College students do not get enough sleep, and the night-to-night inconsistency in sleeping patterns that is all too common during midterms and finals week can take its toll.
The National Institutes of Health and the National Sleep Foundation recommend that teenagers and young adults get nine hours per night ““ a number that many only see on the weekends.
Hamid Barkhordar, a fifth-year sociology student, said he usually gets between five and six hours of sleep per night.
“Most nights I simply don’t get tired until well past midnight, and I’ve become used to sleeping late and waking up early,” he added.
Sleep deprivation increases daytime sleepiness and hinders reaction time in certain situations, such as driving a car, said Dennis McGinty, adjunct professor in the department of psychology.
This is especially important in people who have an accumulated sleep debt, which refers to an insufficient amount of sleep for several days.
“People who are sleep-restricted for several days are in more danger than those who have only one night of inadequate sleep because they get used to the feeling of sleepiness and think that it is normal to feel that way,” McGinty said
A key for students to know if they are sleep-deprived is their ability to stay alert in a class, he added.
Getting the right amount of sleep is also important in a student’s ability to learn and retain new information.
“Adequate sleep helps consolidate new information,” said Michael Irwin, professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and director of the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology.
When a person learns something new, that information is more available in the brain the next day if the person has a sufficient amount of sleep, Irwin added.However, some students are unable to balance their sleep schedule with their school commitments.
“My sleep schedule is definitely more sporadic during midterms and finals,” said Amanda Ashouri, a third-year sociology student. “Sometimes I feel like it is more important to study for an exam than to get a certain amount of sleep.”
Some students who feel tired during the day, especially in the late afternoon, turn to different ways to combat the urge to sleep or nap.
“If I feel like I’m really tired throughout the day, I’ll have a coffee or have something with sugar in it in order to give me a boost,” Barkhordar said.
“It’s more efficient for me to have an afternoon coffee break than to sleep or nap,” he added.
However, this may in fact be one of the factors causing students and other young adults to stay up at night, thus decreasing the amount of sleep they get, said McGinty.
A person’s internal clock, known as the circadian rhythm, is what makes them feel tired at night and alert in the morning. Some college students become accustomed to sleeping later than usual, causing their internal clock to shift relative to actual time. The shift in a person’s circadian rhythm is known as phase delay syndrome.
The best way to advance your internal clock relative to real clock time is to make your internal clock conscious of morning through outdoor light exposure in the morning, McGinty said.
“By getting up at the time that you want to normally get up and exposing yourself to sunlight, you advance your propensity for sleep in the evening and alertness in the morning,” McGinty added.
Besides affecting cognitive performance and motor skills, sleep deprivation can also hamper the immune system, increasing a person’s likelihood of suffering from a common cold virus and other infectious and inflammatory diseases, Irwin said.
“Studies done in healthy adults show that a healthy immune system is directly related to a sufficient amount of sleep, so students can also be impacted by sleep loss,” he said.
The weakening of the immune system is common among many students, as is the case with Ashouri.
“I feel like I start to get sick when I get less sleep for even one night,” she said.
“I try to be as efficient as I can the next say so that I’m not sleep-deprived for consecutive days,” she added.
There are, however, other steps students can also take to avoid a shift in their circadian rhythms. Avoiding the use of alcohol and nicotine in the evening as well as avoiding exercise late at night can also help students maintain their internal clock and sleep quality, Irwin added.