Even though college students have an awfully difficult time getting a good nights sleep, there is very little more important to a human being than sleep. There is a profusion of articles that highlight the dangers of not getting enough sleep and the health benefits of sleep. This blog will look into the benefits of sleep(and dangers of lack of sleep) and why people don’t get enough sleep despite the fact that it is widely agreed that is vital to human function.
How much Sleep is necessary?
This is quite a complex question than it seems on face value because it depends on the person and their genes. According to WebMD, “An average adult needs between 7.5 and 8 hours of sleep per night.”(WebMD) However, even though most studies would show that 7.5 to 8 hours is the average, the amount of sleep to function properly during the day may depend on the person. For example, Sudhansu Chokroverty, MD, says that, “The amount of sleep needed to function the next day varies from individual to individual, and is determined genetically and hereditarily.”(WebMD) Therefore, the amount of sleep for the ‘average’ person would not be suitable for all. One of my good friends from high school would stay up until 2 or 3 AM a good amount of nights in high school and came into school the next day with a lot of energy, which is further proof that sleep may depend on the person.
How Important is Sleep?
Other than food and water, there is very little more important than getting the appropriate amount of sleep to a human. For example, according to the NHLBI(National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute), “Studies show that a good night’s sleep improves learning. Whether you’re learning math, how to play the piano, how to perfect your golf swing, or how to drive a car, sleep helps enhance your learning and problem-solving skills. Sleep also helps you pay attention, make decisions, and be creative.”(NHLBI) When someone is sleeping, the brain is attempting to find new ways to better understand and comprehend what you may have learned. Even though many people associate learning with students, many adults must sleep well or they will have a tough time focusing on tasks during the following day.
If that is not enough evidence that you should get enough sleep, Harvard Medical Research has found that their is a strong link between lack of sleep and mental health issues. For example, “A longitudinal study of about 1,000 adults ages 21 to 30 enrolled in a Michigan health maintenance organization found that, compared with normal sleepers, those who reported a history of insomnia during an interview in 1989 were four times as likely to develop major depression by the time of a second interview three years later.”(Harvard Medical Research) Depression is a scary mental health disorder that affects roughly 14.8 million Americans over the age of 18.(ADAA)
Lastly, another issue with lack of sleep is their is a higher chance of a car accident to occur when you’re sleep deprived. For example, “According to a study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, people who sleep six to seven hours a night are twice as likely to be involved in such a crash as those sleeping 8 hours or more, while people sleeping less than 5 hours increased their risk four to five times.”(National Sleep Foundation) When someone is ‘drowsy’ driving, their chances of getting in a car accident rise significantly. Furthermore,(and this is the scariest part) a new study found that driving drowsy is just as dangerous as driving drunk.
Why don’t people get enough sleep?
Despite all the studies I just explained about why lack of sleep could be potentially deadly, why would people in their right mind not get a good night’s sleep. Some common reasons that people don’t get the suitable amount of sleep are, “failing to wind down at bedtime”, “taking sleep for granted”, “too much caffeine, alcohol and sleeping tablets”, and “stress”.(Sleep Health Foundation) Some ways to avoid not being able to fall asleep at night can be found in the video below. I hope that this blog helps people realize the importance of sleep in your everyday life.
For years I have struggled with sleeping, including falling asleep and staying asleep. It has gotten to the point where I need to take Melatonin each night before bed in order to help with my sleeping problems. First hand, I know the benefits of getting the right amount of sleep, as well as the consequences of not getting enough. Therefore, my slumber pattern is not the most stable. In addition to my inability to fall asleep, it does not help that I am a busy college student. Sometimes, I need 10 hours of sleep, and sometimes I need 4. My body varies depending on how much energy I have used up during the day, as well as how long my body will let me stay asleep. For some people, they can only sleep for so long, or so short, which may at times be frustrating. The complexity of sleep patterns in human beings, and how they change over the lifespan, is extremely interesting. In this article published by Harvard, it explains how sleep duration and sleep patterns change as we age. As humans age, it may not be that they do not realize the importance of sleep, but they simply cannot sleep anymore. It is important to remember that sleep is extremely important, and should not be as underrated as people seem to make it.
For years I have struggled with sleeping, including falling asleep and staying asleep. It has gotten to the point where I need to take Melatonin each night before bed in order to help with my sleeping problems. First hand, I know the benefits of getting the right amount of sleep, as well as the consequences of not getting enough. Therefore, my slumber pattern is not the most stable. In addition to my inability to fall asleep, it does not help that I am a busy college student. Sometimes, I need 10 hours of sleep, and sometimes I need 4. My body varies depending on how much energy I have used up during the day, as well as how long my body will let me stay asleep. For some people, they can only sleep for so long, or so short, which may at times be frustrating. The complexity of sleep patterns in human beings, and how they change over the lifespan, is extremely interesting. In this Harvard/a> article, it explains how sleep duration and sleep patterns change as we age. As humans age, it may not be that they do not realize the importance of sleep, but they simply cannot sleep anymore. It is important to remember that sleep is extremely important, and should not be as underrated as people seem to make it.
Sleeping is obviously necessary in everyone’s life – just as necessary as food and water are and sometimes we don’t think about it like that. Especially as students we’re prone to down many coffees/energy drinks a day in order to surpass the need of sleep in order to fulfill other activities. We keep pushing our bodies until our body needs sleep forcing one to crash. It’s definitely not a good thing yet I felt as if the study done on depression of sleepers and those with insomnia could be also founded by a third variable. The causes of insomnia could be what led one to depression or vice verse maybe depression led to insomnia. The study doesn’t full prove certainty (even though nothing can be proven to certainty). Any how great blog post!
Sleep is a very important topic! From your findings, it is clear that to function properly the next day, you need to get around eight hours of sleep. I think an interesting topic to add on to your findings is what happens when you get too much sleep. Theres a study that shows that people who sleep longer than eight hours every night are more likely to die sooner! Crazy, right? The findings seem accurate because they compared the death rate to people who got less sleep. Here’s the link to it if you want to check it out! http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31928434
It is so essential to get a good nights rest. It would have been interesting if you included other interesting psychological and biological aspects of sleep. The differences between REM sleep and normal sleep. Sometimes, personally I feel like I do not get the best sleep here because my roommates will be up and making noises, turning lights on and off. So, even though I will be “sleeping” I will not actually be fully and end up being extremely tired in the morning as if I went to bed at 3am. Outside factors and confounding third variables that affect sleep are very good topic to go into for this blog post. There are three different stages of sleep and this is very interesting. Take a look at the different stages here: https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-disorders-problems/rem-behavior-disorder
I think people tend to put sleep behind everything else in their lives. I tend to hear people say “there aren’t enough hours in the day”, and therefore cut sleep out of their schedule in order to make time for the things they have to get done. In addition to depression, a variety of other health issues may arise from not getting enough sleep. This article ( http://www.bbc.com/news/health-27286872 ) says that, “Cancer, heart disease, type-2 diabetes, infections and obesity have all been linked to reduced sleep.” I would be interested in finding or proposing an experiment in which people who lead very busy lives and get few hours of sleep are compared to those who get enough sleep over a span of many years, and seeing whether or not significant health issues arise more in those with busy lives. However, it may be hard to conclude anything based on health, as genetic influences may be present.
Great post! I think people all knows about sleeping is a crucial thing to our health, but sometime we really cannot give too much time to sleep since we have a lot of dead line need to catch up with and tones of studies of pressure. Some time even I sleep early, it took me a long time to reach the deep sleep level, and it border me so much that I felt so tired the next day because the bad sleeping quality last night. What I want to say is it is really luxury for people in modern days to have a good sleeping quality because the fast pace and the pressure of the society gave us.Here are some studies about the sleeping quality, hope it could extend people’s thought about sleeping.