RAB Source Entry 1

Research Question: How does lack sleep impact college students ?

This topic interests me because currently I am a college student and I have experienced an insufficient amount of sleep and doing school work at the same time. I read a news article a while ago and it was showing a chart. The chart was showing statistics on how students who don’t have a full night sleep for 7 hours do not do well academically. Furthermore, I always had an aspiration in preaching how a good night’s sleep can affect you mentally, physically and even emotionally. I already know that it is hard for the majority of college students to sleep at night, especially on a school night. I also already know the reason why it is hard for them, including me, to have a full night of sleep because of playing games, being on social media, talking all night ,even studying sometimes and so much more. Many college students tend to forget the impact of all this though and wonder why their academics are affected. Some points that I plan to explore and find out more about is how we as college students can construct proper time management in our lives so we could do anything we usually do in the night in the day so we could sleep on time. Another thing I would like to explore is if campuses have any resources for students who have struggled sleeping at night. The final thing is I want to explore how sleepless nights affect your communication amongst your peers, roommates and friends.

Part 1. MLA Citation 

Ted Amenabar. “The less college students sleep, the worse their grades, study finds” Washington Post, 13 Feb.2023

Pt.2 Summary

In the article “The Less College Students sleep, the worse their grades, study finds” ,Ted Amenabar reports on the impact of insufficient sleep on college students’ academic performance. Amenabar cites the research from David Creswell saying when Students tend to sleep less than 6 hours a night, their grades drop being the fact their mind hasn’t rested. Amenabar gives an example on how the amount of sleep an individual needs changes by age.The writer Mentions that the researchers are still clueless in how GPAs drop because of less sleep. Amenabar concludes that if we don’t get a nice “chunk” of sleep at night, our body won’t process things well and we can’t be prepared for the next day.

Pt.3 Reflection

I agree with Teddy Amenabar Point of View that students need more sleep so their brains can function well because me being a student, each day I realize the more sleep my body gets the better. I feel this because I have encountered many times of me falling asleep during class, or dozing off into another world because my brain cannot focus on the fact I didn’t rest. I always believed in the philosophy that our brains need to recharge. I say this because as students we are in school throughout half of the day. By the time we get home half of the day is gone. Most of us college students instead of studying after classes, we go home go on social media. We are just tired of hearing about anything that involves school. I am also those types of students so when we get home we just sleep late and our brain doesn’t have a chance to reset.  I relate to this article alot and it speaks to me and has affected greatly how I view my brain cells and sleeping schedule.

Pt.4 Rhetorical Analysis

Ted Amenabar is a reporter on the Well+Being team on the Washington Post. He covers current trends on platforms. Also he focuses on topics that deal with health and exercise, the primary audience is college students. The purpose of this article is to make college students rethink or adjust their sleep schedule so they could be a better version of themselves. The reason he wants to reach out or catch the attention of college students is because he wants them to understand the impact of less sleep hours and how it can benefit your life and education, because once you start now as a college student it won’t end there.

Part.5 NOTABLE QUOTABLES

“Fundamentally, it comes down to: If we’re not sleeping well, all systems are not a go,” Prichard said. “Our body is not prepared for the day ahead of us and what we’re asking it to do if we don’t have that good, basic chunk of nighttime sleep.” (Amenabar)

“Students “have been exhausted since puberty, and they’ve grown accustomed to always feeling lethargic”.(Amenabar)

“We could really teach them, in that first year of college, better sleep patterns that could help them with their academic achievement,” (Amenabar)

“showed it was tough to make up for bad sleep habits. There was no improvement in scores among students who made sure to get a good night’s sleep right before a big test”. (Amenabar)

“Sleep recommendations shift by age, and the amount of sleep an individual actually needs can vary person to person. In general, for teenagers, the recommendation is eight to 10 hours of sleep. For those 18 to 25 years old, it drops to seven to nine hours”.