The Effects Of Sleep Deprivation For College Students

1234 Words3 Pages

College students are some of the most sleep deprived people in the United States. But what does this mean? How important is sleeping and what are the consequences of not getting enough of it? It is not a doubt that many of today’s college students get less than recommended amount of sleep but it should be more of a concern. Sleep deprivation is a serious situation which many people take lightly. It is not uncommon for students to brag about how busy they are and because of which, how little sleep they get. However, this is not a healthy mentality. Many studies show that not getting enough sleep can directly lead to serious ill-effects such as compromised learning, and health risks. These consequences are particularly important for college students Since students are in college for the exact purpose of learning and preparing for careers, under-sleeping is a huge issue. It has been shown to impair a number of factors such as: attention, alertness, concentration, reasoning, problem solving, and overall cognitive functioning (Perry). Neurons rest during sleep, and they misfire and can not function at the same level without rest (Sleep, Learning, and Memory). In an article, Dr. Jolanta Orzel-Gryglewska documents many studies on the effects of sleep deprivation on the brain, from rats solving mazes to human driving-simulator tests. Across the board, the majority of test subjects who were lacking sleep performed worse, struggling to concentrate and remember (Orzel-Gryglewska). Every day, there are too many students in large college lecture halls who are not getting enough sleep and consequentially, impeding their learning and memory. Unfortunately, compromised learning is not the only consequence of lacking Often it is a product of the more difficult school work, that is exaggerated by the sleep-deprived brain. There are links between under-sleeping and high stressed students (Kingkade). At a biological level, the body releases more cortisol, the human stress hormone, when it is constantly tired and the brain can not manage stress as efficiently when it needs sleep. In a clinical study on the effects of sleep, Michael Bonnet and Donna Arand reported that “a higher level of stress is observed; tiredness, drowsiness and irritability increases; work effectiveness decreases and motivation usually falls down” (Orzel-Gryglewska). The most dangerous part of sleep deprivation is that it is cyclic in nature. Losing sleep leads to stress, but stress can also be a large contributor to sleep deprivation, in fact it is one of the most common reasons that college students attribute to insomnia (Kingkade). It is too common that students who begin to feel the effects of sleep deprivation are caught in a sleepless cycle, which only exacerbates the problem. Many people believe that sleep deprivation is not as serious as it truly is. They believe that stress is the worst effect, however, most students are less concerned with the long-term health effects that has been linked with sleep deprivation

More about The Effects Of Sleep Deprivation For College Students

Open Document