While college students are known for all night study sessions, late parties and downing caffeine drinks to burn the midnight oil, a new study shows they need more sleep. While the sugary beverages aren’t helping, a new study shows sleep should be a college student’s top priority.
The study and the results:
The University of Cincinnati evaluated about 200 undergrads, the majority of which worked full or part time jobs while going to school. While the national recommendation for people age 18-24 is about 7 to 8 hours of sleep, only about 24 percent of students were logging that kind of snooze time. About 56 percent reported under 7 hours and 20 percent reported sleeping more than 8 hours a night.
The problem with too little or too much shut eye:
“Sleep helps us save energy. It repairs cells in the body. And it’s key for memory consolidation,” Adam Knowlden, a doctoral student that led the study explained.
“During sleep, the brain acts like a hard-drive on a computer. It goes in and cleans up memories and makes connections stronger, and it gets rid of things it doesn’t need.
So if a student is sleep-deprived, it affects the whole process.”
Knowlden went on to say, “Students aren’t able to learn, they’re not able to remember, it’s harder to concentrate and it affects mood. They’re working their way through college and they’re not maximizing their learning potential.”
The suggestions:
Proper sleep hygiene means setting up a proper bedtime ritual to enhance sleep, Knowlden says. Here’s what he recommends students avoid:
*Restrict caffeine, alcohol and nicotine within four to six hours of bedtime.
*Avoid intense exercise within one hour of bedtime.
*Avoid going to bed and getting up at different times.
*Avoid long naps – a 15-minute “power nap” is enough.
*Avoid online social networking and games before bed
*Avoid studying, reading, eating or watching TV in bed as part of the bedtime routine.
*Eliminate too much light and noise in the bedroom.
For other articles related to teens check out “How kids get parents to buy junk food” and “Is tanning addictive?”
