Sleep Deprivation In College Students

Introduction:

Typically, college students falling in the category of young adults should be getting anywhere from seven to nine hours of sleep per night. However, that is not the case, especially of students transitioning into their first year of college. Sleep is an essential component in our everyday lives, as much of a necessity as oxygen or water. Getting the proper amount of sleep provides many useful functions for the human body, such as the ability to retain memories and knowledge and heavily impacts our decision making (Gilbert and Weaver, 2010). Due to the fact that many students have a hard time transitioning into college, many lose the required sleep needed, thus the functions it provides resulting in a sleep deprivation.

Sleep deprivation is the lack of sleep needed to function to full potential. While college is known for staying up all night, and cramming for exams, this term of sleep deprivation is starting to take a serious toll. Over the years the sleeping patterns of students attending college and universities has changed dramatically. Studies show that as time goes on the average night of sleep students are getting is decreasing drastically (Jensen, 2003). The way students are falling into this lack of sleep are by forming an irregular sleep-wake cycle, which consists of getting little to no sleep during the week, then on weekends catching up on all the missed sleep. By continuing this cycle the average college student has nearly twice the sleeping