Digital Education and Sleep

With midterms right around the corner for the spring 2021 semester, students are spending more time than ever on the computer, making notes, and studying up for the hefty exams coming up. In fact, students have also been on the computer for most of their classes in addition to personal use.

Computer usage is cranked to the max and has taken over most daily life. Has it affected sleep?

With class and work time dominating the daylight hours, studying or relaxing have been crammed into the nighttime while also possibly keeping students awake longer than usual. To verify this, an anonymous survey was conducted and sent out to Champlain students. Out of the 11 that took the survey, 8 of them said that digital education affected their sleep schedule.

One student said that “Being tied to a computer for an extreme amount of time has messed up my body's internal sleep clock and forced it into an unhealthy one where it can't tell if it is time to sleep or crank out a 500-word essay.” While this student explains that they're much more tired than usual, being on the computer for others it's the complete opposite. One student commented “I spend like 12 hours a day working on assignments. I am barely getting any sleep and the sleep I do get feels very empty. I often wake up in the middle of the night having ‘;fever-dreams/stress dreams, which used to be very rare. I don't feel like I'm getting a break or a good night's sleep.”

Students are adjusting to brand-new habits. Not only with managing online college work, but with no available help when struggling with staying up all night or managing sleep.

While not affecting every student—some say their sleep schedule was already disrupted, to begin with—it's telling that a majority of students explained that their sleep schedules are being heavily affected by the emphasis on digital education. With the lack of a true spring break, it does not seem that this issue will be resolved anytime soon.

By Eric Burdick

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