DECEMBER 5, 2025 | OPINION | By Grace Bean
Balancing commitments in college often feels like a full-time job. Between classes, work study, practices, social life and trying to squeeze in sleep somewhere, it is no surprise that many of us lean on nights out as a release valve. Alcohol is woven into campus culture, and pretending otherwise does not make anyone safer or healthier.
What we can do, however, is be more honest about how to enjoy those nights without letting them quietly steal the rest of the week. As a certified personal trainer, a collegiate athlete and someone who is constantly doing mental math over my grocery budget, I think a lot about what it means to maintain health in a way that is realistic, not perfect.
The importance of maintaining physical and mental well–being during college is not a new concept. These factors show up in your ability to stay awake in class, your mood, your immune system and your grades. The American College Health Association reports that stress, poor sleep and substance use are among the most common factors that negatively affect academic performance for college students. At the same time, research from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism shows that most college students who drink do so in social settings and many engage in occasional heavy or excessive drinking, even when they know it will likely affect their sleep, mood and productivity the next day. The reality is clear: students will continue to go out. The question is how we can build routines that allow us to recover quickly and protect long-term health.
Routine is not glamorous, but it is powerful. Consistent sleep and movement patterns are strongly associated with better mental health, more stable energy and improved academic performance in young adults. For me, this does not look like a perfect morning routine or a carefully color-coded planner. It looks like a few non–negotiables that I commit to even after a long practice or a late night. I hydrate before I go out with friends and I also try to refill my water bottle at least once every class and before I go to bed. I make sure I eat something with protein and carbohydrates when I get home, instead of pretending I can run on coffee alone the following day. One of the worst things we can do to our bodies is drink coffee on an empty stomach. Even if it’s something small, always try to consume something solid first thing in the morning. Caffeine can shock your cortisol levels and cause more stress than we already endure.
Every morning, even if I feel tired, I try to move my body in some way, even if that means walking downstairs to say hi to my housemates. Sometimes, I need a full rehab, lift, shooting or conditioning session, or a brisk walk to class that doubles as a quiet check-in with myself. As a personal trainer, I know that consistent low-intensity movement can improve circulation, support recovery and help regulate mood, even after inadequate sleep. Aiming for 10,000 steps every day can change your life in the long run. These habits are small, but they stack up.
College drinking becomes especially harmful when it erases the boundaries of the week, when Saturday night spills into Monday morning and every assignment feels like it is competing with a three-day hangover. We can’t preach consistency if nearly half of the week is wasted recovering from one awesome night out.
The point is not to demonize a single night of heavy drinking, rather to recognize the tradeoffs. Alcohol disrupts sleep architecture, which means that even if you sleep for a long time after a party, your body spends less time in the deeper, restorative stages of sleep that help with memory and recovery. That is part of why you can feel foggy or anxious for days after going out and having fun, which is absolutely okay if you feel like it, but moderation can help maintain routine. Understanding this does not mean you never go out. It simply means that if you choose to, you intentionally plan how you will take care of your body before and after.
Budget adds another layer to this balancing act. Most students are trying to protect their sleep and sanity, while simultaneously trying to avoid draining their bank accounts on takeout and impulse buys every time they feel tired or hungover. I feel this constantly: groceries for the week, team events, gas, coffee runs between meetings, my LinkedIn subscription, the occasional Uber home when Safe Ride is busy and the cost of social events all add up quickly.
What has helped me is reframing food as fuel rather than treating it as a flexible afterthought. Research in sports nutrition shows that regular, balanced meals with enough protein, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats support both athletic performance and cognitive function, while also making energy crashes less likely. When I plan simple, affordable meals in advance, it is easier to say no to the fifth late-night Uber Eats and yes to the kind of eating that keeps me strong enough to show up on the field, in the weight room and in the classroom with energy to sustain me through a three-hour lecture or an hour of film.
Being a collegiate athlete forces this conversation into focus. My body is not just mine in theory: it is my vehicle for my sport and my work. If I let every weekend undo my training, I experience it in my ability to think quickly on the field, in how much weight I can push in my lifts and in my risk of injury. That does not mean I stay in every Friday night. It means I am honest with myself about how often I can afford to drink, choosing to go out sober, which is still fun, and what I do in the days after. I treat recovery as part of the experience, not an afterthought. That might mean prioritizing hydration and electrolytes, getting outside for sunlight to help reset my circadian rhythm or choosing an earlier night in after an especially long week. These choices are not about being perfect, but about prioritizing my future self.
The bigger point is that health in college should not be framed as an all-or-nothing endeavor. Many students hear two opposing narratives: one insists that real wellness requires strict discipline, spotless nutrition and sober weekends, the other narrative shrugs and suggests that chaos and exhaustion are simply part of the college package. Neither extreme feels realistic. The middle ground recognizes that students will go out, sometimes drink more than they planned and will still want to care about their bodies, minds and bank accounts. This middle ground is built on routine. It is built on enough sleep most nights, enough nutritious food most days, enough movement throughout the week and enough honesty about how your choices on Saturday will affect your productivity the following Monday.
Excessive drinking in college is common and understandable, but it is not free. The hangover is only part of the cost. What makes going out and having fun with your friends less damaging is not denial but preparation. When you develop consistent, realistic habits that support your health, one wild night does not automatically become a lost week. It becomes what it should be, one small episode in a much larger series where you are allowed to enjoy your life and still take yourself seriously.