Thesis Statement: There is no doubt that college students should have enough sleep at all times to protect themselves from illnesses and allow the body to rejuvenate.
- Introduction
- Sleep is known to be beneficial to the body due to the advantages that one derives from it.
- The body requires at least six hours of rest diurnally to allow various processes to take place efficiently.
- Importance of Sleep for College Students
- College students are the most vulnerable to the adverse effects of not sleeping enough.
- Quality sleep sets the basis for cognitive and psychosocial development
- The Impact of Inadequate Sleep
- That feeling relating to lack of sleep in college students is not only based on the short-term effects, but also on the long-term impacts (Singleton & Amy 359).
- The negative effects of inadequate sleep have different implications on health and society (Hershner and Ronald 79).
- Since college students have to attend classes during the day, they have minimal time to rest (National Institute of Health 1).
- Inadequate sleep leads to health and mental complications (Goel et al. 322).
- The Causes of Inadequate Sleep
- Alcoholism is one of the factors behind lack of adequate sleep among college students (Singleton, Royce & Amy 360).
- Another factor that contributes to sleeplessness in college students is the noise produced by loud music played in the halls of their dorms during the night (Hershner and Chervin 75).
- Different medical conditions cause lack of quality sleep.
- Taking medication before going to bed affects the normal functioning of the body.
- Some other causes of inadequate sleep include; too much noise, stress and depression, coffee addiction, and poor sleep patterns such as sleeping too late.
- The Solutions to Ensure Adequate Sleep
- It is essential to adopt measures that will promote practices and behaviors to enable one to have an adequate rest (Swales 466).
- The process of getting sleepy can be stimulated by performing some basic tasks that improve the relaxation of the body (Klein).
- The solution also lies in enhancing the bedroom environment.
- Some smells such as lavender are known to cause relaxation by activating the brain (Klein).
- From research, the solution to the problem lies within the aspects of the law (Forquer et al. 565).
- Conclusion
- Having good sleep is imperative in the course of safeguarding one’s health.
- Regarding college students, it is the obligation of the institutions to introduce rules that help manage students’ time, hence safeguard the future of education.
Abstract
Sleep is one of the most beneficial processes in any organism. When asleep and dreaming, the human is allowed time to rest and relax after the long day of activities. Sleep is critical for college students because they are the most vulnerable group to insufficient sleep. The students engage in many activities during the day, but most spend even night hours engaging in things that deny them sleep. The lack of adequate sleep has both short and long-term effects on the individual and society. The health of the students and the outcome of their professionalism are affected when the students are exhausted due to lack of sleep. There are factors inherent within the individual and the environment that cause lack sleep. Identification of the factors is the initial step to addressing the problem. The solution can be implemented by the individual students and the administration at the institutional level.
How to Get a Good Night Sleep
Introduction
Sleep is known to be beneficial to the body due to the advantages that one derives from it. When we dream, the organism is given time to rest, and this helps bring relaxation after a tiring day full of activities. The body requires at least six hours of rest diurnally to allow various processes to take place efficiently. You could be tired at the time of sleeping, but upon waking up, you will be feeling much better after a satisfying rest. In today’s societies, college students are busy and engage in tasks that make them stay up late, which later reduce the hours of sleep. Some of these activities include studying, completing assignments, and discussions that make individuals be awake all night. Lack of good sleep can influence the mood and judgment of a person. The student’s ability to retain information is also affected, and such a person risks being involved in an accident. In chronic cases of sleep deprivation, the individual is likely to suffer from health problems such as obesity, early mortality, and diabetes among other illnesses. Insufficient slumber is associated with poor health. Hence, it is evident that college students should have enough sleep at all times to protect themselves from illnesses and allow the body to rejuvenate.
Importance of Sleep for College Students
Worth noting, college students are the most vulnerable to the adverse effects of not sleeping enough. This is regardless the fact that sleep is essential to every creature. Sleep is not only important to human beings but also animals. College students are the majority group who fall victim to the dangers of inadequate sleep. They are always engaged in activities that make them sleep for fewer hours or go the whole night without sleep. Quality sleep is essential for good physical, mental, and psychosocial health since it promotes relaxation and restoration of healthy body functions. However, most people experience challenges with sleep which leads to fatigue and insomnia.
Evidently, quality sleep sets the basis for cognitive and psychosocial development. However, most people overlook the importance of sleep due to factors such as busy schedules, school work, shifts, social activities, and entertainment. Most people are however unaware of the negative implications of poor sleep on health, public safety, work performance, and learning. In this regard, there is need to educate people on the importance of sleep and find pertinent solutions to the health factors that contribute to poor sleep patterns.
The Impact of Inadequate Sleep
That feeling relating to lack of sleep in college students is not only based on the short-term effects, but also on the long-term impacts. College students need to ensure that they have enough time for sleep due to various reasons. In the short term, lack of adequate sleep makes a mind inactive (Singleton & Amy 359). This means that sleepy students are not able to fully grasp the information offered by the professors while in class. Some of the more precise and demanding professions are incredibly serious, and cannot allow for workers who are not well educated. Consider a student of medicine who is not well trained in his or her field, or lacks the understanding of basic concepts crucial for the profession. There is a need for higher institutions to regulate students’ sleeping time to avoid instances where students fail to rest due to their other activities.
The negative effects of inadequate sleep have different implications on health and society. In particular, lack of sleep causes inattention since the body is deprived of relaxation and rejuvenation at night. Additionally, they record high rates of fatigue, lack of motivation, and poor performance since they are too tired to function normally (Hershner and Ronald 79). Consequently, sleep deprived individuals experience difficulties whenever they engage in daily routines such as schoolwork and jobs. Inattention further leads to injuries and accidents which undermine public safety. Furthermore, inattention causes body injuries due to the minor accidents at work, school, or at home. In particular, inattentive drivers are the leading causes of roads accidents across the country. Likewise, inattention at work, especially in areas such as security, energy, and public health leads, undermines public safety.
Since college students have to attend classes during the day, they have minimal time to rest (National Institute of Health). Accordingly, they do not concentrate during the lectures due to the fatigue. In light of this, the students are inattentive during lectures; hence they record poor grades. Subsequently, such students become incomplete professionals when they join the job markets. The lack of adequate education in any profession is detrimental, and the impacts can be fatal. In the long term, people suffer due to poorly trained professionals, who ended up as such because of unhealthy sleep schedules during their studies (Hershner & Chervin 74).
In addition, inadequate sleep leads to health and mental complications. Sleep is a healthy activity that promotes growth and development among children; however, children with poor sleeping patterns record poor physical and mental health. There are situations whereby lack of sleep undermines cognitive processes such as learning, thinking, and memory (Goel et al. 322). Individuals who experience insomnia experience high rates of memory loss which negatively affects social interactions. Besides this, students experience difficulties in learning due to poor reasoning, memory, headaches, and inattention leading to inadequate problem-solving skills. Physically, sleep deprivation causes numerous heart conditions such as heart failure, high blood pressure, stroke, and chronic heart disease.
The Causes of Inadequate Sleep
Alcoholism is one of the factors behind lack of adequate sleep among college students. Most students in college are also victims of alcoholism (Singleton, Royce & Amy 360). They spend the night drinking, and then attend classes during the day. Therefore, they usually get little time for sleep. Additionally, many college institutions do not have rules concerning students’ time management. They are left with the decision on how they want to spend their free time. Another factor that contributes to sleeplessness in college students is noise produced by loud music played in the halls of their dorms during the night (Hershner & Chervin 75). Loud music creates an unfavorable sleeping environment for the students who wish to sleep. Poor sleep quality can be attributed to staying up late in the night watching television or listening to music. On the same note, the light that electronics such as computers emit cause eye irritation and hence distract the normal sleeping patterns (Hershner and Ronald 75). Most of the college students study at night or engage in activities such as partying and drinking. Some people use naps to compensate for the sleep they lost at night; however this negatively affects the body leading to sleeping difficulties at night. All these activities confuse normal body functions leading to poor sleep patterns and insomnia.
Lack of quality sleep is caused by different medical conditions ranging from mild to serious issues that cause insomnia. In particular, individuals who suffer from sinus (nasal) allergies experience significant breathing challenges throughout the night. These conditions are worsened by weather variations such as extremely cold weather, which lead to discomfort while sleeping. There are conditions such as chronic pain that cause the body organs that promote relaxation and sleep to function poorly since it focuses on the pain rather than the sleep. Additionally, the medications associated with different conditions such as nasal allergies, heart disease, and depression contribute to insomnia due to the hormonal changes that occur in the body.
Taking medication before going to bed affects the normal functioning of the body, therefore altering the sleeping patterns. Some activities an individual engages in can distort the body processes, leading to poor quality of sleep such as taking caffeine just before bedtime. When consumed, the substance stimulates the body, making it hard to relax naturally at night. Therefore, it is recommended to reduce the consumption of coffee before going to bed.
Some other causes of inadequate sleep include; too much noise, stress, and depression, coffee addiction, and poor sleep patterns such as sleeping too late. Additionally, inadequate sleep promotes inattention, fatigue, poor school and work performance, depression, and accidents. Stress is the leading cause of inadequate sleep due to the different variations in mood changes. Stressed people tend to overthink past, present, and future events, record increased tension, and worry throughout the day. Therefore, studies indicate that inadequate sleep represents psychological and mental issues such as stress, depression, and anxiety (Nutt, Sue, and Louise 331). For instance, a student who is stressed out over school work or overwhelmed by responsibilities has a higher likelihood of losing sleep throughout the night. In this case, stress is also linked to reduced motivation, feelings of hopelessness, isolation, and reduced energy. These issues ultimately cause people to lack sleep at night. Additionally, there are people who experience high levels of anxiety which affects their sleep patterns since their mind focuses on unnecessary things.
The Solutions to Ensure Adequate Sleep
It is essential to adopt measures that will promote practices and behaviors to enable one to have an adequate rest. Factors that affect the quality of dream must be identified and taken care of to make sure that nothing interferes with the process of sleeping. One of the ways to have a good rest is to observe a routine, whereby you have particular times of slumber and waking up every day (Swales 466). This helps synchronize the body to that cycle of dreaming and arousing. By keeping a regular wake-sleep schedule, a student will feel more energized and refreshed, as compared to the case when one rests at different hours, but for the same duration of time. There is a need to optimize the dream quality by avoiding sleeping in, which is found to disrupt the cycle of slumber. The process of the body wanting to take a nap is controlled by exposure to light, which assists in regulating the cycle of sleeping. Darkness allows the brain to secrete melatonin, responsible for slumberous feeling, and this makes it necessary to reduce light exposure to facilitate a sound dream (Klein). The illumination in the bedroom should be turned off at night to make it easier to fall asleep. One can also use heavy curtains to block light from entering the room. Taking a shower before going to bed can improve the quality of rest, as well as increase the rate of falling asleep.
The process of getting sleepy can be stimulated by performing some basic tasks that improve the relaxation of the body. One of the solutions is assuming various sleep stimulators that can be used to enhance sleep such as such as taking a warm bath, playing quiet music, or reading a book before sleep. To guarantee a good sleep, there are primary measures that one needs to take; the bed and the bedding should enhance proper sleep (Klein). This means that ensuring comfortability of the bed should be a priority. Besides, the bedroom and the bedroom furniture should not have dazzling colours as they tend to affect the quality of sleep (National Institute of Health). There are specific activities that reinforce proper sleep, for instance, reading under the low light while in bed helps in relaxing the body, consequently enabling one to sleep. Furthermore, taking a warm birth before going to bed, not to mention listening to gentle music significantly improves one’s ability to sleep comfortably.
The solution also lies in enhancing the bedroom environment. The bed and the beddings should be relaxing to create a quieting environment. The setup of the room is also a key to ensure good night’s sleep. The choice of furniture and its installation will affect the quality of dream. The movables should be appealing, and illumination made in a way to emit only the necessary light, but not bright to affect sleeping (Mayo Clinic Staff). The bed should be comfortable, as nobody likes waking up with an aching back. The other important thing is to ensure that the room is cool enough to allow you dream without disruption. Temperatures should be right to induce dream and guarantee optimal rest. A fan can be used to keep the air cool when the temperatures are high.
Some smells such as lavender are known to cause relaxation by activating the brain. As such, one can spray their pillowcases slightly to help them sleep soundly. Anything else that can disrupt a healthy dream should be removed from the bedroom. These include pets, which tend to sneak and share the bed (Klein). The scratching and snoring of animals can disrupt a pleasant slumber. Before sleeping it is also crucial to determine the body position. Ensuring that the spine is straight will eliminate sprains and promote relaxation. A pillow should be used as a headrest to improve the quality of slumber.
From research, the solution to the problem lies within the aspects of the law. Rules from within the institution and also outside can assist solving the problem of inadequate sleep in college students. For instance, the college administrations should set guidelines that educate students in time management. Music should also not be allowed in dorms and student residences past 10:00 pm. This will help create a conducive environment for sleeping. Quiet environments facilitate good sleep (Forquer et al. 565). Additionally, those in charge should consider implementing curfews for students so that everyone who resides within the institution can live in a healthy environment. On the same note, the institution should provide information on the correlations between inadequate sleep and common diseases, such as obesity and diabetes. Other legal aspects can be applied by regulatory bodies outside the institution. This includes laws regarding appropriate drinking age to ensure that students who are not of age cannot acquire alcohol. This can be done by raising the age to 25 years because the majority of college students are 18 to 23 years old. By doing so, the community (students) would be happier, healthier, and better rested because they would get sufficient time to sleep, rest and relax ready to begin the following day.
Conclusion
Having good sleep is imperative in the course of safeguarding one’s health. In fact, the adverse effects associated with not sleeping enough are proof that sleep is as essential as other activities that keep an individual healthy. Undoubtedly, people who do not sleep enough always perform poorly in their duties. Subsequently, such people are prone to causing accidents and hence harming themselves as well as others (National Institute of Health). Of importance is to understand that a person bereft of enough sleep is vulnerable to a myriad of health complications. Also, mental complications can occur if one does not sleep well. Additionally, sleep is indispensable towards ensuring healthy growth for children. Lack of sleep affects the cognitive functioning of the brain such as reasoning and thinking, thus leading to negative growth. Furthermore, insomnia is associated with memory loss, further affecting the social behaviour of affected individuals. Regarding college students, it is the obligation of the institutions to introduce rules that help manage students’ time, hence safeguard the future of education.
Works Cited
Klein, Sarah. “The 37 Best Tips For Better Sleep Tonight”. The Huffington Post, 2016, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/17/better-sleep-tips-best_n_4958036.html. Accessed on 23 March 2017.
Mayo Clinic Staff,. “Sleep Tips: 7 Steps To Better Sleep”. Mayo Clinic, 2017, http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/sleep/art-20048379. Accessed on 23 March 2017.
NHS Choices,.”How To Fall Asleep – Live Well”.Nhs.Uk, 2016, http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/insomnia/Pages/bedtimeritual.aspx. Accessed on 23 March 2017.
Swales, John M. Genre Analysis. 1st ed., Cambridge [England], Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Goel, Namni, Hengyi Rao, Jeffrey S. Durmer, and David F. Dinges ‘Neurocognitive Consequences of Sleep Deprivation.’ Seminars in Neurology, vol. 29, no. 4, 2009, pp. 320-339.
Hershner, Sheley and Ronald D Chervin. ‘Causes and consequences of sleepiness among college students.’ Nature and Science of Sleep, vol. 6, 2014, pp. 73-84.
Nutt, David, Sue Wilson, and Louise Paterson. ‘Sleep disorders as core symptoms of depression.’ Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, vol. 10, no. 3, 2008, pp. 329-336.
Forquer, Leanne M., et al. “Sleep Patterns of College Students at a Public University.” Journal of American College Health 56.5, 2008, pp. 563-565.
Hershner, Shelley D., and Ronald D. Chervin. “Causes and Consequences of Sleepiness Among College Students.” Nat Sci Sleep 6, 2014, pp. 73-84.
Singleton, Royce A., and Amy R. Wolfson. “Alcohol Consumption, Sleep, and Academic Performance Among College Students.” Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs 70.3, 2009, pp. 355-363.
National Institute of Health. Why Is Sleep Important? – NHLBI, NIH.” National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) – NHLBI, NIH, 2012, www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health topics/topics/sdd/why. (National Institute of Health).
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
