By Chrissy Amitrano
“I can’t remember the last time I had a full night of sleep,” said Ray Hoffman, a sophomore accounting major. “I get about six hours a day, including naps, if I’m lucky.”
The story is all too familiar, especially among college students. After making time for school, work, exercise and relationships, most people are left with no time to sleep, or, if they do manage to squeeze it into their schedule, it’s not that good.
“Sometimes I wake up so tired that I feel like I can’t get out of bed,” said Anna Reis, a junior public relations major. “I end up walking around sluggish all day and usually have to consciously try to stay awake in class.”
According to the National Sleep Foundation, sleep is not only a time of rest and recovery from the everyday stresses of life, but it is also an active period during which many processes vital to health and well-being takes place. Unfortunately, at least 40 million Americans report having sleep disorders each year.
When a person gets enough sleep, he or she cycles through five stages throughout the night, all of which serve a purpose in maintaining physical and mental health. However, not getting enough sleep can have adverse effects.
“New research is revealing that a lack of sleep may be directly connected to various health problems, which without a doubt can lead to a reduced life span,” said Bill Weiss, a chiropractor who practices holistic healing to regulate his patients’ sleep in New Milford, Conn. “These conditions include some of America’s greatest epidemics, depression and obesity.”
Poor sleep can also have more sudden consequences. Drowsy driving causes more than 100,000 car crashes, 71,000 injuries and 1,500 deaths each year, according to drowsydriving.com.
“I’ve definitely driven tired when I shouldn’t have,” Hoffman said. “I just wanted to make it home so badly I didn’t care. One time, I actually swerved out of my lane because I was falling asleep and I remember feeling so scared and grateful that nothing had happened.”
The American Sleep Association recommends that the average adult gets about seven to eight hours of sleep every night.
Some ways to get a better night’s sleep include setting up a relaxing routine before bed, going to sleep and waking up the same time every day of the week, controlling your room temperature and avoiding stimulating substances and activities before bed, such as caffeine or going on the computer.
“A person should definitely talk to their physician if they are having difficulty falling and staying asleep or feel tired all day, everyday,” Weiss said. “Physicians often don’t ask about their patient’s sleep and that has to change, because evidence shows how important it really is to overall health.”
Sleep often comes secondary to school work, but, sooner or later, it catches up. (Stephen Cooney)