Wired and Weary

France Griggs Sloat

 

Sara Rowell blames no one but herself. Her parents tell her not to push herself so hard. But something inside keeps driving her. As a freshman, she routinely studied until 4:00 a.m. or 5:00 a.m., slept a few hours, went to class, stayed busy into the evenings, then hit the books again. By the end of her freshman year, she was fried.

"My goal was a 4.0 grade point average," she says, "but that was too hard. I had trouble ordering my time. My schedule was so out of whack that I was up all the time. I'd start homework around 7:30 p.m. and just do homework all night. I knew I wasn't getting enough sleep. I'm a pretty clear-cut case of overachiever. It's totally my fault."

Rowell is a triple major—math, political science and the Philosophy, Politics and the Public honors program—which makes her a bit unusual among students. But she's not alone in other respects. In fact, her story is quite common. Many students in college today suffer physically, mentally and academically as a result of a drive to succeed, a need for social stimulation and a 24-hour-a-day schedule that has no beginning or end. To accomplish it all, they're staying up late—really late—and robbing themselves of the sleep their bodies crave.

To read the full length article, click here