Pros And Cons Of 8 AM Classes In College

Hate them or love them, 8 AM classes are part of college. Some students choose them on purpose to clear the rest of the day for a part-time job. Others get stuck with one because it is the only section of a required course left at registration.

This guide covers the real pros and cons, what the research says about early classes and sleep, a quick self-check for deciding, and how to get through an 8 AM class you can’t avoid.

Pros Of 8 AM Classes

Every student’s schedule is different, but these are the benefits that come up most often.

Time For Other Activities

An early class can finish by 9 or 10 AM, which leaves the afternoon and evening open. Many college students work part-time to cover tuition and bills, and a morning class block makes it easier to pick up afternoon shifts or ask for extra hours.

The same open afternoon works for studying, clubs, sports practice, an internship or simply having a life outside class.

Finish Assignments/Study For Exams

With class out of the way early, you have daylight hours for assignments and exam prep instead of pushing them into the night. That matters most for students with heavy workloads or commitments later in the day.

Finishing work in the afternoon also protects the evening for rest, which in turn makes the next early morning easier.

Consistent Schedule

If you have an 8 AM class most weekdays, you wake up at roughly the same time every day. That regularity helps: the CDC lists going to bed and getting up at the same time every day as one of the habits that improves sleep (CDC: About Sleep). The catch is keeping the same wake time on weekends, too.

Great For Early Birds

Some students are naturally alert in the morning. If you wake before your alarm and feel sharp by 7:30, an 8 AM class matches your body clock, and you get your hardest thinking done while you’re at your best.

Be honest about which group you are in. Researchers note that adolescents and young adults tend to have a delayed body clock, which makes most college students natural night owls rather than early birds (Hershner and Chervin, Nature and Science of Sleep, 2014).

Smaller Classes

Because many students avoid 8 AM sections, they sometimes fill last and can end up with open seats. That varies by school and course, but a smaller room can mean more chances to ask questions and get to know the professor.

The flip side is that early sections tend to attract students with jobs or other commitments right after class, so there may be less lingering and socializing afterward.

Beat Traffic

If you commute, an early start can put you on the road before the worst rush hour in some cities, and parking is usually easier to find before campus fills up. Check your own route: in other areas an 8 AM start puts you right in the middle of morning traffic.

Quiet Campus

Campuses are busy places. Early in the morning, hallways, libraries and cafeterias are quieter and less crowded, so you get fewer distractions.

Real-World Preparation

Many jobs start between 7 and 9 AM. Getting yourself up, fed and out the door on time for an early class is practice for that routine, and it builds time management habits that carry into work.

That said, plenty of careers run on later or flexible hours, so an 8 AM class isn’t a requirement for being ready for work.

Cons Of 8 AM Classes

The drawbacks are mostly about sleep, and they show up in the data.

Likely To Skip

8 AM classes are the easiest to skip, even for serious students. A study of more than 23,000 students at the National University of Singapore used campus Wi-Fi logs to track attendance and found it was about ten percentage points lower for 8 AM classes than for classes that started later (Yeo et al., Nature Human Behaviour, 2023).

Missed classes add up. Once you’re learning a course from slides and recordings, it’s easy to fall behind. It also costs grades directly if your professor takes attendance; see do professors take attendance in college.

Feelings Of Fatigue

The same study used learning-platform logins from about 39,000 students and wrist-worn sleep trackers on 181 students. On days with an 8 AM class, students slept about an hour less, because they woke up earlier than usual rather than going to bed earlier.

That missing hour shows up as low energy, poor focus and trouble concentrating in class. You can be in the room and still not take much in.

Difficulty Waking Up

Most students have slept through an alarm at some point. With an 8 AM class, one late night or one missed alarm means a missed lecture, and college schedules are full of late nights: work shifts, practices, events and group projects.

If you’re often late to morning commitments now, an 8 AM class is unlikely to change that habit. Our guide to common reasons students are late covers the patterns.

Limited Social Opportunities

Early sections can be smaller, and many students head straight to work or other classes afterward. That leaves fewer chances to meet classmates, which can be hard for first-year students who are trying to make friends.

Inconvenient Scheduling

An 8 AM class sets your bedtime. If you have a 45-minute commute and need 45 minutes to get ready, you are waking up at 6:30, so getting the recommended 7 hours means being asleep by 11:30 PM. Evening jobs, study groups and social plans all have to fit around that.

Limited Access To Resources

Depending on your school, some services may not be open that early. Tutoring centers, offices and some campus food options may only open mid-morning, so you can’t always get help right before or after an early class. Check your library and tutoring hours before you assume they’ll be open.

Underperformance

Dozing off means missing material, and missed classes are hard to catch up on. In the Singapore data, the more days per week students had morning classes, the lower their grade point average tended to be. That’s a pattern across tens of thousands of students, not a rule for everyone, but it is consistent with research linking poor sleep to lower grades. A review of college student sleep found 50% report daytime sleepiness and 70% get insufficient sleep (Hershner and Chervin, 2014).

Strategies To Manage 8 AM Classes

Sometimes you have a choice of sections, but many required courses are offered at only one time. If you’re stuck with an 8 AM class, these strategies help.

Establish Consistent Sleep Schedule

Work backward from your wake-up time. Adults aged 18 to 60 need 7 or more hours of sleep a night, and teens aged 13 to 17 need 8 to 10 (CDC). The American Academy of Sleep Medicine adds that more than 9 hours may be appropriate for young adults (AASM and Sleep Research Society consensus, 2015).

Pick a bedtime that gives you that much sleep and keep it, including on weekends. A wake time that jumps by three hours on Saturday makes Monday’s 8 AM much harder.

Avoid Late-Night Studying Or Socializing

Plan study time around your early class. An all-nighter before an 8 AM class means attending on no sleep, which defeats the point of going.

You don’t have to skip every social event. Just avoid scheduling late nights before your early class days, and don’t make them a regular habit. The CDC also suggests turning off screens at least 30 minutes before bed and avoiding caffeine in the afternoon and evening.

Keep Alarm Clock From Arm’s Length

It’s easy to hit snooze or silence your phone when it’s on the nightstand. Put the alarm across the room so you have to get out of bed to turn it off. Once you’re standing, you’re much more likely to stay up.

Use A Loud Alarm Clock

If you’re a deep sleeper, make sure your alarm volume is high enough, and set a second alarm a few minutes after the first. If your phone isn’t doing the job, a separate alarm clock is cheap and keeps your phone out of reach at night.

Work In The Afternoon

If your classes are all in the morning, use the afternoon for assignments. Procrastinating pushes work into the night, which cuts into the sleep you need for tomorrow’s early start.

Treat the hours after class like a work shift: schedule what you’ll do and when, so your evening stays free for rest.

Prepare The Night Before

Pack your bag, set out clothes and plan breakfast before bed. Every decision you move to the night before is one less reason to be late in the morning.

Dim The Screens At Night

Light at night delays sleepiness. Melatonin, the hormone that helps time your sleep, is suppressed by light, and one study found a tablet screen suppressed melatonin in college students after two hours of use (Hershner and Chervin, 2014). Lower the lights and put the phone down well before your planned bedtime.

What The Research Says About 8 AM Classes

The most detailed study so far comes from the National University of Singapore, published in Nature Human Behaviour in February 2023. Instead of relying on surveys, the researchers used students’ digital traces:

Two caveats are worth knowing. First, these are associations, so they don’t prove that an 8 AM class lowers any particular student’s grades. Second, the data came from one university in Singapore, and schedules and commutes differ elsewhere. Still, the results fit what sleep researchers already know: college-age students tend to be night owls, and an early class mostly moves the alarm, not the bedtime (Nature Human Behaviour).

Should You Take An 8 AM Class? A Quick Self-Check

Answer these honestly, based on how you live now rather than how you hope to live next semester.

If most of your answers land in the right-hand column, look for a later section or take the course another term. If you must take it anyway, use the strategies above from the first week. The habits you set in the first three weeks tend to be the ones you keep.

If you do miss a class or an exam, contact your professor promptly. These guides help: how to email a professor and acceptable reasons for missing an exam.

Can You Avoid 8 AM Classes?

Often, yes, with some planning:

• Register as early as you can. Later sections fill first, so your registration time matters more than anything else.
• Check every section. Some courses are offered at several times, online or in an evening slot.
• Join the waitlist for a later section and keep checking during the add/drop period, when seats open up.
• Consider summer or winter terms for a required course that is only offered early during the regular semester.
• Ask your advisor. Advisors know which courses rotate times between terms.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are 8 AM classes really that bad?

For many students, yes. A Nature Human Behaviour study of National University of Singapore students found attendance was about ten percentage points lower at 8 AM than at later start times, and students slept about an hour less on early-class days. Students who are natural early risers, or who need the rest of the day free, can still do well in them.

Should I take an 8 AM class in college?

Take one if you already wake up easily before 7 AM, if it is the only section of a required course, or if it frees your afternoons for a job or labs. Avoid it if you usually fall asleep after 1 AM, have a long commute, or the class takes graded attendance you are likely to lose.

Are 9 AM classes better than 8 AM classes?

Usually, a little. An extra hour lets you sleep later or commute after the worst traffic. The Singapore study compared 8 AM classes with later start times as a group, so it does not single out 9 AM, but most of the cost comes from waking up earlier than your body wants to.

How much sleep do college students need?

The CDC recommends 7 or more hours a night for adults aged 18 to 60 and 8 to 10 hours for teens aged 13 to 17. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine says more than 9 hours may be appropriate for young adults.

Do 8 AM classes lower your GPA?

They can. In the Singapore data, the more days per week a student had morning classes, the lower their grade point average tended to be. That is a correlation across tens of thousands of students, not a guarantee for any one student.