There have been many times through the college careers of everyone where there has just been too much homework to do and not enough time so they resort to getting few hours of sleep or just not sleeping at all. Numerous times I have heard people say I got only three hours of sleep or I pull an all-nighter. This has always been a question that has various answers and has changed throughout the years. It was initially thought that human being would be able to function normally with about four to five hours of sleep. They could perform the basic functions it was just the body would get use to the idea that it was fine to only have that sleeping pattern. However, that was proven to be a mistake as the experiment carried faults.
In the year 2003, Enter David Dinges who was known as the head of the Chronobiology Laboratory at the Hospital at University of Pennsylvania, decided to forth with a study to finally find out the answer to the question “How much sleep do we need”? In this study people we given an assignment on how much sleep each participant would get. The following were the categories they were placed in: sleeping for four hours, sleeping for six hours and of course a control group needed to be involved and they slept for eight hours. This was conducted in a specialized labatory. During the day, around every two hours the researcher would test how much attention could be withheld. The conclusion of this experiment was that the worst performance were clearly done by those who would only sleep four hours a day. People who had six hours of sleep perform much better but eventually began to suffer consequences and their performance levels began to decline. Finally, those who slept the full eight hours we performing at exceptional levels and attention span was consistent throughout the two weeks this experiment took place.
Getting the full hours sleep is difficult because as humans we just have many things going on. Plus, there are many stimulators that affect our sleep schedule such as coffee and even lights. Not getting the enough sleep can obviously lead to health problems just like what we discussed in class about the rats that became depressed because of light. One thing is for sure when talking at sleep is that we cannot rely on the weekend to make up the deprivation of sleep.
What is very interesting is the fact that since we are all made in different ways and respond to things differently some may just need less sleep than other to perform at their best. However, what will eventually and will happen is that there will be a deterioration of psychomotor skills. We can either make our body adjust to a sleep pattern as rigorous as that or six hours or less of sleep. The best thing that can be done in this situation is to try and get as much as sleep possible and whenever given the chance to go to sleep early to take the opportunity to do so.
here is a link to a short video on sleep:
This post is relevant to most college students. It’s relatable and that makes it a good blog and interesting to research. I remember reading this post about how our phones take time away from our sleep. The more we stare at our phones right before we are about to go to bed the less sleep one is going to get. The light makes us think that its time to be productive instead of its time to go to bed. This website also says that the light can mess with the hormones in our brain causing the body to stay awake longer.
I also did a blog post on sleep, because it is so fascinating how much sleep impacts our well-being. Although it seems super unrealistic to expect college students to get eight hours of sleep per night, it is greatly needed. In fact, I found a source that has found between sleep deprivation and having a higher risk for developing heart issues.
I found the article extremely true! I notice in myself my performance level dramatically decreases with sleep loss. If i don’t get enough sleep the night before I struggle to concentrate, stay awake, and remember things. I also get very sick if i repeatedly lose sleep. I wonder if naps can make up for sleep loss. For example, if you only get 4 hours of sleep the night before but take a 3 hour nap during the day, will you still acquire all the benefits from getting a full night of sleep?
Your post was great. I personally didn’t value sleep at all until reading this. This provided some great insight on how a person should get healthy sleep and not just a nap here and there to try to catch up. A healthy consistency seems to be the way to go to get a great’s night rest.
I found everything you said to be extremely true. Throughout high school, I was able to run off of 5 hours of sleep a night. With a nap here and there, I would be totally fine. But that defiantly isn’t a lifestyle that can be maintained at a higher level of education. Sure, some evenings will be later and the occasional all-nighter is bound to occur, but the lack of sleep will catch up with you. I can say that from first hand experience. It is so important to get and maintain a good sleep schedule!