Sleep Deprivation In College Students Essay

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How Lack of Sleep Affects College Students :
Sleep deprivation among college students is a common problem across college campuses. Many factors may lead to college students sacrificing a good night’s sleep including, academic requirements and social lifestyle. Also, many college students may be unfamiliar with the sleep stages and/or the number hours of sleep that is recommended for their age. Furthermore, many of these same students are not aware of the research studies that identify the negative impact sleep deprivation has on young adult’s physical and cognitive health. For instance, many studies show that students who are routinely sleep deprived tend to have a decrease in physical and cognitive abilities. Many college students are sleep …show more content…

According to Charles A. Czeisler, Phd, MD chairman of the board of the NCF, this is the first time a professional organization has developed age-specific recommended sleep durations based on relating sleep duration to health, performance, and safety. Along with recommended sleep time, it is also important for a person to experience the 5 phases of sleep which progress cyclically and include 4 Non-rapid eye movement cycles (N-REM) and 1 rapid eye movement cycle. These sleep cycles last approximately 90 minutes and during that time the person moves through all 5 stages of sleep. According to (ref book) during N-REM sleep, memories are reactivated and transformed into versions that are then stored in your long term memory. In addition, during REM sleep, those long term memories are stabilized. Therefore, students who are trying to retain the information they’ve studied would benefit from getting a good night’s sleep. However, many college students will routinely and voluntarily decide to ignore these sleep recommendations because of their academic workload, but this may be counterproductive. For instance, June Pitcher’s study on sleep deprivation compared a group of students who got an average of 8 hours of sleep

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