The Importance of Sleep
My name is Mahek Pandya and I am a third year at UC Berkeley, double majoring in Political Economics and Global Studies! This is my second semester as an intern for BPSHI’s Clinic Committee.
The semester can get pretty busy, and it’s hard to maintain self care amongst the stress accompanying midterms and finals season. During these seasons, we may not workout as much, or we may cut down on our sleep, all of which are things that actually help us do better in school.
I’ve listed a couple of reasons why sleep in particular is crucial to staying healthy, as well as allows us to perform better in school and our other daily activities.
Sleep helps us retain information. While we sleep, our brain is working to create new pathways, which allow us to learn and remember information.
Sleep also allows us to be safe and aware. Not getting enough sleep for a couple nights in a row can lead to microsleep, which ‘refers to brief moments of sleep that occur when you’re normally awake,’ (NHLBI). This can lead to serious safety concerns, especially if we lose concentration during activities like driving.
Thus, it is imperative that we try to get enough sleep, not just for our own wellbeing, but also for the wellbeing and safety of those around us.
