Sleep deprivation: A Social Issue
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As I sit here typing this blog (after a serious lack of sleep), I realize that sleep deprivation has become a social norm. As college students, we are told that we need to prioritize. We are given assignments, exams, study sessions, group projects, lengthy papers, office hours to attend, mandatory study hours, lecture seminars, labs and lectures. Most even have part-time and even full-time jobs. We are also taught that we need to socialize by joining groups, clubs and organizations. Not to mention the parties that are a part of your college rite of passage. And we’re supposed to fit all this within 24 hours? When are we supposed to sleep?
As a study in the Kansas City Star put it: “lectures + coffee + cracking books + energy drinks + study groups + pizza + goofing off + more coffee + last-minute cramming + finals = ZERO sleep.” Doesn’t this sound like a normal day in the life of the average college student? Not to mention working. I did a lot of research on this….it’s what I do best as a biology major….and found some stunning results:
On weeknights, 20 percent of students stay up all night at least once a month and 35 percent stay up until 3 a.m. at least once a week. (Medical News Today)
Twelve percent of poor sleepers miss class three or more times a month or fall asleep in class. (Medical News Today)
More than 60 percent of college students have disturbed sleep-wake patterns and many take drugs and alcohol regularly to help them do one or the other. (Medical News Today)
Two-thirds of the students reported that they had pulled at least one all-nighter during a semester. (USA Today)
But with all this lack of sleep there are some major consequences. Some of these include: headaches, blurred vision, dizziness, nausea, weakened immune system, irritability, stress, anxiety, loss of ability to focus and to concentrate (eHow). How are we, as college students, supposed to learn (the focus of college) if we aren’t given the opportunity by over-scheduling by professors and a greater expectations than can be met in a healthy manner?
Students try to meet the needs and expectations of all their professors which in turn cause their health and well-being to be compromised. This becomes the social norm at every college campus. This will continue until at all campuses and accelerate over time until students are asked to get close to no sleep. Alcohol and drugs are then substituted in order to attain sleep when insomnia occurs or to stay awake to study after already suffering from sleep deprivation.
Sleep deprivation, alcohol and drugs are becoming so normalized in our society that major medical costs are being felt. Society is changing into one that doesn’t think of their health first and lives by the clock instead. Has our sleep even become McDonaldized?
Ritzer talks about how McDonaldization uses the aspects of efficiency, predictability, quantification, and control. As students we are told that we need to be efficient with our work. When we write an essay, we are told to get to the point but to include as much detail as possible. We are given a certain amount of time to take a test so that we are controlled. Assignments are to be turned in a certain predictable time. Grades are given to us to quantify our work. With all these expectations of college students, how is sleep supposed to be factored in? Sleep is controlled by our alarm clocks which go off every morning at a predictable time and much too early. We only sleep a certain amount so that our day can be efficient.
What can we do to solve this? Professors can assign less busy work to allow for more time to study the material instead of doing the extra unnecessary work. Universities can also have fewer requirements for students to graduate and allow fewer units to be considered a “full-time” student. Classes should still ask for the same knowledge of material, though.
References:
http://www.ehow.com/facts_4852933_side-effects-sleep-deprivation.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-09-16-sleep-deprivation_N.htm
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/160265.php
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/10/10/3199602/if-students-dont-snooze-they-los...
Ritzer, George. The McDonalization of Society 6, Pine Forge Press, 2011.