What Is the Effect of Lack of Sleep on College Students?

Running head: WHAT IS THE EFFECT OF LACK OF SLEEP ON A COLLEGE STUDENT'S BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR Gilbert and Weaver (2010) examined the sleep quality with academic performance with university students, whether it is complete sleep deprivation or poor sleep quality. This study was to determine if lack of sleep or having poor sleep value in non-demoralized college students were related to the low academic routine. The author’s expectations were to find the relationship between the student’s environment and lifestyle with their sleep patterns and the force it has on their educational performance.

Within the study the authors found that being able to have good sleep patterns and quality is a big key part for student to have a good GPA and being able to pass all their academics. Yet, a huge portion of college students do not get plenty or a fair amount of sleep. The authors also found in their study that students should be more considerate on the sleep value and sleep amount they should have. To the authors awareness, This is the first study to have found a relationship between poor sleep quality and lower academic performance using a large sample size and importantly, for non depressed students alone. Gilbert and Weaver, 2010). This study will provide my research with the important factors of sleep and education for a college student, in order to foresee the academic routine on the student’s foundation of sleep quality and quantity. Also it would provide my study with the question of whether our society should start regulating students to sleep enough to perform better, or instead let the students perform as they are doing. The author could not prove that poor sleep patterns resulted in a lower GPA for students, they only knew the important contributions that pointed to the conclusions of the study.

Another limitation was that when the author performed the study, they only performed the study on freshman college students and not any higher level college students. Lastly, they didn't check the University transcripts for the student’s grade point average; they relied on the student’s honesty. Mateika, Millrood, and Mitru (2002) examined the consequences of sleep on learning performance and the behavior that results from lack of sleep, in adolescents. The authors did the study to see the different options to help students re-establish and balance their normal sleep and everyday routine.

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The expectations of authors were to find a solution to help young adults in preventing the cause of their lack of sleep, whether it was from their parents, the school, work, or medical reasons. From all the different perspective views of the authors, they found that, the side effects that manifest was a consequence of sleep deprivation are independent…include inattention and poor performance in the classroom and emotional and behavioral changes. (Mateika, et. al. , 2002). With that, they looked at different changes they could make, like changing the time of when school starts, or looking if the students had sleep disorder.

They found that parents and school should help increase the promotion of healthy sleep patterns for the importance of the sleep on school and work performance and behavior in the student. This study provides a different perspective of how to deal with sleep deprivation, instead of looking at the students sleep patterns and lifestyle and changing that, this study looks at how parents, or schools can be change the lack of sleep in order for students to perform better in their school and work environment.

This provides my study with the mentality that students are mostly not to blame for their own lack of sleep, the blame can be from the amount of workload the students get from their teachers, the time they go to school and leave, the time they go to work and leave work, or even the amount of time not being able to sleep due to stress or insomnia. So all this gives me different perspectives to look at in order to solve the problem of the cause of sleeplessness.

The only limitation in this study is that when looking at school workload being increased and the early time of class becomes a bit of a problem with the amount of sleep the student loses and gains. Cruess and Wells (2006) examined the results of sleeplessness on the consumption of food and food choices, which may have a lead problem to health in issues to those who have, sleep deprivation, The authors did this study to show the link between sleep and food intake within college students.

They believe that students who sleep less would choose them food that is less healthy, because the students are less concerned of their weight and more dependent on their mood and expediency. The authors expect to see more evidence showing that stress hormones are related with the relationship between sleeping and eating, which in other words, increases in stress lead to more snacking and a decrease in the consumption of typical meal-type foods (Oliver and Wardle, 1999).

In their study they found that what they expected to find in the beginning had happened, in which there was a difference in food intake, measured by how much calories was consumed after the night of the students incomplete lack of sleep. The study also presented that there was a huge difference in food consumption and calorie intake on partial sleepless night and a normal night of rest.

This study provides my research with the behavior of food with the student, how sleep deprivation can affect a student’s choice in food, which is chosen by the mood of the student, their health, the price, the convince, the familiarity and the students appeal towards the food, in which it all goes back to whether they had a normal nights rest, or sleepless night. There are many limitations to this study, the main limitations was that this study was based mostly on self-report information, which means that it may or may not be accurate information in the study.

Another important limitation was that some of the participants in the study had recorded the start of their food and sleep records in their journals on different days, which made it hard to frame the time of the study accurately. Moreno, Louzada, and Pereira (2010) examined the role of ecological aspects in sleep duration among adolescents who have less technology and adolescents who have advance technology and how it changes the relationship of their sleep patterns.

The authors performed this study to bring out an opportunity to look at natural and ecological influences on different characteristics that is related to sleep behaviors; the authors wanted to understand why adolescents who have electric lights, and other high advance resources have a higher level of sleep deprivation, while those who have less technology have enough sleep and are able to perform better. Their expectation for the study was that there would be an interaction between the natural and ecological factors in the sleep cycle of the adolescents.

The study help the authors find that the occurrence of electric lighting in home of the adolescent is a critical factor that is related to the duration of the sleep, which results in regular amount of sleep to irregular amount of sleep in adolescents. These results are important in my study, because it supports the ideas that adolescents having advanced technology, is important when determining whether it is a factor in knowing it results in sleep deprivation. Kopasz et. al. 2008) examined that adolescent to not sleep enough and have different sleep patterns every day, due to adolescents decrease in sleep duration on school days and increase in the weekends. The purpose of this study for the authors was to find the relation between adolescents sleep schedule, the environments of the student and daytime tasks, and to look at the results with the sleep records the adolescents kept. The expectations of this study were to find a difference between the sleep patterns of during the week and the weekends, and the difference between the ages of the students and how late or early they slept.

The authors found what they were expecting, there was a significant difference between week and weekend nights, and the older students slept about an hour less per night compared with the youngest. (Kopasz, 2008). They found as our age increases, are sleep duration decreases. This study is important to my research, because it shows a new perspective of the topic, where it gives evidence of how our generation grows, we lose more sleep because of the changes in education, in life events, and our society.

This study shows how teenager are suffering the consequences of having sleep deprivation due to having to work and go to school, on top of family issues and the workload teachers give students. This is important to my study because the authors foretell that sleep deprivations in found adults is a global problem with severe consequences. The inconsistencies in the body of research are that there is not much research or experiments in the relationship of sleep and the brain with a college student.

There is much said about students behaviors with there is lack of sleep in their daily routines, but to know what happens, or what goes on in the brain, when it suffers from sleep deprivation will give my study a better perspective of the bigger picture. The gap that are in the body of this literature review is important, because it gives my study resources to look at and explore in which the other studies did not. My study will do research in both the brain and the behavior in all levels of non-depressed college students who have sleep deprivation and figure out what is the main cause of the students lack of sleep in their college lifestyle.

References Gilbert, S. P. , and Weaver, C. C. (2010). Sleep Quality and Academic Performance in University Students: A Wake Up Call For College Psychologists. Journal Of College Student Psychotherapy, 24(4), 295-306. doi: 1080/87568225. 2010. 509245. Mateika J. H. , Millrood, D. L. , and Mitru, G. (2002) The Impact Of Sleep On Learning And Behavior In Adolescents. Teachers College Records, 104(4), 704-726. doi: 10. 1111/1467-9620. 00176. Cruess, D. G. , and Wells, T. T. (2006). Effects of Partial Sleep Deprivation On Food Consumption And Food Choice. Psychology & Health, 21(1), 79-86. doi: 10. 1080/1476820500102301. Oliver, G. and Wardle, J. (1999). Perceived Effects Of Stress On Food Choice. Physiology and Behavior, 66, 511-515. Moreno, C. C. , Louzada, F. , and Pereira, E. (2010). Not All Adolescents Are Sleep Deprived: A Study Of Rural Populations. Sleep And Biological Rhythms, 8(4), 267-273. doi: 10. 1111/j. 1479-8425. 2010. 00458. x. Kopasz, M. M. , Loessi, B. B. , Riemann, D. D. , Valerius, G. G. , Voderholzer, U. U. (2008). Are Adolescents Chronically Sleep-Deprived? An Investigation Of Sleep habits Of Adolescents In The Southwest Of Germany. Child: Care, Health, And Development, 34(5), 549-556. doi: 10. 1111/j. 1365-2214. 2008. 00845. x.

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