Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Silliman University College Students

Jose Enriquez
BBA-Economics II

Melvin Tacaisan
BTh-Pastoral Ministry II

Mrs. Myla June T. Patron

Instructor
BC 25 - I
March 6, 2011
Table of Contents
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Page

Topic Outline……………………………………………………………………….. iii

Sentence Outline……………………………………………………………………. iv
Section
Introduction………………………………………………………………….. 1
Effects of Sleep Deprivation……………………………………………… 1
Definition……………………………………………………………… 2
History………………………………………………………………… 2
Cause………………………………………………………………….. 4
Health problems brought by Sleep Deprivation………………………….. 5
Memory Loss………………………………………………………...... 6
Micro Sleep……………………………………………………………. 7
Insomnia……………………………………………………………….. 7
Effects of Sleep deprivation on Academic Performance………………….. 9
Grades………………………………………………………………….. 9
Class Participation……………………………………………………… 10
Survey Results……………………………………………………………... 10
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………… 13
References……………………………………………………………………………. 14
Appendix……………………………………………………………………………... 15
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Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Silliman University College Students

“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” Those who

followed this saying should have by then realized the true meaning behind every line. Sleep is a

necessary requirement of our body in order to function well and acquiring a healthy, comfortable

and long-lasting life. According to Dr. Jeremy Pendroso, depriving oneself of sleep could be

damaging in a lot of ways. It may also be a factor of depression and other sickness (Pendroso,

2002, p. C1). Based on a study conducted by the Columbia University Medical Center; not

enough sleep could generate depression among teenagers and could increase the rate of suicidal

thoughts. “Our results are consistent with the theory that inadequate sleep is a risk factor for

depression, working with other risk and protective factors through multiple possible casual

pathways to the development of this mood disorder,” said lead author Dr. James Gangwisch

(Gangwisch, 2005, p. 98-99). A person often pondering on the question why is that sleep is a

necessity to every living creature in this planet? What makes it so important that a large portion

of our precious time is spent on sleeping? Based on the studies of Frankie Aguilera, the damage

that has been done to our body is repaired in the time when we are sleeping. Sleep plays a major

role in affecting lives of people in many ways and increasing their life expectancy. The sleep

requirement varies among age and the social demand of a person depending on the amount of

work and nutrition he intake (Aguilera, 2010, p. 20). It can therefore be said that sleep
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deprivation of Silliman university Vernon Hall residents are causing health problems that

negatively affect their academic performance.

Effects of sleep deprivation have been ignored for the past few years. According to the

research of Jerick Orchlavi, sleep deprivation is a practice not only among adults but to teenagers

as well especially college students, since during college years this is the prime time of students

of enjoying their life to its utmost purpose and students find their life too short (Orchlavi, 2001,

p. 156). People especially teenagers often take sleep for granted while reasoning that they enjoy

their life better during night time and sleep only disrupts this pleasure. Sleep deprivation is a

practice among students where they force themselves still awake at night. Sleep deprivation

according to the doctors is a bad habit especially students in which reducing their sleeping hours

due to some reasons trying to beat their internal clocks and claim that they don’t need rest. The

real problem starts from their reactions and way of thinking that they don’t need to sleep most of

the time. It is important to know the meaning of sleep deprivation and the effects if practiced.

There are a lot of dangers accompanying sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation is far more

perilous than we think. According to some studies, staying awake for 17-19 hours straight could

be compared to those who are drunk and worse. The Guinness Book of Records removed the

record for staying awake so as to stop those who dream of breaking the record. Other dangers of

sleep deprivation include increased levels of stress, anxiety, depression and willingness to take

risks (Philippine Daily Star, 2008, p. E4).

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The discovery of sleep deprivation started when people became interested with sleep and

wanted more knowledge to this area of practice, so researches were conducted for this purpose. It

was found out that sleep deprivation has been among people ever since the old times and the

effects were already felt but the problem were people during those time didn’t know how to

handle this disorder because they don’t know what causes it. During early times our ancestors

followed their natural rhythms of nature and their internal body clocks, sleeping when it was

dark and awoke when it was bright but as the invention of high technological things started and

made thru some major discoveries their lifestyle has changed drastically and their sleeping

patterns became complicated (Lifestyle of Our Ancestors). Inventions of man are one of the main

reasons why sleep deprivation has accelerated to this degree. These major discoveries though

they made life easier for people but they also brought some other problems and those who

greatly affected are the students. Students are indulging themselves among these creations like

the use of artificial lights, instead of a cool, dark and perfect environment for sleep this so called

“fluorescents” destroys the ambiance of the perfect place to sleep. Since electricity was

discovered students spend their nights playing computer games or watching television and some

would use this light to study late at night. The dependence on these creations is already

developing to a degree that is dangerous that it take over their lives. As the world gets more

industrialized so does the amount of work that mounts up. College life is the time where there are

a lot of paperwork and projects to be done to gain higher academic degree. Students spend most

of their time finishing up project/projects or doing research on their term papers late at night and

force themselves awake for these purposes according to Phillip Norrington, a Ph.D. in
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psychology; he also stated that lack of sleep also affects the performance of students in school

and their daily lives so it is important to sleep (Norrington, 2003, p. c2). Sleep deprivation has

been a big issue and yet students don’t even bother to care as such thing.

Depriving oneself of sleep could be damaging in a lot of ways. There are a lot of factors why

students deprive themselves of sleep. Based on the survey results we conducted, reasons like

parties, friends, and studies are what our respondents answered that consumes most of their time

and they would have to give up part of their sleeping time for these factors. Sleep deprivation as

what they have declared is practiced especially during finals because it is during this time that

they tend to cram everything and study for their final exams. One main reason for this is that the

students don’t know how to organize their time to such extent that they have a lot of lessons to

study during finals in order to make up for their lost opportunities. They extend their time as

much as possible so as to have time for all their exams and to fulfill their requirements in order

to proceed to the next level (Factors That Affect Academic Performance, n.d). Finals is also the

time for major projects and term papers which is time consuming for college students especially

those who are graduating so as to comply for their responsibilities they tend to burn the night

away and do multi-tasking just so they could finish all their requirements. Parties and friends are

also some of the major reasons for deprivation of sleep amongst students. As students it is

undeniable that pressure is a part of their daily life and a way for students to combat such

pressures in to unwind by going out with friends and enjoy parties. Student enjoys the company

of friends while forgetting the time on the process. Drinking of alcoholic beverages for college

student has been considered a ritual in stepping into the college world. The freshmen are
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somewhat forced to join and be a part of the ritual so as to lessen the pressure of the upper year

levels given to them. But a study found out that drinking of alcoholic beverages puts you in a

state of false or fake sleep but unlike the normal sleeping pattern, it raises your blood pressure

and does not allow you to enter REM or deep sleep which is the stage of sleep wherein your

body is well rested (Real Effects of Alcohol). It interferes with the sleeping pattern of the

students and could affect the brain if too much is consumed. Another cause of sleep deprivation

is the lifestyle of students. Factors like exercise among students could lead to sleep deprivation

since it was found out by researches in Riverside Medical Center that daily exercise overworks

the mind and stimulates the nerves requiring it to cool down. Frederick Beynes, the lead

researcher, also mentioned that exercise proved to be a hindrance to sleeping patterns of people

because it elevates body temperature for a period of time (Beynes, 1893 pp. 234-237). The use of

caffeine between students is also another cause since caffeine boosts up the nervous system

allowing students to sleep less and finish their own business. Smoking is also a major cause.

College students are fond of smoking but what they don’t know is that cigarettes contain nicotine

which is a stimulant and would keep you awake for hours.

Health problems like micro sleep, memory loss and insomnia are common between students.

These health problems are what make lack of sleep dangerous especially to students since they

are more prone to this health risks. It affects their performance not only physically but also

mentally and could reach a long term effect. Memory loss is one the many effects of sleep

deprivation. Lack of sleep can also affect the brain which is responsible for memory. Study

shows that those deprived of sleep even for just a night could become quick tempered and
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clumsy. After missing two nights sleep, a person could lose concentration and starts to make

mistakes even as simple as a daily task. After three nights, the person would start hallucinating.

The focus of a person is diminished without proper sleep (Person Who Loses One Night of

Sleep, n.d). Dr. Chee said that “we found that visual short-term memory capacity dropped

following sleep deprivation and that this was likely due to a reduced ability to focus attention.”

“A small group of sleep deprived volunteers who had better performance were better able to tune

out distraction, but even they suffered from compromised visual attention and processing.” Chee

also said that “however, if the information is not properly handled by the visual system, either as

a result of a failure to direct attention appropriately or a failure of visual areas to process what is

seen, you can forget about the later stages of information consolidation and storage.” “When

people are sleep deprived, they may not be seeing what they think they should be seeing, and it

appears that this is what contributes to memory declines following sleep deprivation.” (Chee,

1982, p. c3). The ability of the brain to function following sleep deprivation appears to vary with

the task at hand, and in some cases the brain attempts to compensate for the adverse effects

caused by lack of sleep. Memory loss is a disadvantage for students. It disables their full

potential in answering their exams and quizzes because what they have learned or studied may

be lost because they lack sleep. “There are two ways to improve the memory: first, give your full

attention to anything that you wish to remember, don’t let your mind wander, pay no attention to

trifles since they interfere with the ability to remember important things,” according to Dr.

Morris Fishbein, the former editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association (Fishbein,

1997, p. B3).
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Micro sleep occurs when a person has significant sleep deprivation. Micro sleep is an

incident where sleep occurs for a couple of seconds and may be caused by sleep deprivation or

other diseases like mental fatigue, sleep apnea, narcolepsy or hypersomnia. the brain

automatically shuts down, falling into a sleep state for a period that can last from a second to half

a minute. The person falls asleep no matter what activity he or she is engaged in, micro sleeps

are also similar to “blackouts” and a person experiencing them is not consciously aware that they

are occurring. Micro sleep episodes are the risks brought by sleep deprivation to people who are

experiencing “daytime sleepiness.” Accidents may follow people who experience micro sleep

(Morrison, 1988, p. 69). Micro sleep has caused a lot of accidents especially to drivers who

experience “gap driving” where they become unconscious for a couple of seconds thus proving

that micro sleep really is lethal. The incident like the waterfall train disaster that happened last

2003 was also caused by micro sleep. People who are in situations where their alertness is

demanded like driving cars and working with machines would be in danger if something happen

when they experience micro sleep since they won’t be aware of anything. This could also happen

to students and could prove to be crucial in times when the teacher gives an important topic and

the student suddenly fell asleep. Due to lack of sleep students would suddenly experience these

episodes and might affect them long-term.

Insomnia on the other hand is a sleeping disorder where a person either finds it hard to fall

asleep or wakes up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep anymore. The most

commonly complained sleeping disorder is insomnia. Factors that may potentially contribute to

developing insomnia include travel, noise, family responsibilities, pain, stress, nocturia, getting
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up during the night to urinate and many more. Insomnia is actually a symptom, not the problem

itself. It may be and indicator if the complainant maintains a good and healthy lifestyle or not.

Insomnia does not exempt anyone and may start at any age (Stewart, 1999, p. 38). A well known

study performed on a rat a long time ago where the rat that was prevented to sleep would die in

about three weeks for losing the ability of keeping its body heat stable and its immune system

was unable to fend off fevers and virus. The same goes for human too, if they have extended

exposure to insomnia this could also lead to their demise. A lot of college students tend to stay

awake at night to study for exams the flowing day but not knowing that staying up late could

actually alter the desired result. Lack of sleep also makes it harder to concentrate on the student’s

studies far more memorize them and actually give them a disadvantage. Those who suffer from

this disorder resort to drugs but as exposure to these drugs could lead to dependence it is highly

not recommended. There are actually ways on how to avoid insomnia without turning to drugs.

Simple things like keeping your sleeping environment cool, dark and quiet could actually help

insomniacs better adjust their “circadian rhythm”. Avoid noises that could stir you up, instead

listen to soothing music to help you relax and calm your nerves and state of self or take a hot

bath to soothe your body (Pineda, n.d). Your bed should serve its only purpose and that is to

provide relaxation and sleep other than that would destroy the impression that the bed is solely

for sleep. Stick to a regular sleeping and waking cycle in order for your internal clock to adjust.

According to Dr. Macaso, never ever think of problems when lying in bed to avoid linking your

bed to worrisome thought so as not to disrupt your sleeping pattern. “If you can’t sleep while

tossing and turning on your bed, it is better to get up and think about your problems in another
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part of the house or do something relaxing like meditating or praying before going back to bed”

(Macaso, 1982).

Academic Performances of college students are affected by sleep deprivation in a lot of ways.

Sleep deprivation is a huge problem on the rise among college student. Study shows that students

who lack sleep actually do poor performances unlike those who had adequate rest. Psychology

professor Pamela Thatcher believed that thoughts of students on staying up is “it’s kind of fun”

and they enjoy it. She found out that one reason of students for staying up late is the feeling they

get when they’re sleep deprived (Thatcher, n.d, p. c3-c4). Fulfilling a task for the day would be

harder if one lacks sleep and as for students they could not achieve their full academic potential

without sleep. Students who lack sleep get low grades. As researched by some students of

Princeton University, students with less sleep are groggy and acts unlikely during class. Most of

the student fail their subjects because of lack of sleep. Based on our survey results, about 12

students have problems with sleep out of 35 respondents. Those students who are obliged to

maintain an academic status have a bigger tendency to study at night and would not sleep. The

average sleeping hours of the respondents is 7 hours, of course resulting to the feeling of

refreshment and happiness. There are only small group respondents who actually sleep early;

most of them sleep in the wee hours of the morning. Almost half of the population of the

respondents chose studies as their main reason of staying up late. Study shows that a school tried

an approach where they changed their assembly time from 7:15 to 8:30 and the results were

amazing, students had an increase in their grades and improved their performance. The
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attendance of students also improved and became better (Factors That Affect Academic

Performance, n.d.).

Students lose their concentration during discussions and lectures. Lack of sleep could cause

the brain to deteriorate and in this process the cells would become unstable making it hard for the

student to listen attentively (Mendez, 2001, p. 45-46). There are also complaints about being

forgetful during discussions, the attention span of students being affected by lack of sleep. Sleep

deprivation affects the academic performance of college students in a lot of ways.

We have conducted a survey asking college students their experiences regarding sleep and we

got our answers helping us in our study. Some of the answers are found below:
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As years pass by, the experience of sleep deprivation has brought us to conduct this research

about its origin and its effects. Sleep is essential for growth and very important for students since

they need more rest than adults. The human body is complicated and has limitation and by

depriving it of sleep would mean death. We have concluded that sleep deprivation of Silliman

University college students are causing them health problems that negatively affect their

academic performance.

References
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