Long-Term Effects Of Sleep Deprivation Among College Students

Sleep deprivation is a growing problem in today’s society. It affects students who need to wake up for school in the early hours in the morning. Scientists and doctors say that schools should change their start times to later in the morning to allow students to attain the eight to ten hours of sleep needed to perform to the best of their ability with their academics as well as their athletics. Some school districts have taken this information into account, and in result changed their schools hours. While this can resolve some troubles regarding sleep deprivation in teen students, changing hours can raise other problems. In some cases, it may also not fix the problem and students will continue to stay awake into late hours of the night. This also does not allow the student to accept the consequences of staying up late. Starting school later in the morning could also affect after-school activities such as sports and clubs.

One of the main symptoms of sleep deprivation is excessive daytime sleepiness in addition to poor memory, poor concentration, and depressed mood (Colten, Altevogt, & Institute of medicine, 2006). As time goes by for adults, sleep deprivation increases, and studies have shown that about 18% of adults in the US report getting insufficient sleep.

·         What are 5 emotional effects of sleep deprivation? Lower anger threshold, increased irritability, increased frustration, increased nervousness, difficulty in handling stress

Sleep deprivation leads to worse academic/athletic performance as well as worse attitude.

The students could rate their current mood on a scale from zero to seven. The higher the

Sleep deprivation has a lot of dangers associated with it. It can cause hypertension and, because of something commonly called Sleep Debt, it sometimes causes dangerous driving conditions. Sleep debt is the amount of sleep a person has lost over time, and it must be paid back just like a money loan would need to be (Dement & Vaughan, p. 501). Christopher Dement explains (1999), “Regardless of how rapidly it [sleep debt] can be paid back, the important thing is that the size of the sleep debt and its dengerous effects are definitely directly related to the amount of lost sleep” (p. 501). Risks for hypertension have also been linked to sleep deprivation because it can increase a person’s stress level. A study done by Dr. Susan Redline and published in the Science Journal Circulation on August 19, 2008 reports that:

In today’s society, many people go through many days yawning, fighting to stay awake and indulging in many cups of coffee. If you were to ask them what the cause of their restlessness was, the popular statement would be a lack of sleep. However, most would not dare to think that a lack of sleep could cause multiple issues in everyday life. This problem has been seen to peak during the good ole college days. It is hard to imagine that those days of all-night cramming sessions and those late nights partying causing students to be sleep deprived could lead to a variety of problems like stress, long term insomnia, and a weakened immune system.

College is exciting transition for freshman as they can meet new people and be open to opportunities in their life; however, college is very demanding when it comes to school work. Freshmen tend to underestimate their school work and end up stacking their homework, leading them to become stressed and develop unhealthy habits. Sleep deprivation is a common habit among freshmen as they stay up all night to study for an exam or write a paper. If students feel like they have too much work, they burn themselves out and end up losing the motivation to finish their homework, making their grade fall. With all this work, freshmen spend most of their time at home or in the library doing their homework and feel too exhausted to socialize. College is supposed to be a thrilling experience for freshmen, but they tend to form bad habits that makes college more difficult and do not know how to get rid of them. Freshmen need to know developing good sleeping habits, motivating themselves, and finding the time to socialize is important in maintaining their health and social life throughout college. Freshman should set a sleep schedule for themselves, create a reward system for themselves when completing their work, and join a club or organization in order to manage their school life and enjoy the exciting experience of college. (225)

Even though the number of hours differs for different people, the mental and emotional affects damage all. Lack of sleep effects the brain’s

Thesis Statement: When the projects, exams, and extra-curricular activities start to pile up on one another it seems as though there is not enough time in the day.  This is when college students tend to lose precious hours of sleep and the consequences can be costly.

What is sleep deprivation? It is the condition of not having enough sleep. there are many studies conducted to test the existence of sleep deprivation. Thus, it was proven that the subjects/participants that are deprived of sleep are greatly affected compared to those that had gotten some sleep. The results showed that the difference is very noticeable. Not that many individuals knew that sleep deprivation had many effects on the body. Therefore, those that did not receive enough sleep are less likely to express their feelings. In other words, those who did not get enough sleep show much emotion such as a smile or laugh, because of the lack of brain activity. In the article written by, Adrian Peterson it said that sleep deprivation causes emotional volatility. However, at the same time, it makes sense and raises the opportunity to analyze this claim,

What do the effects of sleep deprivation have on people? When a person does not get enough sleep, he or she is depriving his or her body of something that it needs. A delightful sleep is one of the most satisfying human experiences with a role to play in supporting a good mood and cognitive acuity as well as in promoting physiologic balance and resilience (Chittora, Jain and Suhalka). People think because they get an insufficient number of hours of sleep, they will not have an emotional impact by it. Sleep is a required need for peoples’ day to day life to be able to perform and stay healthy emotionally and physically. The effects of sleep deprivation are an issue because it affects mood, performance, and health.

Through the analysis of psychological studies, I suggest to those who struggle with sleep deprivation to attempt to gain more sleep. The studies the way sleep affects our behaviors, moods, and cognitive abilities. With the help of psychology, individuals gain a better awareness for the ways sleep deprivation affects the

College students rarely get enough sleep. There is always something going on, whether it is studying for a test or binge watching Netflix with their roommates. Ultimately, as this essay will discuss, sleep is more important for students than they realize because it benefits health and performance in school.

Sleep repairs the physical body to improve and maintain general health, consolidate learning and memory, and recharge the psychological batteries to maintain emotional balance and well-being (Ohlmann & O'Sullivan, 2009). Without proper sleep, students are most likely to make mistakes, forget often, feeling “uptight” and overall sick. College students will be unable to function in the day or possibly too sick to attend to classes. This behavior can lead to the student unable to perform as well in class but also impact their grades drastically.