health & wellness
No More All-Nighters
Poor sleep habits in college can tank your GPA WRITTEN BY CATHERINE CARRERA
What keeps a college student awake at night?
If it’ s their grades, then they’ re digging an even bigger hole for themselves. Poor sleep habits in college can have adirect negative impact on astu- dent’ s GPA, research shows. That’ s right: One of the more widespread traditions of college life— pulling the“ all-nighter” to study more— is counter-productive.
Many stressors affect college students: socializing, classes, studying, figuring out how to pay for books and tuition, juggling work and school, relationships, and problems at home.
“ When does ababy sleep? When everything else is OK— they’ re dry, fed and the stressors are off,” says Jodi Bailey, associate vice president for student affairs at New Jersey City University.“ It’ s the same with our students. They’ re not going to sleep if all these other things are affecting them on aday-to-day basis.”
But ifacollege student doesn’ t get adequate sleep, the struggles they face could get worse; their academic performance will be in jeopardy, and their overall health could beatrisk.
“ Once you have chronic sleep deprivation, not only will you not do well in school, but you’ ll develop more serious physical and mental health issues,” says Xue Ming, a professor and doctor of neurology at Rutgers University. Ming has studied sleep health for 14 years and has been practicing pediatric neurology for 21 years. She says students could develop cardiovascular problems, higher cholesterol levels, and
“ ONCE YOUHAVECHRONIC SLEEP DEPRIVATION, NOTONLY WILL YOU NOT DO WELL IN SCHOOL, BUTYOU’ LL DEVELOP MORE SERIOUS PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES.”
XUE MING PROFESSOR AND DOCTOR OF NEUROLOGY AT RUTGERS UNIVERSITY
increased anxiety and agitation. Ming and a team of experts surveyed New Jersey high school students in 2015 to study the relationship between a student’ s bedtime and sleep duration, and instances of chronic headaches and hypersomnolence( excessive daytime sleepiness or nighttime sleep), as well as their academic performance. The findings, which were published in The Japanese Society of Child Neurology, were consistent with other studies that showed a higher occurrence of headaches and hypersomnolence with lack of sleep. But the most important results showed that those with sleep deprivation were likely to do poorly in school, Ming says, adding that students don’ t perform well in school when the sleep state known as REM— an acronym for rapid eye movement— is interrupted.
The natural sleep cycle for most adolescents and young adults in college starts later in the night, around midnight, and ends around 8 or 9 a. m. During that sleep time, REM
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24 FALL 2018 WAYNE MAGAZINE