Sleep Deprivation among College Students Essay Example

activities that they were not used to in high school. Because of these many activities, the students put very little priority to sleep and it is estimated that many college students only spend about three to four hours sleeping (Vargas et al. 2014).

There are many causes of the sleep deprivation among college students and some of them include; alcohol abuse and constant use of substances such as nicotine and caffeine can often make one feel tired and drowsy but they often interrupt and interfere with the quality of sleep. Many of the students who have problem sleeping take up more alcohol with the hope of triggering sleep and this can eventually become addictive and problematic (Kenney et al. 2014). The other major cause of sleep deprivation is the poor management of time where the students waste too much time during the day doing nothing and they have to do their assignments at night when they should be sleeping. Other students overwork themselves taking too many classes than they can handle causing them stress that in turn leads to sleeping difficulties (Vargas et al. 2014). Poor sleeping habits adopted by the students are also a major cause of sleeping difficulties among the students. Many of the students have a tendency of over sleeping up until noon and this ends up affecting their sleep patterns and they end up sleeping when they are required to be in class learning (Concepcion et al. 2014).

Sleep deprivation can basically be defined as an ailment just like any other and it comes with some symptoms and effects that can be noted in the students that have some difficulty sleeping. One of

the effect is extreme fatigue that comes with frequent mood swings; lack of enough sleep by the students affects their brains’ homeostasis process and they always appear tired at all times. Students who have sleeping difficulties tend to be always unhappy and they are very short tempered and this affects their social lives (Choueiry et al. 2016). Students who experience sleeping difficulties also tend to be very forgetful and they barely keep things together in their life. These students are always making mistakes because their brains are always tired, they take too long to think and so they reaction time to mistakes are very slow (Kenney et al. 2014). This is effect is very dangerous especially as they drive, these effect can lead to drowsy driving by the students that can cause accidents on the roads. (Choueiry et al. 2016) indicates that many of the student deaths that happen in the colleges are always as a result of road accidents and most of the accidents happen because of drowsy driving by the students who are sleep deprived combined with alcoholism that affects their judgement (Ashrafioun et al. 2016). Road accidents caused by drowsy driving are mostly common at the end of the semesters where the students are done with their exams. They tend to spend most of their time drinking and celebrating without getting any sleep, and later take on their cars to drive home for the holidays (Kenney et al. 2014).

Academic performance among students who have trouble sleeping is poor and it continues to deteriorate as the problem persists. The students who have sleeping problems as earlier indicated tend to be always very forgetful,

these students are likely to forget to attend their respective classes and do their assignments (Concepcion et al. 2014). The same forgetfulness is also likely to affect the knowledge that is acquired by the students in class because they will have a hard time remembering what they learn. The fatigue that is associated with the sleep deprivation is also likely to affect the concentration of the student in class, these students tend to have a difficult time understanding the concepts that are taught in class and they can barely get time to study on their own (Choueiry et al. 2016). Most of these students who struggle to sleep effectively at night are likely to spend most of their time during the day sleeping and this affects their class attendance. There are also some pains that can be experienced by students who are suffering from sleep deprivation such as headaches, general body ache and also some increased heart rate variability that is an essential risk of heart diseases (Vargas et al. 2014).

Ashrafioun et al. (2016) indicates that sleep and depression are interrelated; many cases of depression that are reported yearly are among the college students who all indicate that they have had problems sleeping and they also experienced hallucinations as an effect. The combination of all the effects that sleep deprivation has on student is likely to lead one to become depressed. These are students who have poor relations with the other people around them because of their bad mood swings and so they have no one to talk with (Kenney et al. 2014). These are also people whose sleep deprivation issue has affected their school

work and so they are likely to always be in trouble with their professors and also their parents. All these conflicts combined are likely to make this college student to feel unloved and unimportant in the society, he or she may feel like the world is against them something that could result in him or her committing suicide. Research done by Concepcion et al. (2014) indicates that there is a close relationship between sleep and suicide among college students and it is estimated that everyone out five suicides is a result sleeping problems. Many of the people who end up committing suicide in the society are people who have some depression issues and this is the same case with the students. The accumulated stress and fatigue that comes with sleep deprivation is likely to make them depressed and if this is not resolved through therapy it will essentially lead to suicidal thoughts by the student (Vargas et al. 2014).

The issue of sleep deprivation among college students is something that should the higher education institutions need to look into to ensure safety of the students. Higher education is an important factor that the society rely on to determine the future an individual, the highest population of the people living the good life in the society have at one time attended college. The issue of sleep deprivation among the college students affects their mental capacity and this in the overall end up affecting the students’ academic performance. When the education of the college students deteriorates it affects the economic status of the state because there are number of professionals let out in the society are few. The

government and the society at large should work together to ensure that students are well educated about the importance of sleep. This can be done by conducting frequent seminars within these institutions educating the students on proper sleeping patterns and importance of proper time management. Students need to understand that sleep is important for the body to operate effectively and that rational thinking cannot happen when one does not get enough sleep.

References

1. Ashrafioun, L., Bonar, E., & Conner, K. R. (2016). Health attitudes and suicidal ideation among university students. Journal Of American College Health, 64(3), 256-260.
2. Choueiry, N., Salamoun, T., Jabbour, H., El Osta, N., Hajj, A., & Rabbaa Khabbaz, L. (2016). Insomnia and Relationship with Anxiety in University Students: A Cross-Sectional Designed Study. Plos ONE, 11(2), 1-11. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0149643
3. Concepcion, T., Barbosa, C., Vélez, J. C., Pepper, M., Andrade, A., Gelaye, B., & ... Williams, M. A. (2014). Daytime Sleepiness, Poor Sleep Quality, Eveningness Chronotype, and Common Mental Disorders Among Chilean College Students. Journal Of American College Health, 62(7), 441-448.
4. Kenney, S. R., Paves, A. P., Grimaldi, E. M., & LaBrie, J. W. (2014). Sleep Quality and Alcohol Risk in College Students: Examining the Moderating Effects of Drinking Motives. Journal Of American College Health, 62(5), 301-308.
5. Vargas, P. A., Flores, M., & Robles, E. (2014). Sleep Quality and Body Mass Index in College Students: The Role of Sleep Disturbances. Journal Of American College Health, 62(8), 534-541.