Everyone has heard it all of their life: “Get Sleep” or “You need to get eight hours of sleep everyday” but does anyone really listen to it? Much research has been done and it is common knowledge that everyone, especially athletes, needs sleep. Last March, Kevin Ware’s traumatic leg injury caught the nation’s attention because of its gruesome appearance and relevance to current issues in NCAA policies. While much research was done into how he could develop such a horrible injury, not once did anyone ask or wonder about how much sleep he got the night before or the entire week before. However, this lack of sleep could actually be one of the leading factors for injury. College athletes are put under a lot of stress to be successful both academically and athletically; this increased pressure from both sectors can cause many college athletes to sacrifice critical sleep. However, this lack of sleep can cause decreased performance levels and a decreased ability to focus which lead to an increased rate of injury in college athletes. Educating athletes about sleep deprivation and its consequences could alleviate the issue.
College athletes are a busy bunch. In a USA Today article by Steve Wieberg, a study found that college athletes spend anywhere from 36-48 hours on their sport alone. These athletes also spent 30-45 hours on academics (Wieberg). With only 168 hours in a week, more than half of these students’ weeks are spent on mandatory athletic or academic activities. Additionally, many of these students participate in volunteering, extra study sessions, clubs, etc. These students also must budget into their schedules time to eat, sleep, shower, clean, and socialize. With all of these commitments, the actual recommended sleep amount o...
... middle of paper ...
...e of injury it can cause.
College athletes have a lot of mandatory obligations and will do most anything to achieve the highest level of success in their respective sports as possible. However, these athletes are endangering their health by acquiring sleep debt by sleeping less than the required ten hours per night. This sleep deprivation can cause lack of concentration and decreased performance in these athletes, which commonly leads to injuries. By experts, trainers, and coaches informing these athletes of both the consequences of sleep deprivation on athletic performance and rate of injury, and the benefits on both academic and athletic performance of getting enough sleep, the sleep habits of college athletes can significantly change for the better. This would lead to healthier athletes, better students, and a happier college athlete population.
In order to function normally, “adequate sleep is a biological necessity” (Austin 34). College is a transition for many students, and without prioritizing many can become sleep deprived. There are various reasons that college students could become deprived of sleep. Reasons include loud roommates, sororities/fraternities, late night jobs, and procrastination. Additionally, a student could be struggling financially or academically, and this could be possible causes for keeping one up late at night. Little to no sleep could affect how young adults function leading to multiple effects. Depression can be a result of not getting enough rest, and the “longer this
Researchers have found a way to connect sleep with education. Gary Scarpello who wrote "Lack Of Sleep Could Be Trouble For CTE Students” , did a research study with liberty mutual showed that teens had an average of 7.2 hours of sleep on school nights and 33 to 75 % of all students have sleep problems. In the article it had stated that not getting enough sleep can cause impaired hand eyed coordination, reaction time and brief mental lapses. (Scarpello). The same researchers also found out that Sleep helps restores brain functions such as alertness, metabolism, and memory and regulate hormones (Scarpello). Researchers Mary A. Carskardon and A.R. Wolfson studied 3,120 Rhode Island children. They had figured out that college students who slept more than nine hours a night had a gr...
Another restraint to college athletes working is a time restraint. College athletes have very busy schedules they follow and when finished with their schedules they are left with very little free time. Student athletes are required to take a minimum of twelve credit hours to start the semester and required to pass at least nine credit hours by the end of the semester. With this standard having to be met, the athletes are spending hours studying and attending class. Besides from studying and attending class the athletes then have to go to practice. Going to practice and participating takes up about four to seven hours of the athlete’s day. After all of this is completed, the athletes are left with only a couple of hours for them to enjoy time with their friends or even to just relax and watch a movie. But, because these athletes are college students and do not receive any money for their commitments they are supposed to squeeze time in for work in. If athletes apply for a job they are limited to only a couple of hours a day to work. Also a large number of jobs request their employees to be available on the weekends.
Playing a sport in college is equivalent to working a full-time job (Thomas). There are rules that allow major-college football coaches to only demand twenty hours of the players time each week (Wieberg). However, studies show that those athletes are doubling those hours per week during the season (Wieberg). Other sports are putting in the equivalent of a full time work week (Wieberg). Some NCAA officials are concerned with the amount of time spent stating that beyond forty hours is inhumane (Wieberg). Most of the athletes compete and do whatever it takes to succeed, so they enjoy spending countless hours on sports (Wieberg). Many athletes even have struggles in the classroom because they do not have enough time to study. Student-athletes at top Division I schools think of themselves as athletes more than students (Wieberg). Less than one percent of college athletes actually make it professionally (Wieberg). That means these kids should focus more on their education than on athletics. In reality, these official...
Another reason that causes the negative relationship between sleep deprivation and academic performance is the impact of high-stress level that is caused by sleep deprivation. As mentioned earlier, sleep deprivation could decrease a student’s critical thinking and problem-solving skills. However, it can also make the students feel more stressful. According to the survey conducted in Ball State campus, there are 15 students that often do their homework before they go to bed. 10 students play video games, computer games, and mobile games before they go to sleep. 8 students use their electronic devices to do social activities. 5 students watch movies and television series and 2 students read books before they go to bed. This information proves
Due to the nature of sport, athletes will always be faced with the possibility of becoming injured. Empirical research has demonstrated that injury has a psychological impact on athletes (Quinn & Fallon, 1999). Indeed, sports practitioners often witness negative psychological impacts such as depression and in extreme cases suicidal tendencies in the injured athlete (Jevon & Johnston, 2003). Injuries have a dramatic impact upon an athlete’s life (Deutsch, 1985), Crossman (1997) interviewed athletic trainers and established that 47% of respondents believed that every injured athlete suffered psychological trauma. Walker, Thatcher and Lavallee (2007), explain there is a need to advance current knowledge of the way injured athletes psychologically respond, with deeper understanding it would be possible to aid rehabilitation professionals and help the athlete cope better psychologically. Psychological issues have an important role in the athletes ability to recover from injury (Arvinen-Barrow, Penny, Hemmings, & Corr, 2010), understanding how an athlete responds will have multiple practical implications. Ford and Gordon (1997) suggest that if an athlete experiences negative emotions then it will lead to non-complinace of the rehabilitation process. In order to understand athletes psychological responses to injury several frameworks have been suggested. These include the: integrated model of response to sports injury and rehabilitation (Wiese-Bjornstal, Smith, Shaffer, & Morrey, 1998), the Bio-Psychosocial model of sport injury rehabilitation (Brewer, Andersen, & Van Raalte, 2002), the staged-based grief response models (Kubler-Ross, 1969) and the stage model of the return to sport (Taylor & Taylor, 1997).
Sleep deprivation has become a major problem with Americans. Over 100 million Americans today suffer from lack of sleep. This has been an ongoing problem throughout the centuries. People owe their bodies sleep and scientist are calling it a “Sleep debt”. An average American owes their body at least thirty hours of sleep. This lack of sleep is as hazardous as drunk driving.
Playing a sport whether its basketball, soccer, football or any other of your interest can be thrilling, and accelerating. Not only can it be fun yet physical exercise is good for the mind, body, and spirit. Therefore, as an athlete one must keep in mind that playing any sport, injury is part of life and inevitable. Research has proven from time to time that severe injuries in sports can trigger psychological mental health issues, affecting them in their athletic performance.
If all of these important activities occur during sleep, why is it that people are so willing to short themselves of this vital activity? Although much about sleep still remains a mystery, research and experiments continue to show how important sleep is to each and every person. Throughout this paper, I will discuss sleep and the effects that it has on performance and health, especially among college students. A college student’s sleeping pattern is a reliable indicator of their level of performance in the classroom and other school-affiliated activities, as a lack of sleep leads to decreased performance. Sleep is directly related to the level of performance and health of an individual; the more rested a person is, the better that person will perform and feel (Dryer, 2006).
One of the most common and detrimental issues that the world battles does not have to be something as violent as war or as radical as drug abuse, it is in fact, sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation can cause serious damage to almost every aspect of the human body and mind, but is often overlooked in the big scheme of things because of its seemingly unimportance in modern society. Those who run off of five hours of sleep each night are praised for their hardworking efforts, while those who achieve a full nights rest and sleep in are considered lazy and irresponsible. The truth is, the world needs to be educated on the causes, and more importantly, the effects of sleep deprivation so they can be aware of how negatively not getting enough sleep affects them.
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.
Many times people think they can accomplish more if they could eliminate so much sleeping time. However, they are only hurting their productivity if they lose sleep. Two articles deal with the issue of sleep deprivation. The College Student Journal published an article about the grade-point average of college students and sleep length, while U.S. News & World Report produced an article dealing with the lack of
“A state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances.” https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/stress
Preliminary Thesis Statement: Sleep deprivation has detrimental effects on the health and academic performance of students.
Life is full of troubles, demands, pressures and hassles—these are all factors related to stress. Stress is a state of mental or emotional tension resulting from adverse or difficult situations (Merriam-Webster). When you are in potential danger, your body responds with a “fight-or-flight” response to protect you from any harm. Situations like being robbed at gunpoint or studying last minute the night before the test can activate stress in your body. Although situations in life can increase stress, there are plenty of methods to diminish it. Methods like meditating, talking to family/friends, drinking tea, or even taking a quick nap--all of these methods are proven effective (The Franklin Institute). One method that is prominent to many is physical exercise. Exercise is considered to improve physical conditions and strength, but maintains mental fitness in the process. Although many assume that exercising is healthy, some may not be familiar of how it relieves stress in detail. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of exercise, the pros and cons must be considered. Some pros are: managing the levels of stress in your body, boosting your self-esteem, and improving learning and memory. The cons are: being time consuming and tedious, being costly and expensive, and risking injury while exercising. Let’s look at the pros of physical activity.