Psychology Research on Sleep Deprivation and Sleep Disorders

A common problem in many young adults in college is sleep deprivation. College students are some of the most sleep deprived people. Their sleep hygiene behavior is worse than adults. An adequate amount of sleep time is 7 to 8 hours each night to complete a regular sleep cycle. When college students have less sleep time, they are disturbing their sleeping cycle and their bodies respond by decreasing their ability to concentrate on tasks. Sleep deprivation can affect your everyday life in many different ways. For instances, it can decrease your physical health, mental health, and academic performance. The following articles will be focusing on

Sleep Deprivation is the issue that prevalent among university’s first year students. According to Hershner & Chervin (2014) , half of the university respondents indicated daytimes sleepiness and 70% attain insufficient sleep .

Specific Purpose: Sleep and college students usually don’t tend to get along very well. Sleep and college life often bump heads due to stress, coursework and social activities. This speech will give the students useful information about dangers of not getting enough sleep and also hints on how to get a better nights sleep.

Being sleep deprived can also affect driving, can affect performance in school, and can lead to illness (Iarovici, 2014, p. 32). Social activities in college contribute to sleep problems, for example, drug use and heavy alcohol drinking (Iarovici, 2014, p. 32). However, sleep problems are not only caused by unhealthy lifestyles. Sleep problems during college years, a major time of development, can be a sign of mental illness such as depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder (Iarovici, 2014, p. 40). However, there are students who try have tried everything to fall asleep (e.g., not drink alcohol or caffeinated drinks) and they still experience sleeping problems. Some people have genes that cause them to be more alert during the night than in the morning, and others have delayed sleep syndrome, in which circadian rhythms are abnormal (Iarovici, 2014, p. 42). Delayed sleep syndrome is more common in young adults and interestingly, people obtain enough sleep, but they tend to fall asleep during the early morning than during the night (Iarovici, 2014, p. 42). Even though the individual may be getting eight hours of sleep, such a shift in sleeping time can lead to individuals feeling depressed because they cannot enjoy the activities others enjoy during the day, and can lead to individuals having

Given the thought of Middle Tennessee State University’s final exams are in five weeks makes most if not all students anxious. Procrastination begins, stress rises, and sleep decreases with most students. According to Brown University, “In a 2001 study, only 11% of college students have good quality sleep, and 73% have occasional sleep problems.” This means almost three out of four quarters of college students have sleeping problems such as insomnia. However, sleep is very important to the human body mentally and physically. When sleeping, the human body feel refreshed because the brain is working less and relaxes the muscles. Nevertheless, there will still be sleep deprivation, but it can lead to fatigue, irritability, and memory problems (Bernstein 147). As a college student sleep more, the grade point average, memory, and immunity will increased. The solutions to sleeping more are time management and a nightly routine.

Sleep loss and shifting sleep patterns are known to be widespread across college campuses throughout the United States and the world at large. Yet, while many studies exist relating sleep to performance, a much smaller amount of studies focus on the Through analysis of these sources as they would prove useful when researching and writing upon the idea of sleep and its correlation to academic performance it was found that a paper titled “Sleep-Wake Patterns and Academic Performance in University Students”, which was presented to the European Conference on Educational Research, is overall the most useful source represented to research the topic.

A correlation calculated between average night of sleep as: - Restless:Restful and academic credits hours currently enrolled in was also computed. Pearson’s r was calculated as -0.075. This data shows no relationship between these two variables.

While there is some research done on sleep patterns, there is a decline in the research when it comes to college-age students and young adults. In a survey done at a private Midwestern University of approximately 1,125 students, only about 30% of students reported getting eight hours of sleep or more per night, which is considered to be the recommended amount needed during this developmental phase (Lund, Reider, Whiting, & Prichard, 2009). When an individual has multiple nights lacking sleep in a row, they will require more sleep than normal to account for this

For some individual’s lack of sleep can cause the lack of comprehensive skills, poor coordination, and the ability to maintain their composure. Additionally, poor sleeping conditions can be caused from inadequate eating habits due to always being on the go and college students in general do not have the most nutritious

It is not uncommon for college students to have "pulled an all-nighter" before as the amount of coursework differs from when they are in high school. However, what many of those college students who have "pulled an all-nighter" are unaware of the connection between sleep deprivation and an individual's academic achievement. Pamela V. Thacer (2008) addressed the importance of the quality and quantity of sleep, and the ways sleep deprivation could damage an individual's mental health. The article

In 1940s researchers from Russia used five war prisoners in an experiment to find out effects of sleep deprivation. Although the plan was to do the research for 30 days, the prisoners were kept awake using gas based stimulant for almost fifteen days due to what happened during the experiment. The prisoners were promised that if they remain awake for thirty days would be freed from the prison.

University students have a magnitude of different roles in their lives that they have to juggle all at once. As the saying goes, when it comes to sleep, studying, and social life, time only allows for two of the three. Seventy percent of college students get less than eight hours of sleep at night, causing them to be sleep deprived, according to the Univer-sity of St. Thomas in Minnesota, and twelve percent of those poor sleepers end up miss-ing class or falling asleep during class. Chronic stress is a huge factor for why college students are so sleep deprived. According to a study from the John Hopkins Sleep Disor-der Center, computer screens can affect the bodies’ natural clocks and melatonin produc-tion which helps regulate sleep cycles. “Nowadays, there are lots of environmental issues that play a role in altering sleep

When students first arrive at college, their first fundamental routine of sleep changes dramatically. College students rarely find themselves getting about eight hours of sleep every day. Thus started the idea of how a student’s academic performance can be affected by the amount of sleep they get. The research article, “Sleep Quality and Academic Performance in University Students: A Wake-Up Call for College Psychologists” written by Steven P. Gilbert and Cameron C. Weaver, represents the perfect study on how sleep quality and quantity can affect a student’s academic performance. At the City College of New York, students are found comparing with one another on how much sleep they have gotten. These times vary due to what they have the following day. These problems come from the tedious studying, testing, and working. These problems indicate that an average college student would find themselves with less time to sleep, and more time worrying about their academic performance, also known as their grade point average.

There are various causes to sleep deprivation in college students. One cause of lack of adequate sleep is poor sleep hygiene (Hershner, 2014). Sleep hygiene is when a person has a consistent schedule of sleeping and waking up, sleeping in a quiet, dark environment, refrain from drinking caffeine post-lunch, and the use of technology prior to going to bed (Hershner, 2014). Caffeine can effect a person 5.5-7.5 hours after ingestion, which can potentially cause impairment in a person’s sleep if drank after lunch time (Hershner, 2014). Energy drinks is

Gilbert and Weaver (2010) examined the sleep quality with academic performance with university students, whether it is complete sleep deprivation or poor sleep quality. This study was to determine if lack of sleep or having poor sleep value in non-demoralized college students were related to the low academic routine. The author’s expectations were to find the relationship between the student’s environment and lifestyle with their sleep patterns and the force it has on their educational performance. Within the study the authors found that being able to have good sleep patterns and quality is a big key part for student to have a good GPA and