Students sleep little and badly, and are increasingly stressed by accumulated fatigue, according to news survey carried out by the national network of local student mutuals Emevia.
While students report being in good health, 94.7% of students consider themselves to be in fairly good or good health, (a rate that reaches 96.2% among those under 21 and 98.5% among students who exercise), they don’t seem to have peaceful nights.
Students sleep badly
We note that nearly 1 in 4 students (22.5%) sleep badly or very badly. Among them, 58.8% sleep between 6 and 7 hours (they were 53.3% in 2013). In addition, 13.1% of students sleep less than 6 hours on average (11.2% in 2013). Of these, 12.5% are in poor health. Finally, more than one in ten students (12%) use drugs or products to help them sleep. This rate rises to 39.2% among those who sleep very badly.
This lack of sleep is an aggravating factor stress. However, stress is the factor least well managed by students since 39.4% say they manage their stress poorly (they were 37.5% in 2013). Almost one in two women (49.4%) manages her stress poorly, while this only concerns one in four men (26.9%).
Sleep influences stress management. Two thirds of students who say they are very tired manage their stress poorly (63.2%), against 39.4% of all students questioned. Finally, 48.1% of students who sleep less than 6 hours do not manage their stress well.
Sleep disorders, a public health problem
The sleeping troubles today affect 20% of the population of industrialized countries. They are responsible for a large number of health disorders. Indeed, sleep deficiency can be responsible for car accidents, industrial disasters, metabolic disorders, and heart problems. In addition, people who lack sleep have a higher risk of developing chronic diseases such as hypertension, the diabetes, depression,obesity and cancer. They are also more exposed to early mortality. More than a third of French people (34%) have consulted a specialist for their sleep disorders, according to a recent Opinion Matters survey for Withings, a company that manufactures the Withings Aura smart alarm clock.
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