Prichard concluded that for a variety of biological, social and environmental reasons, students have great difficulty quieting their minds and relaxing their bodies for sleep. This finding is less surprising when considered in light of millennials’ documented high levels of depression, anxiety and psychiatric medicine use. Although these factors correlated significantly with poor sleep, their relative impact paled in comparison to stress, which was most responsible for poor sleep.
Prichard’s expectation was that excessive use of caffeine and alcohol, as well as time spent playing video games or engaging in social media, would be most responsible for poor sleep. Subsequent research identified which variables contributed most to students’ poor quality sleep. Students experienced a “social jetlag” (the difference between week and weekend sleep schedules) equivalent to flying from New York to Denver and back every weekend. First-year college students reported going to sleep approximately 75 minutes later than they did as high school seniors and pulling all-nighters at least once a month. This study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, demonstrated that for many students, the transition from the structure of high school and parental supervision to the relative freedom of college was accompanied by a dramatic shift in sleep patterns. Her first major investigation documented college students’ typical patterns of poor sleep and identified key variables responsible for those patterns. Getting only six hours of sleep a night for a few weeks is the cognitive equivalent of being at a 0.1 blood alcohol concentration, far beyond the legal limit for intoxication.Ĭollege student sleep is the major research focus of psychology professor Roxanne Prichard. The great irony is that because the neural mechanisms governing self-regulation are affected by sleep loss, most of us do not even realize how poorly we perform under sleep deprivation. We spike our blood sugar for quick energy, and we crave high- calorie foods we burn muscle at higher rates than fat for fuel our immune system produces fewer antibodies in an effort to conserve energy our frontal lobes become inefficient at complex cognitive analyses and we turn more emotionally reactive. When we are sleep deprived, our bodies go into fight-or-flight mode. Most people severely underestimate the importance of sleep and certainly do not view it as necessary for life, on par with food, water and air for survival. Students accept excessive daytime fatigue as normal, an unwanted necessity that is best dealt with by drinking caffeinated beverages. Students work more hours than ever before, multitask beyond distraction and never really unplug from their digital technology. Their bodies, emerging from late adolescence, find it hard to fall asleep before midnight and almost impossible to wake up for a 6 a.m. More than two-thirds of students experience significant problems with excessive drowsiness, more than a third of students fall asleep in class at least once a week and a quarter describe their sleep problems as traumatic or difficult to handle.Ĭollege students are particularly vulnerable to poor sleep. Yet for most college students, regularly getting that much sleep seems like a Herculean task. Young adults need about an extra 30 minutes or so beyond that. The consensus of the scientific community is that the vast majority of adults require seven to nine hours of restorative sleep a night. Most students cannot recall a time except vacation when they consistently slept until they were fully rested. The answer, “As much sleep as you need so that you don’t need an alarm clock to wake up!” is met with quizzical and dubious looks. “How much sleep do we really need?” students often ask, hoping for one more corner-cutting life hack. Do you remember foggy-headedness, irritability or problems concentrating? For many college students, experiencing these problems and living in a perpetual state of sleep deprivation is normal. Perhaps you were caring for a newborn, working the night shift or feeling jetlagged from a trip abroad. Try to recall a time when you suffered from poor sleep.
0 kommentar(er)
