Josh Ford

Mrs. Thomas
UWRT 1102
November 19, 2015
Reflection
After writing my first draft of my thesis paper I wasnt feeling too good about it and felt
like there wasnt too much flow to it and was all over the place, which left me with a lot more
work to do when I was revising and finishing it. After completing my revision of it I feel like I
have written a good thesis that I am more comfortable with. At first I was concerned on how I
was going to be able to write 8 to 10 pages on this but after going through each of my sources
and reflecting on them while going along with the assignment sheet, I was able to complete it
much easier than I thought I would have been able to. The only thing I am concerned about is
staying on topic of my argument on sleep deprivation and not getting into talking about sleep in
general. I decided on this topic in class when one of the groups used this topic as one of their
examples and I knew I wanted to write on it when I heard it. I always complain of how tired I am
and how I dont sleep enough so I felt like this was perfect to write on. Lack of sleep and poor
sleeping patterns is a huge thing in college students and everyone in college goes through it,
making this topic relevant to every student that reads it.
Sleep Deprivation

As a college student you learn from the beginning that your sleep schedule is going to be
much different than it was your whole life. When youre younger you have a pretty consistent
sleep schedule with school being the same time every day, and even when youre older with
work. College is the first time when everyone is on their own and makes their own decisions on a
day to day basis. Sleep seems to be one of the biggest adjustments people have to make at this
time. Everyone is always up doing something together really late and then waking up early to
make their classes, relying on many naps to just make it through the day. I have personally been
through this in my three years of college and still continue to struggle to develop a sleep
schedule. I always hear about the importance of sleep and how we need to get so many hours a
night to function properly, but have always ignored it and figured I would be okay, despite
feeling myself struggling from day to day to stay awake and maintain a positive mentality.
Parents, teachers, and doctors continuously remind us that we need to consistently get adequate
amounts of sleep each night to perform our best in school and to also feel awake and healthy.
Although I obviously know everyone needs to get enough sleep each night, most nights I do not,
along with my peers, and we all make it through the school year with good grades. I believe that
the negative side effects of sleep deprivation on the health of college students arent as extreme
as experiments and doctors claim them to be.
Sleep in general has had countless studies done and numerous experiments on it
to try and understand it better. Sleep deprivation and sleep disorders have been the main focus on
most of the research done. I have done a lot of reading and researching to know that this topic is
researchable. I can recall learning about this topic in my past psychology classes and how sleep

deprivation can have many major consequences. There are two different kinds of sleep
deficiency, which are acute and chronic sleep deficiency. Short term, or acute symptoms may
result from losing a nights sleep but you will likely make a full recovery after 2 or 3
days. Chronic sleep deprivation however happens when the sufferer is unable to make up
their sleep debt, resulting in more serious physical and emotional symptoms. Sleep debt refers to
the difference between the amount of sleep you should be getting and the amount you actually
get. It's a deficit that grows every time we dont get enough sleep each night. Not sleeping
enough and not sleeping well each night are two factors that go into sleep deprivation which will
indeed effect your health, performance and safety. There isnt one main known cause of sleep
deprivation, but many different reasons. For example, just stressing on things that occur during
the day hinders our ability to sleep well at night and staying up later to work or do something
else causes us to lose sleep. This is something college students are very familiar with, since there
is always work to be done for classes. We may also have medical or mental-health conditions
that disrupt our sleep, and be well aware that we are sleep-deprived. For the most part sleep
deprivation is very often due to unrecognized sleep disorders. After a typical night's sleep, you
may not feel restored and refreshed and be sleepy during the day, but be completely unaware that
you are sleep-deprived or have a sleep disorder. People think a lot of the time that, its just the
stress from the day, or they might have always felt that way and had no idea that they should feel
differently. This lack of awareness mixes the consequences, because so many people remain
undiagnosed for years. Reducing your nighttime sleep by as little as one and a half hours for just
one night could result in a reduction of daytime alertness by as much as 32%. Sleep deprivation

also impacts your memory and cognitive ability, and it causes decreased alertness. It also causes
stress in relationships, poor quality of life, and occupational or automobile injury. The National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that each year people driving while
tired is responsible for at least 100,000 automobile crashes, 71,000 injuries, and 1,550 fatalities.
This is relevant to college students because many of us, especially at UNC Charlotte, commute
every day to class. If one of the many commuters is sleep deprived then they are at a high risk of
injuring themselves or others behind the wheel. With all those negative effects, many of the
disorders that cause sleep deprivation go away after risk assessment, education, and treatment,
memory and cognitive deficits improve and the number of injuries decreases. All the sources I
looked over and studied gave similar information on sleep deprivation and the importance of it.
They gave facts and showed studies of how it can impair you in a negative way. In college I
think the majority of students, including myself, dont get adequate amounts of sleep each night,
but I dont think the consequences are as dramatic as much of the sources say. Most college
students compensate for their lack of sleep with naps and stimulants, such as coffee, to get
through the day functionally. Although this lifestyle isnt ideal as getting enough sleep each night
and not as healthy, it is definitely better for you than not doing anything to make up for the lack
of sleep. I believe the reason college students dont experience all the negative side effects of
sleep deprivation that all the experiments and doctors say you will is because of this. I think if
college students continued their poor habits of sleep without naps and stimulants then you would
definitely see more negative effects on them.

Sleep deprivation and sleep in general, has a long history and has been looked into since
ancient Greek philosophers and scientists. Early writings on the subject amounted to little more
than just estimation, and in terms of scientific understanding, the mechanisms of sleep remained
largely unknown until the advances of the mid-20th Century. Since then, our understanding has
progressed largely, although there still remains some work to be done. An example of research
done on sleep and sleep deprivation is in 450 BC when Ancient Greek physician Alcmaeon
produces the earliest documented theory of sleep, describing it as a loss of consciousness as
blood retreats from the surface of the body. This just shows how important and mysterious sleep
is, that it has been looked into and studied as early as any other experiment. In 1925, Russianborn American Nathaniel Kleitman opens the worlds first sleep laboratory at the University of
Chicago, where he would go on to research circadian rhythms, sleep and wakefulness regulation
and sleep deprivation. This opened up a whole new world for research and learning about sleep
since they had a laboratory for patients to sleep at and study overnight. Now sleep studies are a
common thing that anyone can receive tests done on them. Some studies on college students
show that only 11% of college students have good sleep quality, and 73% have occasional sleep
problems. This same study found that 18% of college men and 30% of college women reported
suffering from insomnia within the past 3 months, and over half reported feeling sleepy during
the morning. With this information one would assume that college students are suffering on a
day to day basis not being able to complete their work, but thats obviously not the case since the
majority of the students experiencing these problems will continue to succeed in school, myself
being an example. Also after reading the statistics above one could assume that health issues are
a common problem from a lack of sleep, but through my experiences in college I personally

havent seen anyone become significantly ill from the lack of sleep. It is a commonly known
thing that the majority of people need to sleep about 8 hours each night. This is especially true
for college students, since the deep sleep that occurs early in the night and the dream sleep that
occurs later in the night are both required to learn. But the necessary amount of sleep varies from
individual to individual. This is one case where quality is more important than quantity, if you
feel alert and rested during the day, then youve gotten a sufficient amount of sleep. On the
opposite end of the spectrum is pulling all-nighters, a popular way of completing all work on
time by college students. Pulling all-nighters is said to interfere with your ability to learn new
material in the long term. You can memorize facts during an all-night study session and recall the
information through short-term memory for a test the next day, but you will most likely have to
re-learn the material for a later cumulative exam. You would think after reading the facts
provided by doctors that pulling an all-nighter would make functioning and taking a test that
same day impossible, but from personal experience from myself and peers, this is not the case.
Obviously you are tired, but you are still able to make it through the day without any severe
consequences. There is some tips and things you can do to get a better nights sleep, just relaxing
being one, because an alert mind makes it difficult to fall asleep. Slowing your pace of activities
in the evening and reading a book before bed are other ways to get a better nights rest. Avoiding
or limiting stimulants like caffeine and nicotine later in the evening; and alcohol, which can
cause unrestful sleep and frequent awakenings during the night will make for a better and
healthier sleep. Exercising and staying active are other things college students can do to get a
better nights rest. Twenty to thirty minutes of vigorous physical activity enhances deep sleep, but

avoid exercising in the 6 hours before bedtime since it increases alertness. A very popular thing
to do amongst college students to catch up on sleep is to nap throughout the day, whether its one
long nap or multiple shorter naps. However, studies show that in order to maximize your sleep at
night you should avoid long naps. Naps of thirty minutes or less can actually be beneficial and
refreshing when feeling the naturally occurring mid-afternoon slump, but more than one of these
in a day or naps much longer than this can make you drowsy and make it difficult to fall asleep at
night. I know for myself, and from talking to peers, that taking a nap for longer than thirty
minutes is actually beneficial since we stay up late regardless. Whenever I take a nap to catch up
on sleep it is always for longer than thirty minutes, which is the same case for everyone that I
talked to. I personally dont have trouble falling back to sleep at night on days that I nap for a
long amount of time, which shows that the studies and facts are subjective for everyone. Another
thing that is inconsistent with college students is their sleep schedule. Staying up late to different
hours of the night is a common thing in college, but to get the most out of your sleep a sleep
schedule should be implemented. You should go to sleep and wake up at the same time every
day; a regular sleep pattern reduces insomnia, and increases your alertness during the day.
After reading and conducting research on sleep deprivation throughout the semester, it is
clear that this is a prevalent problem amongst college students and is a very serious problem if
not treated. Although I agree a sufficient amount of sleep each night is needed to maintain good
health, I believe that how the doctors and researchers display the negative effects is a bit
dramatic and over exaggerated for college students. Being a college student currently and going
many nights a week without the proper amount of sleep without a sleep schedule, I can say that I

have not suffered severely from any of the negative side effects stated in every source. Obviously
I will be tired if I dont get enough sleep, but I wont suffer in some of the ways that are said to
happen from sleep deprivation. I have learned a lot about sleep deprivation and sleep in general
after reading and studying this topic. Sleep was one of those things where I knew it was
important but I didnt know how severe the consequences could actually be. Everyone should
know that you should try your best to get into a sleep pattern and to get at least eight hours of
sleep each night to be healthy and to be able to function at the highest level possible.

Josh Ford
Mrs. Thomas
UWRT 1102
November 19, 2015
Works Cited
"A Brief History of Sleep Deprivation and Torture | Sleep Junkies." Sleep Junkies. N.p., 25 Oct.
2012. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.
Booker, Ruth. "Sleep Deprivation." British Medical Journal. 325.7359 (2002). Print.
Feature, Michael J. Breus PhDWebMD. "Chronic Sleep Deprivation and Health Effects."
WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.
"Sleep Deprivation." SpringerReference (2011): n. pag. Web.
"What Are Sleep Deprivation and Deficiency?" - NHLBI, NIH. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.