability to learn and succeed
during their college career.
Sleep’s impact on student performance isn’t just a matter of neuroscience, it’s reflected in
everyday academic outcomes. Time Magazine featured a study that followed MIT students
throughout a semester and found that those with consistent sleep schedule performed
significantly better than their peers, even when total sleep time was the same (Walton). This
emphasizes that it’s not just how much students sleep, but how consistently they get quality sleep
is what makes the difference. When students fall into a rhythm of waking up and sleeping around
the same time every day, they align with their body’s natural circadian rhythms, allowing for
more restorative rest. This rhythm then strengthens their learning process and helps them achieve
more sustainable focus. Estevan et al. further expand on this view, observing that total sleep time
didn’t necessarily predict test performance in some cases, while consistent sleep habits across
multiple days were more closely tied to academic success (Esteven et al. 5). This research shows
a shift in mindset that discredits the commonly held idea that an occasional all night study
session is necessary to succeed in a college career. Academic success doesn’t require exhaustion,
instead it prefers balance. When sleep is included in a student’s strategy for success rather than
an obstacle standing in the way of it, better academic outcomes tend to follow.
In a college environment that mainly rewards productivity, it’s understandable that many
students feel compelled to sacrifice sleep to achieve their academic goals. The culture of higher
education often treats sleep as an expendable resource and late-night study sessions are viewed
as necessary and are almost expected. Students may even believe that sacrificing sleep shows a
level of dedication that is a necessary price for the cost of ambition. However, this belief is not
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only misleading, but actively harmful. Bodziony and Stetson report that over a third of students
stay up until 3 A.M. at least once a week, and 20% report staying up the entire night at least once
a month, contributing to a widespread epidemic of sleep deprivation that has a negative impact
on performance and well-being (1058). Echoing this concern, Smevik et al. found that students
who frequently sleep late or maintain irregular sleep schedules experience a higher level of
cognitive strain during academic tasks, indicating that these patterns disrupt the brain’s ability to
function effectively in academic settings (7109). The hours spent studying might be longer, but
the impact it has is weaker. Sleep-deprived minds simply don’t function at full capacity, and the
short-term gains are quickly erased by cognitive fog and emotional fatigue. This plan ends up
backfiring which leads to lower test scores and higher levels of stress. Rather than viewing this
form of studying as a badge of honor, chronic sleep loss ends up slowing students down. True
academic strength does not come from running on empty, but from knowing when to rest.
While the benefits of sleep are well documented, many students still hold the belief that
sacrificing sleep is a necessary trade-off for academic success. Between full course loads,
balancing a work schedule, and mounting deadlines, cutting back on sleep can feel like the only
way to stay on track. From this perspective, skipping sleep shows a higher level of commitment
or a practical strategy to gain more study time. This belief, while understandable, stands in direct
opposition to the research on how the brain and body respond to sleep loss. Estevan et al.
observed that students often went to bed later the night before an exam, with over 10% not
sleeping at all, and this directly corelated to the grades on the exams (5). Similarly, Bodziony
and Stetson found more than one in five students reported that sleep difficulties have negatively
affected their academic performance in the past year (1058). These findings paint a clear picture
that cutting sleep may seem like a shortcut, but it is a detour that leads to lower academic
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performance. Rather than pushing through fatigue, students would benefit from treating sleep not
as lost study time, but as a tool that strengthens their ability to focus and succeed at long term
goals.
Within the demanding landscape of college, it is understandable that students often feel
compelled to constantly do more. However, growing research makes it increasingly clear that
academic success is not solely built on relentless effort, but on strategic rest. High quality and
consistent sleep show impactful benefits across all aspects of student life. Yet these benefits are
frequently overlooked by societal pressures that glorify overworking and undervalue recovery.
The expectation of pulling an all-nighter to prepare for an exam or a class regularly causes more
harm than it’s worth. To shift this thinking, students and institutions should recognize sleep as a
foundational part of a student’s academic plan and not as a luxury or a weakness. Prioritizing
sleep does not equate to a less dedicated student, but a well-rounded student that has their
priorities in order. By choosing to rest, students set themselves up for a sustainable and more
successful academic both inside and beyond the classroom.
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Works Cited
Bodziony,Valery and Barbara Stetson. “Associations between Sleep, Physical Activity, and
Emotional Well-Being in Emerging Young Adults: Implications for College Wellness
Program Development.” Journal of American College Health, vol. 72, no. 4, Jan. 2024,
pp. 1057–67. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2022.2066957.
Estevan, Ignacio, et al. “Should I Study or Should I Go (to Sleep)? The Influence of Test
Schedule on the Sleep Behavior of Undergraduates and Its Association with
Performance.” PLoS ONE, vol. 16, no. 3, Mar. 2021, pp. 1–9. EBSCOhost,
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247104.
Smevik, Hanne, et al. “Poorer Sleep Health Is Associated with Altered Brain Activation during
Cognitive Control Processing in Healthy Adults.” Cerebral Cortex, vol. 33, no. 11, 2023,
pp. 7100–7119. Oxford Academic, https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhad024.
Walton, Alice Park. “The Sleep Habits That Can Improve Your Grades, According to a New
Study.” Time, 2 Oct. 2019, https://time.com/5689957/sleep-college-students-grades/.