Lacking sleep a major issues on campuses nationwide
College students go without a lot of things — sunlight, vegetables, money and sleep.
But skipping too much nocturnal rest can be very harmful to a student’s career said Carl Johnson, a professor of psychology.
“Lack of sleep is more of a problem than drinking and that is what our federal government is concerned about,” Johnson said.
He said a survey of self-reports taken from 75 different universities showed sleep deprivation as their third highest major problem.
A person will have one drink and it hits them like they have had four because of the body’s exhaustion, he said.
“All you need is one drink and you look like a drunk driver when you’re sleep deprived,” Johnson said.
When students do not get enough sleep, he said it makes concentrating in class much harder and leads to poor overall academic performance.
Making up for it
Johnson said students will try to get by with four to five hours of sleep and then sleep in for around 10 hours on Saturday on Sunday, but the human body does not work that way.
Steve Lewis, Allegan senior and president of Program Board, said Mondays through Wednesdays he is lucky to get 5 to 6 hours of sleep. He usually tries to make up for it on Thursdays with eight to ten.
“It really doesn’t help that I am a morning person and can’t really stay asleep past 9:30 a.m., no matter how tired I am,” Lewis said.
Adults should get six to eight hours of sleep per night and when this does not happen, it can have some major effects on the body.
“Sleeping too much after not sleeping enough puts the body on jet lag, like California time,” Johnson said.
Trying to make up for a week’s worth of sleep can be like starving yourself all week and then gorging on food Saturday and Sunday, he said.
Novi senior Andrea Kramer said she gets about six to seven hours of sleep in a school week and eight hours on weekends. However, her sleep schedule depends on the noise levels around her.
“If my neighbors decided to have a random party late at night,” Kramer said, “my sleep schedule is definitely going to be off.”
Some students find naps to be helpful. However, Johnson said they do not and cannot make up for lost sleep.
Commerce sophomore Ryan Hoger said he naps very frequently throughout the day.
“Sleep for five hours, go to class, sleep for three hours, eat, and repeat until college degree is achieved,” Hoger said.
Johnson said though taking naps can feel refreshing, it is much more important to have a routine sleep schedule that the body can get used to.
“Power naps only mask the effects and do help,” he said, “but you cannot get by with just napping all the time.”
