By Jon Parton
Their feet shuffle slowly across campus, dragging their sullen bodies to class in a half-dead state. No, the school has not been invaded by zombies—students are losing out on sleep and suffering the consequences for it.
As any student can tell you, it can be difficult to get eight hours of sleep every night while juggling the responsibilities of school, work, and family life. When so many events occur during a day, sleep is usually given less priority.
However, Chad Sanner, chair, Polysomnography/Sleep Technology, said that having bad sleep habits can have serious effects on the body and mind in the long-term.
“The bigger problem is usually when you have a partial sleep deprivation over years of time,” Sanner said. “So you’re only getting six hours of sleep over years of time.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, insufficient sleep has been linked to diabetes, cardiovascular disease and depression.
“What they found is that heart attacks increase, the number of strokes increase in people that either have too short of sleep or have fragmented sleep at night,” Sanner said.
He said that memory and performance is also affected when people lose sleep. The most dramatic short-term effects can include changes in mood. The effects can become much more severe the longer a person goes without a healthy sleep pattern.
“Depression in someone with chronic sleep deprivation is very common,” Sanner said.
According to Sanner, the best way to combat bad sleeping habits is to develop a program of sleep hygiene. The body adjusts itself to stimuli like light, food, caffeine, and even the bedroom itself. The trick is to use your bedroom for sleep, rather than a place to watch TV or use your laptop.
“It’s kind of like Pavlov’s dogs,” Sanner said. “You want to associate the bedroom with sleep, so as soon as you enter that environment, your body feels sleepy.
“The half-life of caffeine is 6 hours, but the effects of caffeine can last 8 to 12 hours,” Sanner said.
As some students know, it is not easy to force yourself to change your habits. Student Fannana Haque said she knows her sleep habits are terrible.
“I go to bed at 2:00 a.m. and wake up at 6:00 a.m.,” Haque said.
Haque said that frequent noises as well as caffeine help contribute to her lack of sleep. However, not everyone suffers from sleep deprivation.
Melody Caldwell, student, said that her sleep schedule is pretty regular.
“I usually get about seven hours of sleep every night,” Caldwell said. “I avoid drinking coffee and tea in the afternoon.”
Sanner recommends that students establish a pre-sleep ritual, turning out lights at a certain time, and avoiding caffeine in the afternoon. A consistent approach to sleep and a little common sense can help students avoid becoming one of the walking dead.
Contact Jon Parton, staff reporter, at jparton@jccc.edu.