Abstract
Introduction
Transitioning from a life at home with parents and the teachers as in charge into a college life where the student finds independence of every choice possible, problems like risky behaviors and irregular sleep patterns are nothing out of the ordinary. This new-found freedom is in most cases seen to be unfavorable for the college student because 70 to 96 percent of the student in college get less than 8 hours of sleep per day.
This is not a blanket rate which applies to the student of every major from each and every department; rather there are students from some majors for whom, sleep is a rare luxury than it is for the others. The result of these erratic habits is that the students who attend college look to be more tired and have greater problems with memory and with concentrations than other students have.
Results
Sleep quantity versus Sleep quality
In college, a simple measure of how many hours of sleep a student gets per night is simply not enough; because there are also students in college who are getting the minimum required sleep yet, they wake up tired, and they feel sleepy all through the day. This is where it is crucial to make a distinction in between sleep quantity and sleep quality. Sleep quality could be classified as poor for a student if he/she does not feel well rested even after the sleep, or is not generally satisfied with the sleep that he/she is getting.
Researchers associated different problems to both types of sleep deprivation, like the duration of sleep could be effectively linked to issues like cardiovascular diseases and to gastrointestinal disorders. There are also a number of other physiological problems linked to sleep deprivation because there are certain changes that occur when the body is in a state of sleep. In much the same way, poor quality of sleep could result in consequences like increased sleep disorders, clinical disorders, and various other disabilities.
There are a number of environmental and emotional factors which could stand in the way of quality sleep, and there is no dearth of these factors amongst college students. Conditions like these may comprise of loud parties next door, social calls a late night, the stress of exams, the worry of completion of assignments etcetera.
Sleep deprivation and mental health
The impact of lack of sleep on mental health is of critical value because these problems are quite many and could negatively impact the future of the college student and worsen the quality of life for him/her. Researchers also estimate that lack of sleep amongst the college students is seen to increase over the course of the college life, and if this trend could have such adverse consequences, it is an issue which is worth addressing.
The impact of poor sleep on mental health could be examined through a study which intimated 69 university students to fill out a questioner regarding their quality of sleep and mental health issues. As per the reports of these questionnaires, lack of sleep was found to be associated with aggressive and rule-breaking attitudes and also with some internalizing problems inclusive of anxiety and sleep related grievances.
Impact on psychological and emotional state
In more shocking news, deprivation of sleep in these college students also revealed clinical symptoms like psychological stress, an increase in anti-social personality attributes, anxiety, depression, attention and hyperactivity problems and many more complaints relating to mental health.
All of these complaints present a very clear picture of how sleep deprivation could result in considerable deterioration of mental health amongst college student. These problems naturally also become worse when the trends of sleep-related fluctuations in habit continue to increase as the college student progresses through life at college. These problems are ultimately bound to create worries for the future of the student which may not even be simple to turn back from once the damage has been inflicted.
Outcome of poor sleep on physical and physiological state
As the impact of sleep deprivation on the mental state of a college student, the effect on physical and physiological health is no less profound. There was revealed a new study which proved that if sleep deprivation continues for a number of times, it could bring the immune system into action. The same was proved by comparing the white blood cells count of 15 healthy men under the conditions of normal sleep as well as under severe sleep deprivation.
This could mean that deprivation of sleep could put stress on the human body and trick it into believing that it is under a state of ailment. Also, if the immune system comes into a state of activity when there is no need for the same, it is also quite likely that it is not going to work as well when there is a need for it to come into action.
Studies in the past have linked sleep deprivation to other problems too which include Obesity, Diabetes, cardiovascular anomalies, disturbances in the immune functions, and the high prevalence of the common cold. There was one study which revealed that people who got less than six hours of sleep on a repeated basis are more likely to gain excess body fat compared to a person who gets sufficient sleep. Sleep deprivation has also been known to cause type 2 diabetes, and this specifically results from less than hours of sleep per night.
Impact of poor sleep on academic performance
As the impact of sleep on physical and mental health, the academic is another avenue which takes a hit from insufficient sleeping habit. The same has been proved through a study of students in pharmacy. We observe these students most when making an analysis of academic performance because their education seems to be one which demands the most attention and the greatest number of hours in study.
The results of the study presented us with the same result that we highlighted here just now. The study proved that students who get a healthy duration of sleep before sitting for an exam tend to perform better in exams in terms of course grades and the Grade Point Average. On the contrary, similar studies have also found that where the night before an exam is spent sleep-deprived, the results aren’t all that reassuring.
With that said, we still cannot be sure of the definitive impacts of sleep deprivation on academic performance because even in comprehensive studies such as these, there still remain too many variables that have to be ruled out prior to making any definitive link in between sleep and academic performance. The general consensus remains the same though which says that better sleep leads to better results in the exam.
There is no debate however on the impact of sleep deprivation on the Cognitive Functions, and it is quite reasonable to expect that the decline in those cognitive functions is going to have less favorable consequences on academics and education. Since the first study of the link in between sleep deprivation and cognitive function, many have been conducted which represent an adverse impact on the cognitive functions in the event that the student does not get ample sleep.
Discussion
There are a number of different factors which lead to less sleep amongst the students at the college. Irregular habits in sleep are the very basic reasons why students at college just cannot get ample sleep. This irregularity in sleep can arise due to many factors some of which could be later night parties, the pressure during the exams, irregular schedule of classes and late night study sessions.
There could also be other variables which could have an impact on the regular sleeping habits of students. One of these very common variables is the consumption of alcohol which study reports that 40% of the men and women reserve the habit of binge drinking. Experts say that the consumption of alcohol specifically in this huge an amount reduces sleep latency and therefore becomes a hindrance to the regularized hours of sleep.
The consumption of caffeine amongst college students is another factor which could cause disturbances in sleep for a number of college students, and since caffeine holds the ability to encourage wakefulness and increases sleep latency, students deliberately consume coffee and other similar beverages to get them through their study sessions.
For college students who also have to live with the habit of smoking through their time in college, sleep deprivation then becomes a problem that much harder to handle and keep up with. One study, in particular, shows that non-smokers have a better quality of sleep when compared to smokers. Also, some experts also say that people who do not stay on the social media like Instagram, twitter, Facebook and MSN sleep better compared to those who use social media more often.
Conclusion
Balancing study with work and with recreation is no easy task and in juggling so many activities all at once, sleep disorders are bound to arise. Since the students themselves cannot comprehend the severity of the sleep that they deprive their body of just yet, the administrations of the colleges have to take steps to get these students to maintain the healthy amount of sleep in their lives.
The first step would be to make these students aware of the drawbacks of lack of sleep. These students care about their future, and this is precisely the reason why they pull all-nighters multiple in a row. They want to make a career so that they can have a healthy future. So if they are actually told that not sleeping enough could make them fat and diabetic and that they would become psychologically unfit, they would make a better effort to change their sleeping habits.
These students should be told that since their life is so mentally challenging and physically tiring, they require on average eight hours of sleep at night. They need to know that this proper sleep is mandatory if they want to reset their biological clock at the end of each day. The physicians and the college councilors should also know to watch out for signs that student is not getting enough sleep.
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