There are only about two weeks until finals. Halloween is this Thursday. You have papers to write, reviews to complete, friends to see. In a mere 21 days, the quarter will be over and we will all be on our way home. If thinking about how you are going to balance all of that sounds scary, you may be thinking about some inevitable short nights and neglecting exercise. Both of these are problems faced by college students today that can complement each other and have serious consequences.
Let’s talk about sleep first. According to the National Sleep Foundation, college students need approximately eight hours of sleep every night. While I’m sure this figure is not news to anyone, I doubt many people have many friends who actually get eight hours every night. Six seems to be more common among DU students I’ve talked with.

So what does this really mean? According to studies, a few nights of bad sleep can throw a body’s diet and metabolism into disarray as its internal clock is confused by the irregularity of sleep patterns.
But now a new study published in the journal, “Annals of Interal Medicine”, has found evidence that a lack of sleep can do real damage to cells throughout the body by causing insulin resistance. In the study, seven healthy adults were given a few nights of eight to nine hours of sleep followed by a few nights of four to five hours of sleep. Their insulin levels were measured in both scenarios, and a significant difference was measured: after just a couple of nights of four to five hours of sleep, insulin resistance was observed.

When the body becomes insulin resistant, cells are less responsive to signals to release insulin from the pancreas after the body takes in sugar; these signals tell the cells to absorb the new glucose. The new glucose not being absorbed leads to a significant increase in bloodstream glucose levels, which can lead to diabetes and damage to the eyes, kidneys and nerves, and has been linked to heart disease and premature death.

Getting enough sleep on a consistent basis is thus extremely important to our long-term health. So how can you get consistent, quality sleep? Oddly enough, it is helped by adding what may on the surface level seem to be another stressor and time consumer: exercising.

A 2009 study by the National Sleep Foundation found that regular exercisers reported getting better quality sleep than non-exercisers. But hope is not lost for those who do not regularly exercise: the study also found that adding just ten minutes per day of rigorous exercise may produce a noticeable improvement in sleep quality.

Sleep, exercise, and long-term health are all intricately linked. As college students, we will all inevitably have to suffer through some four hour nights and days where time gets away before we can exercise. The point is to minimize these days and maximize the days where you can exercise and get at least six or seven hours of sleep. Although maintaining a good GPA and a healthy social life are important, they sometimes must be sacrificed so that our future health is not completely compromised.