The Economics of Sleep For a College Student

Before specifically looking into the economics of sleep for college students, it is important to understand the economics of sleep that applies to both students and adults. Sleep is a biological necessity, and its analysis is therefore slightly more complicated than those of work and play, which are not. The more complex economic interpretation of sleep takes into account that sleep affects both utility and productivity of work. The economics of sleep has been modeled by a static model as well as an intertemporal model, but both are concerned with working adults, not college students. One critical concept that makes the economics of sleep very complex is that the same number of hours of sleep does not always provide the same amount of utility. A complete analysis would need to account for the quality of the sleep a college student is getting, and the effect sleep has on the effectiveness of studying for a college student.