Students and Workloads

Students these days not only carry a full course load of classes, they also hold part time jobs and other responsibilities. How in the world are we doing it? Lots of caffeine, most likely little sleep, and just work, work, work! Call it crazy, call it ambitious, either way is all this working doing students more harm then good? Here’s a quote from stressreductionbasics.com on students and their workload:

“Another situation causing high levels of college student stress is that caused by work overload. A student may feel they simply don’t have enough hours in the day to do their work justice and to complete it to a sufficient standard. This creates a negative cycle effect because the student will stay awake and become sleep deprived adding to the feelings of stress.”

I know myself. I’m taking 15 credit hours on top of a 35 hour a week internship on top of ten hours at a part time job so i can attempt to pay my bills and pay for gas for every day i have to drive downtown and back. It’s only the second week of school and I’m already feeling the effects.

So are these high work loads worth it? To me it depends on what you’re trying to accomplish, what your goals are. All the hard work and stress this semester I’ll be dealing with is worth it to me because I’m getting ready to graduate. I just remind myself that after this it’s all over with. I want to take advantage of every opportunity I have to learn and grow so I’ll be ready for a job once I graduate.

I don’t however, think that lack of sleep is worth it. Here are some side effects of lack of sleep:

Lack of sleep depression, lack of sleep headache and lack of sleep dizziness, obesity, hand tremors, irritability temper tantrums in children and in some severe cases delirium.

~ by akerns on September 3, 2009.