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By Team Sleepy Buffs

Jason Hong has thoroughly enjoyed his time as a college student, but the road getting there hasn’t always been smooth. The senior biochemistry major at CU Boulder was asked how often he went without sleep and his answer was quite shocking.

“[I went without sleep] pretty much before every big exam, final, or project,” said Hong. “I try to avoid it if I can, but usually I’m forced into that position. I think that everyone who is in college pulls an all-nighter at least once.”

The all-nighter is an accepted part of college life that has even been deemed a rite of passage for incoming freshmen. What students fail to realize is the danger this common ritual poses to both mental performance and academic success. Evan Chinoy, a graduate student at CU who studies sleep in the Department of Integrative Physiology, said he braved the late hours of the night many times throughout his undergraduate career.

“I definitely wasn’t fully aware of the implications of all-nighters,” said Hong.

Many students are oblivious to the health risks that come along with the strenuous task of staying awake, which makes it much easier to do without a second thought. Although Chinoy admits the unhealthy nature of it, he also sees it as a learning tool, “Like most things college is good for, it’s good for exposing you to new things,” said Chinoy. “If you’ve never experienced an all-nighter before, it might be a good deterrent to go do your work earlier.”

The dilemma that many students face is finding the balance between the time to complete schoolwork while also getting enough rest. It often seems that there are not enough hours in the day to finish homework and get sleep, therefore, students turn to the all-nighter. Dr. Donald Misch, Assistant Chancellor of the Wardenburg Health Center on the CU Boulder campus, is strongly against sleep deprivation in student life.

“The more you stay up to study, the less efficient you are,” said Misch. “Aside from the fact that you feel lousy, you don’t think, concentrate, learn as well as you should.”

According to a sleep study by the National Sleep Foundation, memory retention is reduced to 20 percent when one does not get enough sleep. It turns out that the decision to forgo sleep may hurt more than help.

The bottom line is – sleep is a necessary part of development that students need in order to thrive academically. The classic all-nighter gets in the way of that. Although it is engrained in university life, there are ways to prevent becoming a victim of sleep deprivation. According to Dr. Misch, the main factors that lead to all-nighters are poor study and time management skills. Staying organized and resisting the urge to procrastinate can help students catch up on those Z’s and earn some A’s while they’re at it.

See Related Story: Sleepless in Boulder