Learning Challenge

 

Illustration of a person sleeping.
Source : Link

For this weeks learning challenge, I decided to focus on the importance of sleep and data based off the sleeping patterns of college students. I thought this article "Data Reveals How Some College Students Sleep" by Anya Kamenetz would be a good insight into this. From reading the article I was reminded of the importance of sleep on our learning as students, something I've definitely not given my attention to in recent months. Starting a new college year can be stressful and busy, so sleep has been the last thing on my mind recently, but I do want to improve it as the year progresses.

I was made aware that sleep deprivation can lead to negative effects on memory, cognition and motivation, and its effects can be long term. During a study made with thousands of students ranging in ages from 18 - 22, and across different Universities, interesting information was made as a result. The study found that students aren't as sleep deprived as they initially thought, with sleep averaging around 7 hours a night. The tougher the course, the later students will go to bed and wind down, which is no surprise. Gender differences were made here with the binary male and female genders, with men going to sleep later than women, with an hours difference. 

In terms of my own sleep schedule, I definitely get less than 7 hours sleep a night, which can result in me procrastinating my work a lot more and lacking motivation to start and / or finish assignments. Of course I do want to change that slowly but surely ! Here's hoping I start soon.