Many college students can attest that many of us don’t get enough sleep each night, and some get so little that it becomes hard to function during the day.

According to a poll taken by the National Sleep Foundation, the average young adult gets about 6.8 hours of sleep per night.

What those students need to get, according to www.sleepdisorders.about.com, is at least eight hours.

As I’m sitting at my computer, hoping to see the sun come up soon, I look at the clock and realize it’s already 5:22 a.m. Where did the time go? I need to get up by 10 a.m. There go my seven hours.

When I was in the shower around 5 a.m., it occurred to me that I am among a large number of college and high school students who are severely sleep deprived, and I have no one to blame, really, but myself.

People ask why I stay up so late, and there are a multitude of reasons I have used to try and justify “burning my candle at both ends,” as my dad would say.

The biggest reason is that current American culture teaches young children that they must grow up and be something successful, and as we get older, society pushes us to be more and more productive with our time.

Sleep is the only time I am willing to cut because I’m not doing anything productive.

Skipping class often is not an option because a college education will be the key to getting a job in the real world someday soon. I can’t pass those classes without doing the homework that comes with them that seems to come assignment after assignment, a never-ending stream of papers I have to get done on time.

Skipping work would not only make me look bad, but also my coworkers, and I’ll miss valuable experience (and money) and risk losing my job.

I’m required as a member of my sorority to attend educational presentations and sisterhoods to help me grow as a member and as an individual who is trying to live life to the fullest.

I don’t feel complete if I don’t get a lot accomplished in a day.

Finally, when I do get everything done, it feels like I’ll go crazy if I don’t get some “me” time. So I stay up on the Internet, have a friend over to watch a movie or spend countless hours at Wal-Mart trying to amuse myself, and before I know it, the sun is coming up again. Time to start over.

Next day. 10:05 a.m.

I’m running on four hours of sleep, which is a little more drastic than the norm, but nevertheless a continuation of a nasty habit I picked up near the end of high school that has only gotten worse with time.

Continuing this pattern can only lead to my own demise, I know.

According to sleepdisorders.about.com, continuing to lose sleep could be detrimental to my immune system, my learning abilities and could eventually lead to full-blown insomnia.

Other people can see the effects. Yesterday, for the first time this year, I fell asleep in class, a phenomenon I’d kicked after a professor I had last year handed me a pamphlet about a sleep clinic at Sarah Bush Lincoln.

For whatever the reason college students like myself lose sleep, whether it’s staying up to cram for exams, hitting up after hours parties or just putting it off to squeeze more into their day, sleep deprivation has more consequences than benefits.