<p>I have a sophomore (HS) son who is kind of starting his college search. OK. I am kinda starting his college search and I have a question:</p>
<p>In college, What is the typical times students, especially boys, turn in for the night, and about how many hours of sleep do students usually get? Does it vary by college, big/small, academic oriented/not so much, sports oriented/not, religious based/not?</p>
<p>He is a very good student in HS so far. One reason is very good work habits, including working proactively and getting enough sleep. He has been prone to migraines, and he discovered sleep deprivation is a factor. We have another child who is a freshman in college in a small liberal arts college that is pretty academic. But she has pretty bad sleep habits, and from what we gather, it is very typical there. The night is sort of starting at midnight, it seems - whether for partying or for studying.</p>
<p>My S loves his sleep. He is a freshman at a small, totally academic oreinted LAC that is on the quarter system. His classes have never started before 10am so far and most have been after 11am. He usually goes to sleep between 2-3am and sleeps until 9 or so. </p>
<p>He has a work study job (only three days a week) that he chooses his hours but he chooses to work until 2am. His dorm can get pretty noisy late at night. I know they have “quiet hours” during the week, but not sure how well it’s enforced. </p>
<p>On weekends he probably sleeps well past noon-probably until 1 or 2 pm.</p>
<p>From what I have heard, the “culture” of the school has a great effect on sleep habits. Also, for some, the hours of the dining hall play a part!</p>
<p>But if there are medical reasons for him to have a room (a single, or a similar roommate) that enables him to have greater control over his sleeping hours, that would be worth exploring.</p>
<p>And lastly, he’s a sophmore in HS and who knows what will happen to his sleep habits in the next several years?</p>
<p>They love to live the life of vampires. They avoid the morning classes if at all possible, and end of the week classes. Somehow mine has managed to attend his classes and do well, but here home for spring break, he is up at all hours and doesn’t get up until after noon unless he has a specific appointment. Loves the sleep.</p>
<p>Having a roommate who is on the same sleep schedule as he is on will be a big plus. Be sure that he spotlights, red flags, etc. that part of his roommate survey.</p>
<p>The D of one of my friends had a rotten freshman experience in the dorm when she had a roommate who was a night owl when she herself had to get up at 4 am for crew practice.</p>
<p>I should note that going to bed late does NOT necessarily mean bad sleep habits. If you go to bed at 3am every night, but you get sufficient sleep, keep a consistent sleep schedule, sleep in a space that is quiet and dark, don’t drink a Mountain Dew an hour before bedtime, etc, your sleep habits are not “bad” just because the sleep is at different hours than your parents are used to keeping.</p>
<p>D’s sleep habits changed drastically (and immediately) at school. Even as a hs senior, it’s hard to gauge what it will be like at school. Your S will have to try to get later classes (probably more likely after his first semester). You might want to have him include dark eye shades and to plan to sleep with his ipod just in case his roommate isn’t the most considerate.</p>
<p>Throughout the last couple of years of HS, my S went to bed early (9ish) and got up early (5ish) to have a long run before school. He continues to do this in college. He doesn’t party, but has close friends and is very happy socially.</p>
<p>However, his 3 roommates all do the normal college thing and stay up very late, often with friends in attendance, sometimes all night, sometimes somewhere else. The whole dorm is quite noisy at night. When his bedroom roommate does sleep, he mumbles loudly in his sleep. My S gets plenty of rest anyway, partly because he is so tired when he hits the sack that sleep is inevitable.</p>
<p>He doesn’t expect to ever find a roommate for future years that has a schedule like his, but he will continue to cope well with the situation.</p>
<p>One thing S did recently (as college junior) is purchase blackout curtains that he replaced the blinds his apartment came with. He’s sensitive to light and really likes to be able to sleep in (area is often noisy far into the night/early morning). He is a nightowl anyway, and we expect that these curtains are a tremendous investment and will help him a great deal.</p>
<p>His freshman dorm had blackout curtains which he loved. He was disappointed that this apartment didn’t have similar curtains but is happy he finally figured out to install his curtains and should get great sleep this semester (he’ll undoubtably take these curtains or similar ones with him when he moves to his next place).</p>
<p>All kids seem to manage somehow – earplugs, noise-cancelling earphones, blackout curtains. It is helpful when people live with others who have similar sleep schedules, but they manage to work things out anyway.</p>
<p>Himom, when we lived in the UK, we had LONG periods of daylight in the summers (which made up for the SHORT (think pitch black dark between 3:30pm and 9am) winter daylight. Anyway, we learned to sleep with Bucky shades. Great for overseas (overnight) flights as well.</p>
<p>The ‘typical’ college student shifts their sleep schedule considerably from HS such that they go to bed later and get up later. A bedtime of 2 or 3 am isn’t unusual.</p>
<p>Walk around on a college campus on a Saturday morning and it’s apparent how late many students sleep when they can.</p>
<p>Regarding the amount of sleep - this varies a lot with the individual of course, but also with the workload. A lot of engineering majors at top engineering schools faced with very heavy schedules can get sleep deprived including pulling some all-nighters. Some students in much easier majors taking lighter loads might sleep even more than in HS just to kill time.</p>
<p>Highland Mom, thanks for the site–these look very cute and comfortable but S is thrilled with his blackout curtains and that he was ble to purchase them inexpensively & mount them without damaging the apartment.</p>
<p>My daughters dorm her freshman year had bright lights outside. She went to the craft store and bought a couple of yards of cheap black felt and hung them from the curtain rail using paper clips. Very effective and cheap. Who knew she was so creative and cheap when it came to her own dime.</p>
<p>She has very odd hours (to me). I don’t know how she manages to get good grades doing homework at 3 a.m. but she seems to.</p>
<p>I think there has been some research during the past few years that suggests that the brain growth and hormonal changes occurring during adolescence and into early adulthood are responsible for their nocturnal hours; apparently during this time their sleep/wake cycle switches so that their bodies naturally want to stay up later and sleep later.</p>
<p>I saw cheap “blackout” shades at Walmart, under 10.00. You use tape to put them up so they are temporary in a sense and you can take them down without damage. You can also cut to fit the window.</p>
<p>I noticed a lot of colleges have “quiet” dorms which have hours of less noise and sub-free dorms tend to be quieter. My son and others in my family found these to be better to sleep or just study. My son is quite the owl now although he doesn’t party, it’s just his body clock…when he works in the summer, it’s painful to see those first few days when he looks like he’s sleepwalking. : )</p>
<p>I have two S’s in college. From what they tell me, they are rarely in bed before midnight, usually much later.
S2’s dorm window looks out over a parking lot with very bright lights. He somehow rigged up a “black-out curtain” using a black bed sheet and duck tape!</p>
<p>D1 goes to school in Michigan (Eastern time zone); we live in the Pacific time zone; 3 hours difference. There were many times her freshman year when I went to bed before she did. This changed over the years, especially once she got out of the dorms and into an apartment. Now (senior) she’s usually heading for bed anytime between 10 and 12, and most typically somewhere in the middle of that range.</p>