By Amanda Lowe

Summer is over and now the fun begins with 8 a.m. classes and late-night studying. It is recommended that college students receive 9-12 hours of a sleep per night and we all know this does not happen. So what is keeping college students from getting their proper amount of Zs? According to a recent poll of 100 Northeastern University students, revealed that studying is the number one reason for not sleeping the recommended amount of hours. At the bottom of the list is feeling home- sick, with one percent. Living in a dorm can be a sleep hazard, according to students. “I lose so much sleep because my roommates drive me insane when they stay up later,” said Megan Mortland,a sophomore journalism major.. Two percent of students claim that other students setting off the fire alarms in their building wake them up in the middle of sleep, 10 percent say that loud roommates keep them up and 11 percent say that because they live in a building with all of their friends, socializing in the dorm brings them into the late hours of the night. Keeping in touch with friends is another thing that causes students to shed hours from their nightly rest. “I stay up until 3 a.m. talking to my friends online,” Mortland said. Three percent of students claim that telephone calls keep them up and 13 percent claim that instant messaging is a reason to stay up late. Despite the fact that students dread waking up in the morning and value every hour of sleep they can get, they don’t want to miss out on any fun. Therefore five percent of students said that playing computer/video games into the late hours of the night and 15 percent said going to parties keep them from their much needed sleep. However, it’s not only fun and games that leads to minimal or sleepless nights. “Most of the time I stay up late working on a paper that I did not start until last minute,” Mortland said. Fifteen percent of students said that they lose sleep working on papers and 23 percent said that they lose sleep studying. “I lose sleep in college because I have to balance homework, cleaning, cooking and having fun with my friends, and most of the time sleep comes at the very end of this list or isn’t even on the list at all,” said NU student Karen Eknaian. The list of possible things that keep student awake include instant messaging, studying, computer games and noisy roommates.

Top Ten Reasons for Insomnia 10. Homesickness 1% 9. Fire Alarms 2 % 8.Telephone Calls 3% 7. Computer Games 5% 6. Loud Roommates 10% 5. Socializing in the Dorm 11% 4. Instant Messenger 13% 3. Parties 15% 2. Papers 15% 1. Studying 23% -According to nationalsleepfoundation.org