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 General Internal Medicine, ICU.

6-8 hours. 7 is the average.

Specializes in NICU.

semester one went like this..

3-4 hours per night. wake up at 6:00 AM, get to school for 7 to study. lectures/labs started at 8.. times were different each day. go home and nap for 2-3 hours, run errands, watch tv, eat, then study until 1:00 AM - 2:00 AM. Kind of crazy, but it worked for me. I can't seem to go to bed like a normal human being, no matter how hard I try! lol

Specializes in Med/Surg.

The evenings before clinical, I usually get to bed at around 1-1:30 AM, simply because the care plans take so long. By the time you get to the hospital, get home to eat and then finish the care plan...it's already around 1 AM or later! It makes getting up at 5AM a lot of fun.. :mad:

Otherwise, I try to get to bed by 11 on nights where I have lecture the next morning. This way, I'll sleep a solid 6-7 hours.

Specializes in TCU.

I agree with another poster, NAPS are key!

Specializes in student; help!.
with 2 kids who did not work during the school year

Aren't they old enough? AhahahahAHAHA

Specializes in Critical Care - Adults, Peds & Neonates.
whodatnurse said:
Don't model my behavior...but to answer your question honestly...during my crazy ABSN program, I would come home exhausted from a jam-packed day and sleep from 5:00 - 8:00 PM. Then I would spend the next hour tending to practical matters (opening mail, throwing in a load of laundry or grocery shopping, etc.). From 9:00 - 10:00 I would watch Soapnet while eating dinner (this was my 1 hour of 'escape' from it all that I carved out every day). Then from 10:00 PM - 2:00 AM I would either study for an exam the next day or crank out an assignment due the next day. From 2:00 AM - 5:00 AM I would get 3 more hours of sleep.

So...6 hours a night. REM sleep was reserved only for Friday nights, the single time I would sleep in as long as I felt like it...so I could get through yet another weekend of nothing but studying and/or working on school projects.

I went through my program very NOT well-rested.

Sounds like me, except this is my first semester - 10 week Summer semester; 17 credit hours/ABSN program; one day of Clinical; one day FREE (Friday - usually spent studying or in lab). We have 1-4 exams each week (avg - 2 per week); care plan assignments/check ins for lab thrown in. My days at school/clinical are long (home after 6 or 5). I can NOT process anything then (brain is fried), so I typically watch 30 minutes to an hour of TV (to relax) while eating dinner and then I sleep for 3 - 4 hours. I set two alarms, wake up and study for 4 - 6 hours (depending on how much I have to study/prepare for) and if I'm overly tired/coffee isn't working, I go back to sleep for 2 - 3 more hours.

It's working out...well. LOL! :lol2: Next semester - 22 credit hours; 3 days of clinical (which means I have to get up at 4 am, 3 days a week; 6 am the other two days).

Specializes in Psych.
Lawyer Girl said:
Sounds like me, except this is my first semester - 10 week Summer semester; 17 credit hours/ABSN program; one day of Clinical; one day FREE (Friday - usually spent studying or in lab). We have 1-4 exams each week (avg - 2 per week); care plan assignments/check ins for lab thrown in. My days at school/clinical are long (home after 6 or 5). I can NOT process anything then (brain is fried), so I typically watch 30 minutes to an hour of TV (to relax) while eating dinner and then I sleep for 3 - 4 hours. I set two alarms, wake up and study for 4 - 6 hours (depending on how much I have to study/prepare for) and if I'm overly tired/coffee isn't working, I go back to sleep for 2 - 3 more hours.

It's working out...well. LOL! :lol2: Next semester - 22 credit hours; 3 days of clinical (which means I have to get up at 4 am, 3 days a week; 6 am the other two days).

That's right...whatever works for YOU! (Although I'm glad to now know I'm not the only one who kinda did it 'my' way...hee hee...)

Specializes in long term care, vent/trach,.
I slept 8 hours per night before nursing school, during nursing school, and after nursing school. Getting enough sleep was a higher priority to me than studying. I don't function well on little or no sleep. The fact that I was 48 when I started nursing school might have something to do with this -- I used to be able to skip sleep when younger, but not any more.

I studied maybe 1 hour per night, plus a few hours a day on days when I didn't have class or clinical. Somehow, I still managed to get almost straight A's -- my GPA was 3.8.

Did you work while you were in nursing school and if so how many hours a week did you work?

Thank you for sharing all the info.;)

I never gave up my sleep, I sleep an average of 7-8 hours every night. now it depends more on when I have early morning clinicals. I just made my 5 minute commute to clinicals to a 40 minute one!

Those nights I'll be skimping on sleep or staying at my parents house. But it'll be manageable.

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