Sleep: the problem is your attitude about the problem

By Ryan Maloney, assistant women's volleyball coach

Pictured in 2013 on a recruiting visit, from left: Kristen Stanek, Megan Collins, Sara Madison, Rachel Poirier,
Courtney Poirier, Liza Beardsley, and Saverina Chicka

The typical college student is sleep-deprived, but that's not the problem. The problem is that sleep-deprivation is perceived as a good thing.

"I stayed up until 3 a.m. doing homework last night."

"I'm taking 21 credits, I don't have time to sleep."

"You can't possibly understand how busy I am."

All said with a hint of pride. The mistake is in thinking that industrial-aged productivity is still valued in our world. It isn't.

But creativity is. Solving interesting problems is. Teamwork is. Being kind is. All of which have their foundations in a good-night's sleep.

Maria Popova, the brilliant curator of Brain Pickings, spent the first several years of her writing career functioning on five hours of sleep per night. In 2013, she called "sleeping" one of the most valuable lessons she's learned in her career:

"Be as religious and disciplined about your sleep as you are about your work. We tend to wear our ability to get by on little sleep as some sort of badge of honor that validates our work ethic. But what it really is is a profound failure of self-respect and of priorities. What could possibly be more important than your health and your sanity, from which all else springs?"

A full night's sleep is worth it, even if it means you get a 3.4 GPA instead of a 3.5.