How many hours of sleep did you get a night when you were in nursing school?

Nursing Students General Students Nursing Q/A

Nursing school is demanding. Students often report they are struggling with sleep due to the heavy course load, clinical placements, and studying requirements.

My friend says she only gets about 4-5 hours of sleep a night while in NS. I can't function without a minimum of 6-7 hours of sleep and am starting to get nervous and think that maybe I should start training my body to get less sleep (if thats even possible for me).

Have you experienced this while in nursing school? How many hours of sleep did you get per night?

Specializes in pediatrics, public health.

I was asked what it's like to attend nursing school as an older student (48 when I started), and whether or not being older impacted my job prospects when I finished.

Since I was in an accelerated BSN program, which is, by definition, a second degree program, many of our students were "older". The oldest in my class was 54 and the next oldest 52. I was the third oldest at 48, but there were quite a few others in their 40s and 30s. We did have a few in their early 20s who went right from their first degree to their second.

I have to say that I don't think I saw any difference in terms of performance or grades between the 20-somethings and the 40 to 50-somethings. We all managed to get through our classes and clinicals, and most everyone got good grades too. I'd say that, on average, the older students were less likely to freak out about tests or grades and were somewhat less likely to be overwhelmed by either classes or clinicals than the younger students -- but again, we all managed. We started with 48 students, and 47 graduated. All 47 of us passed our NCLEX on the first try, and I'm pretty sure all of us are now employed as nurses.

We graduated in May of 2008. The job market for new grads in the SF Bay Area has been very tight lately, and not everyone got jobs right away. I'd say that only about 30 to 40% of our class had jobs waiting for them after graduation, but most of the rest of us managed to get jobs over the next 3 to 6 months. It took me until November to get hired, but I don't think that's a function of my age, I think it was more a function of my unwillingness to work night shift and my strong preference for peds/NICU rather than doing adult med-surg. It was largely luck too, I think -- even some grads who wanted med/surg and were willing to work nights had trouble finding jobs. One of the youngest members of our class didn't get hired until January, and only after she decided to relocate to New York -- and she was looking for M/S jobs on any shift.

So, as far as I can tell, at least here in the SF Bay Area, being an older "new" nurse will not put you at a disadvantage either in nursing school or the job market.

Diane

It's such a myth that nursing school is so terribly hard.

We all did it, along with millions of others. It did not devour every waking moment as some believe it must in order to be triumphant.

It's nursing school...not law school/medical/school/or The Sorbonne

My sentiments exactly. I geared down to PT when I started NS, so I get more sleep now than I did before.

As for studying, I study the night before a test for a few hours. End of story.

OMG are u kidding. It depends are you young or were you a single mom or in the middle of a divorse or just having a great life at home with mom and dad. On the average I would say you ought to at least get to bed by 11 if you have any hopes of having a good day at clinicals in the a.m. For goodness sake eat a power bar or something and not alot of caffine it just makes you more tired in the long run. Forget alot of party time just do this and get thru it. social time to the max with make you a failure which we don't want. Take it serious and do your best. Attitude counts your instructors will not appreciate a loud mouth know it all and boy did I have those in my classes that made it worse for everyone. Remember you all are there to learn. Create a group in your nsg class that studies and does proj together. Fight be strong you will make it, it will go faster than you think and okay the question was hrs. okay average 6 hrs. 8 if your a good time manager. Good luck and god bless were with ya!!!!!

Usually 6. I don't pull all nighters ... my body punishes me in the morning during the test, I found it counter productive.

I just finished my first week. I have a hubby and four children. I don't work. I'm averaging about 6 for the simple fact that after being awake for 16 hrs I might as well go to sleep cause I won't retain a thing I study after that.:yawn:

Some nights I got 3 1/2 hours (staying up late before clinical doing 20 freaking drug sheets for my polypharmacy stricken residents), and some nights I got 10 hours. (The first chance I got to sleep after that).

I just experienced my first week of nursing school and I was lucky to get 6 hrs. I had to take naps during the day (if time permitted) in order to get refreshed so I could focus and study.

I work full time so on clinical days its about 5.....thats so sad to actually say out loud. But alas, im in my last semester!!

Specializes in CVICU.

If you're not getting sleep I'd suggest working on some time management skills. I was in nursing school 4 years ago, I have two young children (they were 5 and 7 at the time) and a supportive husband. I had the advantage that I did not work so was able to focus my spare time entirely on school and I got about 10 hours of sleep a night, less on nights when I'd get caught up in playing Bioshock or Fatal Frame on my Xbox.

If you're working full time in addition to school, I guess you should be happy for 6!

Specializes in CVICU, CCU, Heart Transplant.

It depended on the rotation. I slept like a little babe during mental health, but during my ICU rotation we had 2 days to write up a 35 page care plan. I would start writing as soon as I got my assignment at 3pm and would work non-stop till 1am--honestly. I would find myself the next morning wandering around the ICU in a daze on about 4 hours of sleep.

Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

I aimed for 6 a night, and I usually got between 4-6. Occasionally, I'd only get a couple because I was wrestling with some clinical paperwork.

The exception was the night before test days: come hell or high water, I'd make myself go to bed early and get 8-10 hours of rest, because I knew being tired would do me no good during the test.

Of course depending on so many factors, I'll usually get 7-8 hours. I don't pull all nighters but I do go into school super early on test days just to have some quiet time and look over some last minute material. Staying up all night, or getting less sleep than you need does nobody any good. Manage your time, and you'll do fine!!

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