Being a college student is tough. There are a lot of expectations and responsibilities, and you have hardly any time to accomplish all of the things you want. If you try to do all of the things you want within the confines of a 24-hour period, you risk becoming a robot or even worse a zombie.

A hefty price tag comes along with being a college student. Paying for this higher educational experience is no walk in the park. It becomes an expensive journey that has you emptying your pockets to pay for student costs, collecting an exorbitant amount of money that drags you further and further into the sinkhole of student debt.

To try and buffer the damage of financial destruction, students work during college. Making that extra money can help with rent, food and supplies. It may eventually make a small dent into the loans that will take effect shortly after graduation.

Working through college is just as hard, if not harder, than being a college student alone. The hardest thing about working through college is the limited number of hours in day. With school, studying, homework, extracurricular activities and work, there is little time for sleep.

That is a very dangerous concept. Getting less than a healthy dose of rest can be detrimental. Some of the issues that can be caused according to WebMD are heart problems, sexual slumps, depression, aging, weight gain and, most of all, cognitive issues.

The brain is negatively affected by losing sleep. This is where becoming a robot or a zombie comes in. You begin to lose control of yourself, and you can no longer attain the highest potential of which you are capable. 

Nearly 80 percent of students are working their ways through college, according to a survey done by Citigroup. Students can be found working an average of 20 hours a week. Combine that with school and other activities, you can expect maybe 6 hours of sleep. That is being generous.

According to the Thielen Student Health Center, “College students, like Americans overall, are sleeping less, and if you are like most college students, chances are you are not getting enough sleep. The college years are notoriously sleep-deprived due to an overload of activities.” 

So what’s the point of going to college and spending an outrageous amount of money? The answer is to hopefully to learn something. However, if you don’t budget in sleep, that brain of yours isn’t going to do you the least bit of good.

A new study published in the journal “Occupational & Environmental Medicine” shows that continually working shifts that are longer than eight hours can cause cognitive deficiencies. Imagine working a late night shift at a 24-hour HyVee, or any business open until the early hours of the morning, then being able to sleep for maybe four or five hours before having to get up and get started on the day. Imagine repeating that scenario for four to five years.

Over time, you will start to see the effects of the lack of sleep. Brain function diminishes, which means your brain won’t function like it should. In essence, all of the time and effort you would put into your schooling would be for nothing because your brain isn’t rested enough to handle the load.

There is good news, however. Just like over time lack of sleep causes issues, the effects can be reversed over time. By resting the brain and allowing it to replenish itself, you will find that your brain will preform.

I have been raised with the mentality that sleep is above all the most important aspect to a healthy lifestyle. Before college, my father would tell me to go to bed even if my homework wasn’t finished because I wouldn’t be able to function as well if I wasn’t fully recharged.

I still stand by that ideal and find I am all the better for it. Currently, I am going to school part-time and working part-time. I have time to spend with friends and family as well play recreational sports. I make sure that I get about seven to eight hours of sleep per night.

By budgeting my time, I am able to do everything I want and get the necessary amount of sleep I need to function at my highest level.

If going to college part-time isn’t for you, there are other options like taking credits at a community college to save money so less time can be spent on the job. The important thing is to put sleep first, and then you will notice a significant difference in everyday performance.