The importance (or lack thereof) sleep

I’ve always heard quite a bit about how getting enough sleep is important.  When I was younger, I was notorious for getting sick.  Stupid colds that always showed up a couple times a year for most people would occur probably six or seven times for me, at least.  I never knew why this was, but my parents always told me it was because I didn’t get enough sleep.  Sleep does build up your immune system and all but I figured if I ate well that would make up for it.  Since I played soccer literally year round for a variety of teams in several different leagues, sleep was important to make sure I always played my best, and it would help me perform the best in school. Yet, I was always convinced that I would still be able to do my best, both on the field and in the classroom, with or without the right amount of sleep.

College students are probably the most notorious for not valuing sleep.  The term “all-nighter” is known unanimously across every college campus in the country, because students stay up all night so frequently either studying or completing assignments.  I’ve done this I think 4 times in my two and a half years of college thus far.  Although, several times I’ve been up until close to 6:00 in the morning and had class at 9:00.  Not quite all night, but pretty darn close.  It is doing things like this frequently, yet still being successful in school, that I’ve continued my doubts starting when I was younger of how important sleep is.  This year though, however, I’ve noticed something different. 

Over the summer, I worked three jobs.  Two were only part time though, so it was basically two jobs, and sometimes were at random hours on random days.  There was no established schedule besides for my one full-time job.  As a result, over the summer I had the most inconsistent sleep schedule you can imagine.  Sometimes, I could sleep 10 hours a night if I wanted to, and other times I would have to go about three days with roughly six hours of sleep (yes, I counted a couple times).  This type of inconsistency is still throwing me off here at school, getting tired and falling asleep at random times, and that more than anything is beyond annoying.  It’s important to note that my full-time job was third shift, adding to the tendency I have now to stay up all night. 

I have concluded therefore that at least for myself (but I’m sure it changes from person to person) having a more consistent sleep schedule is more important than getting enough sleep.  Realistically, it is near impossible to get a full amount of sleep every night in college.  Does anybody else feel the same way?