It's no secret that college students are some of the most sleep-deprived people in the nation - but the extent to which they are may be surprising.
Only 11 percent of Penn students report feeling rested seven days a week when they wake up in the morning, according to this year's Health and Wellness survey of undergraduate, graduate and professional students.
Of those who are behind on sleep, 50 percent cited stress as the main factor preventing them from getting enough.
College freshman Julie Perkins gets about six hours of sleep per night, more than she did in high school but still less than she would like.
"My hallway can be loud and disruptive toward my sleep pattern sometimes," said Perkins, who added that the frequent lecture-heavy classes at Penn make it harder for tired students to maintain focus because "once you zone out for a minute you're kind of doomed for the rest of the lecture."
Perkins is not alone among college students. The combination of time management, other extracurricular commitments and a social atmosphere are the main reasons students don't get enough shut-eye, according to Evelyn Wiener, director of Student Health Services at Penn.
"In order to have adequate cognitive function and memory and to be able to process and retrieve information for tests, you really need about eight hours of sleep a night," said Terri Weaver, a professor of Nursing who has done extensive research on sleep.
Having the freedom to determine their own schedules also means students often down energy drinks and coffee to stay up late, only to make it up the next day with naps and not being able to fall asleep at night.
That means that not only do students not get enough sleep but also that their sleep schedules - which often consist of selecting afternoon classes in order to wake up late - are "also not consistent with our natural circadian rhythm," said Weaver.
And students have felt the effects of not resting enough.
"I'd rather fluff an assignment than not be able to concentrate the entire next day," said College sophomore Vicky Parysek, who has never pulled an all-nighter.
And though libraries remain packed through the night during exam season, "there's a lot of evidence that suggests if you pulled an all-nighter, you're not going to learn anymore than if you stopped at a certain point and got a good night's sleep," said Weaver.
A study by St. Lawrence University comparing students' sleep patterns with their transcripts corroborates that fact: Students who pulled more all-nighters and got less sleep in general had lower GPAs.
The first step to increasing sleep time, suggests Weaver, is to make it a priority.
She suggested students looking to squeeze in some more snooze time aim for lights out around 1 or 2 a.m. instead of the more popular 3 or 4. Later sleep times, she said, are the "perfect setup for insomnia and predisposes you for diabetes, weight gain and even cardiac arrest."
Wiener recommends establishing "good sleep hygiene," which includes determining a sleep routine actually adhered to.
But students can rest assured - some teachers at Penn even seem to accept their lack of sleep.
"I slept through recitation once and the teacher completely understood," said Parysek.
