Student Procrastination Destroys Mental and Physical Health

By: Rachel Knittle

Staff writer

Published November 14, 2018

Students’ procrastination creates a chain of unhealthy habits. 

Procrastination majorly affects students in three different areas: education, health, and responsibility. When students—or anyone in general—procrastinates, it means a person avoids doing certain tasks. Although procrastination appears straightforward at a first glance, it falls into deeper levels of poor habits.

While procrastinating, a students’ education often suffers. With education, students generally put off doing homework until the due date draws near. This creates a habit of pushing away responsibilities. Sometimes, school work is ignored for so long that students start working when they should be going to sleep.

People with a consistent habit of procrastinating have been found to sleep poorly. By falling asleep much later, students sleep fewer hours than needed, making it harder to have enough energy during the day. It is more difficult to stay awake, which results in students having a frustrating time focusing on their education and daily lives.

“When I procrastinate, I always tend to get really stressed and stay up super late,” says Carley Andelin, a Running Start student at Green River College. Andelin emphasizes how hard it is to function with little sleep: “Procrastinating is one of the unhealthiest habits I know.”

Lack of sleep due to procrastinating can be linked to various health issues. Procrastination can be one of reasons of an increase in vulnerability to cardiovascular diseases and hypertension. Some cardiovascular diseases include problems that involve the heart and blood vessels; hypertension is high blood pressure. In order to deal with this stress, procrastinators have a higher chance of resorting to drugs, smoking, and alcohol. While this may help students deal with stress as well, it is an unhealthy option.

Stress—a factor of procrastination—is often a common thread to health issues. Stress caused by procrastination can lead to illnesses less extreme than cardiovascular diseases and hypertension. The variety of symptoms includes headaches, flu, backaches, or a sore throat.

While stress from procrastination creates physical health issues, it also has to potential to cause mental health problems. Procrastinators may have poor self-esteem or are harder on themselves, which leads to elevated anxiety. Procrastinators are more likely to have a more pessimistic mindset and blame themselves. This, unfortunately, can very well lead to anxiety and depression. A negative mindset can make it more difficult for students and the general populace to attempt lowering stress levels.

With stress leading to a chain of health issues, it can also contribute to other unhealthy habits. These habits just as well contribute to health issues. Procrastinators generally have poor wellness behaviors. This may result in reluctance to eat healthy foods, eat enough, exercise regularly, and sleep on time. Health maintenance is key to avoiding major health issues, but stress caused by procrastination can make it harder to manage.

With stress due to procrastination also comes the failure to accept responsibility. This can be as simple as a student pushing off writing a paper that approaches closer and closer to the deadline or can be pushing off a task of greater importance down the road. With deadlines quickly approaching, stress generally elevates and proper health and discipline decline.

All in all, procrastination is a chain of poor choices that leads to stress, health problems, and issues with responsibility. It all comes down to a cycle of ignored responsibilities feeding off one another. Most commonly, procrastination leads to stress, which contributes to physical and mental health issues as well as unhealthy habits in maintaining health and responsibility.