Topic - Sleep Deprivation

College students, like Americans overall, are sleeping less, and if you are like most college students, chances are you are not getting enough sleep. On average, most college students get 6 - 6.9 hours of sleep per night, and the college years are notoriously sleep-deprived due to an overload of activities. Recent research on college students and sleep indicates that insufficient sleep impacts our health, our moods, our GPA and our safety. Sleep really matters.

Why do we need sleep?

Sleep is important for a number of reasons. It restores our energy, fights off illness and fatigue by strengthening our immune system, helps us think more clearly and creatively, strengthens memory and produces a more positive mood and better performance throughout the day. Sleep isn’t just a passive activity and something to fill the time when we are inactive, but rather it is an active and dynamic process vital for normal motor and cognitive function.

How much sleep do we need?

Most adults need somewhere between 6-10 hours of sleep per night. Different people need different amount of sleep to feel rested. If you are frequently tired or irritable during the day and find yourself sleeping more than an extra 2 hours per night on weekends, then you are probably not getting enough sleep during the week. Try for 7-8 hours and see how you feel.

Consequences of sleep loss

Lack of sleep is associated with both physical and emotional health risks. These include:

• More illness, such as colds and flu, due to a lowered immune system
• Feeling more stressed out
• Increased weight gain and obesity
• Lower GPA and decreased academic performance
• Increased mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety
• Increased automobile accidents due to fatigue caused by “drowsy driving”
• Decreased performance in athletics and other activities that require coordination

Sleep and Physical Health Issues

Lack of sleep can cause many health issues, including death, and people are often not aware that they are at risk. Since sleep deprivation can impact the immune system function, our ability to fight off infections becomes more difficult and we are more prone to getting upper respiratory infections, such as cold and flu, and often feel “run down.” That’s because we are! Heart and lung function is adversely affected by lack of sleep and is associated with worsening chronic lung and heart disease and high blood pressure.

Lack of sleep has been linked to obesity. With sleep deprivation, there is an increase in the hormone, ghrelin, which is associated with hunger for high calorie foods. There is a decrease in the hormone leptin which reduces appetite. This leads to weight gain in many people. Lack of sleep impacts brain function, attention span, mood and reaction times. Excessive sleepiness is a leading cause of car and truck accidents, and research has demonstrated that many industrial accidents and disasters, such as nuclear power accidents, major oil spills and space shuttle disasters have been attributed to sleep deprived workers.

Sleep and Mental Health Issues

College students are often at risk for having mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, and researchers believe that lack of sleep is a factor. An assessment of your sleep by a mental health professional may be best if you exhibit one or more of the following symptoms:

• Sleep and Depression
• Insomnia (often sleeping 6 hours or less a night)
• Too much sleep (often sleeping 10 hours or more a night or “escape sleeping”)
• Regularly feeling fatigue, constantly wishing you were sleeping or napping
• Engaging in day to day responsibilities feels highly tiring or burdening

• Sleep and Stress/Anxiety
• Racing thoughts (very high paced) that prohibit settling into sleep
• Recurrent and persistent thinking about 1-2 topics that prohibit settling into sleep
• Repetitive behaviors that needed to manage anxiety that inhibits falling asleep
• Pattern of stressful and anxiety-provoking thoughts that wake you up during sleep
• Experiencing shortness of breath when attempting to fall or stay sleep (that can’t be explained by a medical condition)

• Sleep and Relationships
• Trouble enjoying activities within your relationships that are typically fun
• Difficulty regularly listening to what your partner has to say
• Pattern of being quick to get irritated or angry with your partner (increased fighting)
• Regular quality of communication is reduced or more difficult

How Sleep Facilitates Learning and Memory

During sleep, the brain organizes, sorts, and stores what we have learned and experienced that day, making it easier to recall at a later time.

Sleep also helps you weed out irrelevant information and helps you make connections between your memory and information you learned that day, even if you have not made those connections while awake.

If you study a little every day, you can use this natural process of sleep to gain a better understanding of the material and to retain the information more efficiently.

If you don’t understand something you have read or you can’t solve a problem, look it over and then sleep on it.

To sum up, to study better, more efficiently, and to increase the likelihood of learning and retaining information, get at least 6-8 hours of sleep before your exam. Go for 8! 

*A special thank you to the  University of Georgia for this information

How can I get a better night's sleep?

Here are a few things you can do to make falling asleep easier and to make sleep more restful:

• Relax! An alert mind may make it difficult to sleep. Try to slow the pace of your activities in the evening. Come up with a nightly ritual of activities that help to slow you down before bed such as: light reading, coloring, having a mug of warm milk or herbal teal, bedtime yoga, a bath or shower with soothing essential oils.
• Avoid or limit caffeine and nicotine, which are stimulants, and alcohol, which can cause unrestful sleep and frequent awakenings during the night.
• Exercise and stay active. Twenty to 30 minutes of vigorous physical activity enhances deep sleep, but avoid exercising in the 6 hours before bedtime since it increases alertness.
• Avoid long naps. Naps of less than 30 minutes can actually be quite refreshing during the naturally occurring mid-afternoon slump, but napping for much longer than this can make you drowsy and interfere with a good night's sleep.
• If possible, avoid screen time right before bed: "...blue light messes with your body's ability to prepare for sleep because it blocks a hormone called melatonin that makes you sleepy". - WebMD.com
• Try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day. A regular sleep pattern reduces insomnia, and increases your alertness during the day.

Time to see a doctor?

• You regularly experience difficulty sleeping
• You are often tired during the day, even if you slept for at least seven hours the night before
• You have a reduced or impaired ability to perform regular daytime activities
• Your partner (or roommate) has told you that you snore loudly and sometimes seem to stop breathing

Source: https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/when-to-call-doctor

 

These links may be helpful

National Sleep Foundation:  Great information about sleep health, sleep problems, and strategies for improving sleep.

Mayo Clinic: 7 Steps to Better Sleep

Sleep Help: Sleep Self-Help Resource

Soothing Rain Sounds for Sleep

Guided Meditations for Sleep

How Sleepy Are You? Take This Quiz

 

Page updated Summer 2021 by Kaleah Bautch, MS, LPC - Personal Counselor in Student Health and Counseling at University of Wisconsin – River Falls