Introducing the 36-hour day

Do you get enough sleep? Well, I don’t, and I am not alone among college students.

This shouldn’t sound like a big surprise though, right? Because college students do crazy things like stay up all night partying or playing video games. We are rarely recognized for having sensibility when it comes to setting responsible schedules for ourselves.

During busy weeks, I try this “scheduling” thing in order to make sure I plan my time accordingly. The outcome from this activity, however, is somewhat surprising.

Did you know that there are 168 hours in a week? That is a lot, right?

Well, of course we are supposed to be getting approximately 8 hours of sleep a night, so that cuts it down a bit. And then we must consider our classes and study time. Say you have a large class load, say 17 credit hours (which becomes more like 21 if you are taking any lab-like courses). Let’s also imagine that you follow the “good student” rule of thumb: three hours of work outside of class for each hour in class.

Those hours add up pretty quick. But we are college students; it is essentially our full-time job. So it seems fair that we spend the majority of our time in class or studying.

If you happen to be one of those people who eats, practices personal hygiene and travels around campus each day, then that is at least another three hours a day.

Don’t forget to consider your weekly exercise needs; the Career Development Center said we need the equivalent of 2.5 hours of moderate to intense aerobic activity each week.

Being a cause-oriented young adult, you should also find time to volunteer with a worthwhile organization; perhaps two hours per week will do.

School is pretty expensive, so you might have also taken a part-time job somewhere on or around campus; maybe five hours a week, maybe more.  

Have you been following the math? How many of the 168 hours in your week are left?

At this point, all you have left is a little more than an hour for each day. One hour to do everything else that has not been mentioned: talk with friends or family, watch “Family Guy,” read “Twilight,” cruise Facebook ... er ... Internet, attend a local sporting event or concert, or do anything else you find worth doing.

That is lot to squeeze in to one hour of free time each day.

Ultimately, we end up sacrificing one or more of these “recommended daily values,” such as studying or sleeping. If you are taking challenging courses, the latter is the most likely.

So, perhaps our sleep deficit is due to more than just our own shortcomings.

I believe it is good policy to try to offer a solution when identifying a problem.

My suggestion? We need to switch to a 36-hour day. Of course, if we managed to slow the earth’s rotation and revolution around the sun (in order to maintain a 365 day year) I am sure the only thing that would be expected out of us to compensate would be more productivity than ever.

And we would all be back to not getting enough sleep.


E-mail: tylatkin@indiana.edu