Insomnia in College

Necessity of Sleep

College students everywhere are famous for their lack of sleep. From studying, to working, to partying life at a university is constantly in motion, and for many students, it’s difficult to find time for sleep. However, the effects of not getting enough sleep and depriving your body of rest are detrimental. These negative consequences hurt students; emotionally, academically, and physically. Their causes can be anything from stress to diet and the sleep deprivation that is brought on can be adverse to students’ health. According to WebMD, the average adult should be getting at least eight hours of sleep per night, and the average teenager should allow themselves at least nine hours of sleep a night. Therefore college students, being a combination of those two age groups, should be getting somewhere between eight and ten hours of sleep per night. When it is realized that college students are actually only receiving five or six hours per night, there is a clear problem. Losing a few hours of sleep a night might not seem like much, but if a student is only getting six hours a night for a week, then they are actually missing out on more than a whole day of sleep. Stress affects the quality of their sleep far more than alcohol, caffeine or late-night electronics use, a new study shows. (Journal of Adolescent Health) The Journal of Adolescent health also states that 68% of university students are kept up by stress over school and life. 20% are kept awake at least once a week. With these statistics, it is clear that there is way too high an amount of college students that have sleep disorders. After a typical night 's sleep, you may not feel restored and refreshed and be sleepy during the day, but be totally unaware that you are sleep-deprived or have a sleep disorder. You might think, "It 's just the stress of work and school," or you might have "always felt this way" and had no idea that you should feel differently. (Breus) Students are suffering and hurting themselves everyday, without the slightest knowledge that staying up all night to finish that paper or finish reading that chapter is actually hurting not helping. In fact, studies show that sleep deprivation leads to issues with memory processes within the brain. There are three types of memory processes that take place within the brain: acquisition, meaning learning or experiencing something new; consolidation meaning the memory becoming stable within the brain; and recall, meaning you have the ability to access the memory in the future. Acquisition and recall are conscious processes that take place while you are awake, but consolidation can only occur when the brain has had an adequate amount of sleep. Without enough rest, the absorption of information in a way that can be made sense of and recalled at a future time is extremely difficult. Not only does sleep effect memory, but without a sufficient amount reflexes, fine motor skills, and judgment can be severely diminished. It has also been proven that, when tired, people often tend to believe that they are right when they would normally realize they were wrong. The combination of impaired judgement and lack of memory just goes to show how much it’s actually hurting students to stay up and cram, but students are calling 2:30 am an early night. (Journal of Adolescent Health) There are many sleep disorders that affect college students every day. Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder in the United States, and affects one out of every three adults at some point in their lives. (Breus) Insomnia is difficulty initiating or maintaining a normal sleep pattern. The severity of insomnia varies amongst individuals, whereas one person may lay awake for hours without being able to shut down their thoughts and let sleep overcome them and another person may have no trouble falling asleep, but they are unable to achieve REM sleep because of frequent awakenings. Insomnia can lead to a variety of problems, and is also a symptom of clinical depression. It’s effect on the suffering person’s depression is detrimental. There is no easy way to tell if depression causes insomnia or vice versa, but the combination causes a never ending circle effect that is very difficult to escape from. A depressed person finds it hard to fall asleep, which leads to every day fatigue. Their tiredness prevents them from being active and exercising, lowering their fitness level. They in turn, become even more depressed. The fact that college students are basically forcing themselves into an insomniac-like state is extremely dangerous to their health, and it makes them much more susceptible to becoming depressed. Even more than just developing a sleeping disorder or impairing memory, not giving enough time to rest at night can cause havoc in everyday life. Reducing nighttime sleep by as little as one and a half hours for just one night could result in a reduction of daytime alertness by as much as 32%. (Breus) It also causes a lot of unnecessary stress on relationships. When tired, we naturally become more irritable and sensitive to those around us. Not only could the lack of sleep affect mood causing changes to relationships, but when partners’ sleep patterns begin being disrupted as well, the effects can be catastrophic. Sleep deprivation may also start to inflict on the quality of life of those affected. When exhausted and weary, it’s difficult to complete activities that require constant cognitive focus. Without the proper nighttime hours, it’s hard just to get through a whole movie or watch a friend perform. Tasks that could regularly be completed with little or no thought are now draining what little energy is left in the body. Simply going to work or driving a car becomes a dangerous risk when there is any level of fatigue on the mind. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that each year drowsy driving is responsible for at least 100,000 automobile accidents and 1,550 fatalities. (Breuss) Think about how many students must be failing tests or making bad decisions because they haven’t gotten enough sleep if that many people die just from being a little tired behind the wheel. It’s a scary thought that sleep could matter so much, especially when you’re not getting enough of it. Having a deficit in the amount of sleep you get every night can also have various long-term effects on your health. Lack of sleep has been confirmed as a contributing factor to high blood pressure, heart attack, heart failure, stroke, obesity, psychiatric problems, attention deficit disorder, and even fetal and childhood growth retardation. (Breus) Even a mother who doesn’t smoke, or drink alcohol, can be putting her unborn at child at risk, simply by staying up a few hours later than recommended on a regular basis. That alone explains how destructive a lack of sleep must be to the brain. Enough to cripple a newborn. So, what is it doing to our brain? One of the biggest problems with sleep deprivation in college students is that people actually build up sleep debt. If a few hours of sleep are cut out one night, the body still requires those extra hours. The more sleep missed, the more needed. This causes problems with college students because they miss out on the proper amount quite often, and they never allow their bodies time to catch up. This deficiency then leads to the impaired memory and judgement, and the precursors to long-term issues. There are many contributing factors to college students’ unhealthy sleeping patterns. One is the amount of studying they have to complete, along with their extracurriculars and jobs. If a student is taking fifteen credit hours at a university, then they should be spending thirty hours a week studying. If that same student is also working twenty hours a week, and takes part in service or other projects on campus, suddenly it becomes extremely difficult for them to fit everything into their schedule. They stay up later, and later, and never catch up on their sleep and in the end, it doesn’t even help them learn. Although there isn’t much time to work with in a student’s schedule, there are many steps one can take to prevent the development of bad sleeping habits, and keep their sleep cycle in check. To put your body on a constant circadian rhythm, it helps to go to sleep and wake up at the same time each day. This way, one’s internal clock naturally gives his or her brain signals to become conscious and lose consciousness at the proper times. Another thing that helps the body know when to be alert is getting exercise every day. However, exercising too close to bedtime can have negative effects on sleep patterns. It is necessary to space at least three hours between a workout and the time one goes to sleep. (Breus) Another important component of a healthy sleep cycle is your diet. Students don’t have the widest range of options for food, but avoiding caffeinated beverages, alcohol, and nicotine can help a lot. Especially close to bedtimes. It’s also important not to eat for at least two or three hours prior to going to sleep. Staying away from these substances, and spacing out meals and when you sleep helps the body send out the right signals and substances to properly shut down for a deep rest. The environment in which you sleep is also a huge factor in maintaining a healthy sleep pattern. The room should be dark, cool, and comfy. While getting ready to go to bed, it helps to unwind by doing anything from taking a warm bath to reading a book. Make sure not to use a computer or watch TV while in bed. The bedroom should only be used to sleep and have sex. (Breus) This way, whenever in the room, the mind is aware that it is being prepared for sleep. Overall, sleep is a huge factor in the wellness of college students. It is extremely important to get the proper amount of sleep, and when that isn’t possible, it is necessary to catch up. Sleep patterns are different for everyone, and they have to find what’s good for them. No matter what though, if a healthy sleep pattern isn’t in effect, then it will contribute to every aspect of a person’s life negatively. The best thing that a college student can do for themselves, is set up a regular sleep schedule and continue to practice it as religiously as possible.

Literature Cited

Journal of Adolescent Health. "Significant Sleep Deprivation And Stress Among College Students, USA." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 10 Aug. 2009. Web. 10 Dec. 2011.

Breus, Michael J. "Sleep Habits: More Important Than You Think." WebMD Feature. Web. 10 Dec. 2011. .

Cited: Journal of Adolescent Health. "Significant Sleep Deprivation And Stress Among College Students, USA." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 10 Aug. 2009. Web. 10 Dec. 2011. Breus, Michael J. "Sleep Habits: More Important Than You Think." WebMD Feature. Web. 10 Dec. 2011. .