Which Majors Are The Most Sleep-Deprived?

When you picture the daily lives of an average college student, what comes to mind? We imagine someone who juggles class preparation, co-curricular activities, potentially a part-time job, and commutes by walking or by car. They might care for a family member at home or their pets, spend time with their friends, squeeze in time to read for classes, and make time to relax. It’s a busy, delicately balanced life.

When time is running thin, what often takes the cut is students’ sleep. Mattress retailer Onebed recently did a deep dive to get to the bottom of just who these sleep-deprived students are and what they are studying.

They broke it down by looking at weekly hours spent on class preparation, co-curricular activities, on-campus and off-campus work, community service, relaxation and socializing, caregiving, commuting, and assigned reading, using data from data was collected from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE).

HOW SLEEP DEPRIVED ARE BUSINESS STUDENTS?

In the lead for most the most exhausted students are engineering students, who scored themselves an overall 9.36. These students allot an average of 18.7 hours per week on class preparation and 7.8 hours on off-campus work. They work hard and despite losing sleep in the process, they reap the rewards with high-paying jobs after graduation.

Next up are more STEM majors. The Biological Science and Agriculture students both have 17.29 hours of class prep and 8.72 hours of work off campus each week. Similarly, the third most sleep deprived majors are the Physical Sciences, Math, and Computer Science majors – also with 17 hours of prep and almost 8 hours of off-campus weekly work hours.

The fourth most sleepless are the Arts and Humanities students, who spend 16.40 hours a week prepping for courses and 9.10 hours working off campus each week. If you’re considering this major, hopefully you are truly passionate because it’s not necessarily an easy path. Historically, grads in this field often find it tough to secure high-paying jobs right out of school.

Landing more sleep than these four and more sleep than the social sciences and health professionals are the business school students, who are better off than many of these majors in terms of resting well. They came in 7th on the list overall, with 14.30 hours of class prep weekly as well as 14.30 hours working off campus each week.

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