This past year, Case Dorkey '99 has had quite a full plate of activities. He has been a member of the Student Assembly, an intern at Dartmouth Dining Services, the treasurer of '99 Class Council and has sat on the board of several College committees.
"I'm a student on my free time," he said.
With all of his activities and classes, Dorkey said he hardly ever gets any sleep and pulls "all-nighters" on a regular basis.
"Friends, classes, activities and sleep -- it's hard to do all four well," Dorkey said. "Sleep is the one that gives for me."
With final exams fast approaching, other students at Dartmouth face the same sleepless dilemma. With only 24 hours in a day, many students find it difficult to squeeze their studies and activities into their schedule and also manage to get a good night's rest.
According to the social life survey administered by Health Services during Winter term registration, nearly 94 percent of the students at the College said they went to bed at midnight or later when they had class the next day.
More than a third of the campus was still awake at 2 a.m., according to the survey.
"I imagine students will go to bed much later during exam time," Director of Health Services Jack Turco said.
Students had many different reasons for staying up late, but most attributed their lack of sleep to shortage of hours. They also complained there was not enough time to allot to studies when they had other activities to devote time to during the day.
Associate Dean of Faculty Mary Jean Green said, "Dartmouth students tend to be very busy and tend to be involved in different activities" which may lead to late-night study habits.
"Sleepless experiences? Yes, I've had plenty," Dan Scholnick '00 said. "I'm averaging about two hours of sleep a night."
Scholnick -- who is currently taking a demanding computer science course -- said throughout this term, he has been spending the wee hours of the night at Sudikoff Computer Laboratory trying to fulfill the requirements of the course.
"However, I'm not the only one," he said. "There's usually around 15 people still working in Sudikoff at 3 a.m."
"Sleep you can always catch up on," Marc Lewinstein '98 said. "But when you have work to do, you have to do it."
Tracey Deer '00 said she always busy during the day -- "visiting professors, hanging out with friends" -- to complete her work.
"There's hardly ever big blocks of time to finish all of my work, and nighttime seems like the best time," she said.
Lewinstein, who is an English major, said he stays up several nights a week writing papers for his classes.
He is also taking four classes -- instead of the usual three -- this term and the extra class has been adding to his workload.
Lewinstein admits he procrastinates, but he said he is "more effective when I feel the pressure of a deadline."
Other students also admitted procrastination leads to their late-night study habits.
"I'm a procrastinator," Brian Leung '00 said. "I watch T.V., play basketball or stay up and watch a movie. I also play a lot of video games."
Leung said he also avoids doing his work by "hanging out with the people in my dorm who are always up."
Many students said they rely on different types of caffeine products -- stimulants which may help keep the body alert -- to stay awake late at night.
During exam period, the sale of caffeine and sugar products at the Topside convenience store skyrockets, Amee Patel '00, an associate at Topside, said.
"We always run out of Stay Awake, Jolt, No Doze and all the sugar candies," she said. "We're always sold out because everyone wants a sugar rush."
But Director of Health Resources Gabrielle Lucke warned students against the health risks of overdosing on caffeine.
"Students sometimes dangerously combine Vivarin with already caffeinated beverages like Coke," Lucke said. "Too much caffeine can be really bad and make a person jittery and on edge."
Lucke said excessive amounts of caffeine in the body can cause circulation problems and high blood pressure.
Constant lack of sleep can also lead to insomnia, she said.
"Our bodies are fine-tuned machines that need do things like rest and exercise," Lucke said. "If you wear your body down -- mentally, physically and emotionally -- you're much more susceptible to disease."
Lucke said she thinks one of the ways to increase sleeping time is better time management.
"Students really need to focus and schedule their time so that it's more structured," she said. "We are much more productive when we're well-rested."
