Students chronically sleep-deprived

• College students are giving up sleep on a regular basis.
• The continuous lack of sleep causes health problems.
• Getting enough sleep every night instead of staying up to do work is more beneficial in the long run.
  

Walk around a college campus at around 2:00 am and you might be surprised. There are students walking around, talking, getting coffee, burying their noses in textbooks or laptops, and chatting animatedly in study groups. The students do not let the late hour of night dampen their moods. But they may be foolish in thinking that these late-night activities have no effect on their well-being.

What is "enough" sleep?

Students have individual ideas about how much sleep they need. Several students say they get 6-7 hours of sleep on an average weeknight. But students also say that they stay up later during Wednesday through Friday. The National Sleep Foundation says adults need 7-9 hours of sleep a night.

"I know a lot of other people don't," says USC junior Bryn Kressin. "But I'll definitely stay in if I need to go to bed."

The consequences of dismissing sleep

Chronic sleep deprivation has been linked to several mental and cognitive problems. Here are some of the dangers brought on by lack of sleep:

• Abnormal insulin levels may increase the risk for certain neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease.
  
• Learning abilities are affected because alignment between sleep times and internal circadian time is necessary for optimal cognitive performance.
• Serotonin levels, which help create mood stability, are lower in people who work at night.
• Disrupting the internal body clock can cause bipolar disorder.
  

A common trend

People have been fighting the need to sleep for centuries. Coffee has been a way to temporary battle the inevitable, which may claim about 8 hours of the day. The caffeine in coffee can prove harmful (see Caffeine Still Bad For You). Yet students still push themselves to stay up late. Kressin says she sleeps more than any of her other roommates. She points out that college students go out at night more than people who have jobs.

"When you have an actual job that you're making money at," says Kressin, "you go to sleep early enough to get things done the next day."

But many students have figured out a system to getting their schoolwork done and getting sleep too.

"I'm just good at time management," says another student in her junior year, Jenna Wardrop. "I don't study well at night, so I just get it all done early in the day, and then go to sleep early, and get up and do it in the morning." But although Wardrop values her sleep, she says that most of her friends do not sleep as much as she does and put going out above sleeping or doing homework.

The body is there, but not the spirit

Students are able to realize the negative effects that sleep deprivation has on them. They can feel that they are somehow not reaching their full academic potential.

"I just feel kind of brain dead," says Kressin. "I feel like I'm there, but I'm not really present."

Surprisingly, Wardrop has never stayed up all night doing homework or studying. She worries about her performance that next day.

"I know I do a lot worse on tests," Wardop says, "and I'm just not as present when I'm tired." The feeling of not being "present" that is shared by these students does not seem like a factor that leads to success.

"When I don't get enough sleep, once it gets to be 3:00, I start falling asleep in my afternoon classes," admits Kressin.

Looking at the big picture

Two-thirds of students in a recent report say they have pulled at least one all-nighter during a semester. But the report also revealed that students who use all-nighters have a slightly lower GPA on average.

"They probably see more benefit to that in the short run," points out Wardrop. "But then they're not really thinking about the next day and how they are going to feel."

Wardrop believes sleep-deprivation is an issue because people get sick more often when they aren't sleeping enough, and do poorly in school. Her secret for those who are sleep deprived?

"They just need to work on not procrastinating," advises Wardrop. "Just try to get stuff done ahead of time instead of leaving it for the night before."

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