Sleep deprivation proves to be major threat to college students

As the end of the semester rapidly approaches, many students are dealing with overloads of work, stress and, most importantly, sleep deprivation.

According to Noland White, assistant professor of psychology at Georgia College & State University, sleep deprivation is a major threat to college students, especially during the week of finals.

“Sleep deprivation can lead to an inability to concentrate, lack of reasoning abilities, lack of paying attention, especially to harder things like tests,” White said. “Not getting enough sleep can also lead to lethargy, irritation and depression.”

Junior Alisha Johnson suffered from sleep deprivation last semester.

“I took 17 hours of classes and worked 12 hours a week,” Johnson said. “I would go to bed at 2 a.m. and was getting up at 7 a.m. and I was always tired. I was stressed out, and always falling asleep in class.”

Dr. William Dement, founder of the world’s first sleep disorders center at Stanford University, suggests college students need eight to nine hours of sleep per night in his book “The Promise of Sleep.”

“What Dement suggests, though, is that within this spectrum of sleep, you have some people who are short sleepers and some who are long sleepers,” White said. “For example, some people, in order to feel rested, are okay with six hours of sleep, while some need 10 to 11 hours.”

White said Dement has conducted a lot of research on why so many college students are sleep deprived.

“Most college students stay up late, sleep for a couple of hours, get up and try to go to class,” White said. “However, when they’re sleep deprived, they don’t get anything out of the class and they come home, take a nap, and when it’s time to go to bed again, they can’t fall asleep at a decent hour. It’s a constant battle.”

Dement’s research states that as a person loses sleep, he or she creates a sleep debt. A sleep debt is formed when a person doesn’t get the amount of sleep his or her body requires.

“[Dement] suggests that we drink because we’re thirsty, or that’s what we think-but actually we drink because our bodies need fluids,” White said. “He suggests that all of us have a set homeostat for sleep that we’re going to work to fulfill, so if we lose sleep each night, it’s going to add up and we are constantly looking to try to refill that.”

Bill McDaniel, professor of psychology, advises students to begin studying for finals now because research has shown that cramming is not a good idea.

“It’s good to review what you already know the night before you take the exam, but trying to learn it all en mass isn’t good. Distributed learning-learning a little bit at a time-is better,” McDaniel said. “I think it’s wiser to have a good night’s sleep and not cram than to be sleep deprived the morning of an exam.”

Johnson said after she learned better time management skills, she felt less stressed, although she was still sleep deprived.

“I learned not to procrastinate, and it was much easier to study that way,” Johnson said. “It’s because I studied weeks before the final and didn’t let my work pile up.”

McDaniel said staying up all night produces as much cognitive and performance impairments as driving under the influence of alcohol.

Sleep studies conducted by Dr. Omar Burschtin of The New York University School of Medicine Sleep Disorders Center show that one of the highest causes of accidents among college students is driving while sleep deprived.

Students who drive after being awake for 17 to 19 hours performed worse when driving than those driving with a blood alcohol level of .05 percent.

“There are serious declines in concentration retention and memory retrieval after you miss a whole night’s sleep,” McDaniel said. “There’s a serious price you pay.” White said it’s not too late for those who are sleep deprived to improve their sleeping habits.

“Some ideas are exercising during the day instead of night, avoiding caffeine after lunch and not using your bed for anything except sleeping,” White said. “I suggest that students go to the library or to an empty classroom to study.”

McDaniel said additional strategies for preventing sleep deprivation include having a regular sleep schedule, reducing the amount of light in the room and reading for a while before bedtime.

When college students have trouble sleeping after missing sleep, they often turn to medications for help.

McDaniel recommend Melatonin, an over-the-counter medication, in this case.

“Melatonin is actually one of the body’s hormones secreted by the pineal gland as the hours of the evening advance,” McDaniel said. “It’s also well-known to help people recover from jet lag. As we get older, our brains produce less and less of this hormone and it’s been found that Melatonin helps get you to sleep.”

Alice Loper, assistant professor of nursing and director of GC&SU’s Student Health Service, recommends any sleep aid with Benadryl as an ingredient.

“Almost anything over-the-counter for sleep has Benadryl in it and is safe, as long as directions are followed,” Loper said. “[Tylenol PM is also] fine unless you mix it with alcohol or other drugs. There are a number of prescriptive ones as well, or you can use just plain Benadryl, over the counter at 25 milligrams.”

McDaniel said stress is something students are going to have to learn to deal with, and college is only the beginning.

“It’s just how it is. You’re coming up to a time when everything is due,” McDaniel said. “That’s something you’re going to experience all your life with work, family and so on. There are deadlines for getting things accomplished. Being in college is just a good playground for learning the ropes.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 15 2005. Filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry