Sleep Deprivation And Its Effects On Students

As a student advances through school, they tend to have much more on their hands such as a job, social life, family, and homework. The demand of time from students’ hectic lives makes it difficult to fit in adequate sleep. The only way to complete everything on their agenda is to sacrifice some of their nightly sleep, thus becoming chronically sleep deprived. Students who are sleep deprived or receive less than the recommended amount of seven hours of sleep daily, are less likely to succeed academically because it slows down cognitive performance and impairs memory, which affects a student’s ability to learn.

The consequences of sleep deprivation during the teenage years are particularly serious. Teens spend a great portion of each day in school when it starts early; resulting in a lack of sleep. Ultimately, sleep deprivation affects a student’s academic performance. When students lose sleep, they disrupt their sleep cycles and their bodies respond by decreasing their ability to concentrate and complete complex tasks. A prolonged period of cumulative sleep deprivation will affect their physical and mental well-being and consequently their capacity to learn.

Second, sleep deprivation will negatively impact students ' lives out of school. In the “Why We Must - and Can - Restore Safe & Healthy School Hours” article it states, "The effects of sleep deprivation are: weight gain and eating disorders and increased risk of obesity, cardiovascular problems, and diabetes; reduced immunity; depression; anxiety; substance abuse; mood swings." These

One of the many arising problems of America’s students is they are becoming sleep deprived. The busy daily schedules of children and teens are not allowing them to get enough sleep. “Less sleep is unhealthy especially with the new research that as teenagers move through teenage years, they need increasing amounts of sleep. Nine hours per night is the necessary amount to avoid behaviors associated with sleep deprivation” (Final Report Summary, 2001). Among other things, sleep deprivation is causing students to sleep during class instead of being awake and aware. When the students are sleeping in class, they are not retaining information being taught to them. Researchers have now proven that

“Sleep deprivation’s impacts include: weight gain and eating disorders and increased risk of obesity, cardiovascular problems, and diabetes; reduced immunity; depression; anxiety; substance abuse; mood swings; behavior problems; suicidal ideation; and potential impacts on brain development” (pp. 5). Any of these things could happen to students because they get less sleep to be on time to school. “Studies have shown that delaying early school start times is one key factor that can help adolescents get the sleep they need to grow and learn” (Strauss, pp. 6). This is saying that getting more sleep will help students to actually learn and focus on school. Therefore, without a sufficient amount of sleep, students’ health will decrease, which will increase

National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (2012) stated that the recommended amount of sleep for adults is 7-8 hours a day. However , personally my weekday’s sleeping hours is approximately 5.5 hours everyday. Sleep Deprivation may trigger mood disturbance like depression and anxiety , decrease in academic performance due to reducing memory and concentration and increase calorie consumption (Trockel, Barnes, & Egget, 2000).Moreover , the release of cortisol can depress the immune system which make oneself more vulnerable to illness like cold or fever and the increase of upper respiratory infections like headaches can also be seen in university student with sleep deprivation(Irwin, 2002). Importantly, more health consequences of sleep deprivation such as greater use of marijuana , smoking and alcohol abuse are germane to university students (Kloss et al., 2016).

Students who usually stay up late and get little sleep do not think of the consequences for the next day. Frequently, a majority of these students arrive at class only to fall the next day only to fall asleep after the professor starts the lecture. The poor behavior problem usually leads to low attendance rates and poor grades among sleep deprived students (Johnson). For first time freshmen, sleep deprivation has been known to cause a variety of issues that can lead to grave harm. Sleep deprivation can cause slow reaction time as well as headaches and nightmares more frequently. The mind will fall asleep if it cannot get enough sleep causing it to not function properly. Some side effects insomnia are feeling fatigue, depressed or a feeling of the body being completely drained (Haynes). One of these issues

In addition, one article states that “Regular and restful sleep is essential for good health, sleep helps you feel less stressed and helps you maintain a healthy diet. Students often have very stressful lives with activities such as going to class, working out, etc (“Despite”). Finally, the consequences of sleep deprivation in a student's teen years can be very serious. Teenagers spend most of the day in school, when they have to wake up for school so early, then be there all day, it can lead to them not getting enough healthy sleep. With this lack of sleep they are unable to get the most they can out of school. With little sleep students can not learn as much and could therefore not know important things necessary for life. Teenagers don’t get tired until about 11:00, so they don’t get enough sleep because school starts so early in the morning (“Effects”). Overall, many students do not get as much healthy sleep that they need. Without sleep, they can not learn as much as they could be with a good amount of

Students are in search of an advantage over the crowd and go to vast lengths to achieve it. Sleep deprived students are the effect of high expectations. Schools such as Silicon Valley brought sleep experts to promote shut-eye. Frank Bruni states that back when he was in the 1980s, there was too much sleep, although today’s students are taking more AP classes, multiple extracurricular, and apply to every Ivies. The author lists numerous books written on the topic of student learning. In college, campus students face anxiety along with depression, they cope with minor setbacks that seem big. They also deal with panic a major factor in “acing the exam, burnishing the transcript, and keeping up with high achieving peers.” Wanting to pull their children off the fast track parents worry about getting them stuck behind. The author believes students should be given wiggle room to find passions, develop interests, and bounce back from failure. Bruni states kids should “tumble gently into sleep, which is a gateway, not an impediment, to dreams.” Students are exhausted from their daily schedules and lose sleep due to it, Bruni proves his point by discussing personal experiences, statistics from other schools, and works he’s read.

Sleep deprivation affects a student's physical health. When we are sleeping, our bodies take a break from reality, and we wake up refreshed and calm. Then again, if students don't get enough sleep they can't function properly, the students are exhausted and stressed out. Sleep deprivation affects the way our body functions; the students’ height, strength and immune system weaken. Students who drive could get into car accidents by falling asleep at the wheel. Students who don't get enough sleep could rely on caffeine and drugs to wake them up which could lead to further health

“Last year the foundation reported that nearly 60% of 7- to 12-year-olds said they felt tired during the day, and 15% said they had nodded off at school”(Park). Every teacher wants the students to have good grades even if they try their best to teach students who are sleeping can’t learn from the teacher. Sometimes grades goes down and it’s not the teacher’s fault. People would be able to pay more attention in class. Some people at school are very moody and because of that some people won’t pay attention to class and their grades will drop. I sometimes get really tired and can barely pay attention to the class. Some people think they can just get enough sleep during the weekend but that is wrong. “Sleep researchers have learned that when you regularly fail to get enough sleep, it takes more than just a few hours on Saturday and Sunday mornings for your body to recover”(Park). Some people can’t focus in school because of the schedule. Most times people just get their sleep in class and not focus on the school work or

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 as a whole is an extremely critical factor to human health , especially the well-being of full-time students’ due to today’s growingly time-consuming education system. Sleep plays an essential role in mental and physical health, as well as overall well-being. It is clear that sleep is crucial, however, who has the time for the recommended 8 hours of sleep a night, as a minimum? Full-time students especially are at high-risk for sleep deprivation – which has very damaging consequences. These consequences range from weight gain, memory issues, high blood pressure, poor balance and much more. A review of 16 studies have even shown that sleeping for less than 6-8 hours a night increases the risk of early death by about 12%. This information

All of us are aware about the importance of sleep in our lives. In fact, people that don’t get enough sleep at night may experience a variety of health issues in the long run. Unfortunately, students find it as a hard task to sleep about 8-9 hours a day because they have to wake up early and go to school. This creates a tremendous impact on their physical and mental health.

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.