Everyone has experienced it: the groggy, disoriented feeling of being overtired. Students cope with this every day due to the demands of their busy lives. Besides just causing a person to feel unwell, though, the lack of sleep can have a negative effect on health. 

“When you get less sleep, you feel worse,” said freshman Sam Modica. This statement is the simplest way to describe the immediate effects of little sleep. Unfortunately, the problems do not stop there.

Over time, losing sleep can make it harder for students to concentrate, contribute to weight gain, and negatively affect mood. The biggest problem with lack of sleep is that it makes doing small, seemingly easy tasks much harder for the body to accomplish. For students, this means anything from waking up, to taking notes, to just carrying a conversation can seem like a very arduous task. Sometimes these negative effects are harder to notice at first, but they are still serious.

“I’m good until I get home from school, but that’s when everything comes crashing down,” said sophomore Madeline de Mello.

Another reason lack of sleep can be a problem is for people who are athletes. Attending practices and games after school can make a student’s day over nine hours long, so fatigue from the morning can carry over. 

“Not sleeping affects me a lot because I don’t run as fast,” said sophomore Kalie Rosati, who plays field hockey.

Overall, getting a sufficient amount of sleep, which means around eight hours per night, is the best way to stay on top of your health as a busy student.