{"id":2358,"date":"2015-10-01T08:00:52","date_gmt":"2015-10-01T12:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/?p=2358"},"modified":"2015-10-01T08:00:52","modified_gmt":"2015-10-01T12:00:52","slug":"health-corner-the-importance-of-sleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/2015\/10\/01\/health-corner-the-importance-of-sleep\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Corner: The Importance of Sleep"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY DANA REYNOLDS – STAFF WRITER<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is the one thing that almost all college students are lacking? It doesn\u2019t take a rocket scientist to figure this one out, it is most definitely sleep. But between hard classes, exams, sports practices, choir, student government, etc., how are we supposed to make time?<\/p>\n

Like everyone else on the campus, I am definitely not getting enough sleep. I stay up too late, stress too much, and wake up too early. However after doing some research, I have realized that I really need to make sure that I am setting aside time to sleep.<\/p>\n

In a CBS News special with Matthew Walker, the Director of the Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab at the University of California-Berkley, he conducted a sleep experiment on a group of five college students. After being awake for more than 24 hours, Walker found that the students performed 40 percent worse when memorizing flashcards, showing that staying up later to try to crank out a few more hours of studying may not actually be helping you in the long run. Walker claims that sleep actually enhances your memory\u2014allowing you to come back the next day even better than you were the day before.<\/p>\n

In a study at the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine, scientists paid several different subjects to test for chronic partial sleep deprivation. Chronic sleep deprivation occurs when a person routinely sleeps less than the amount required for optimal functioning. The patients received only four hours of sleep for a week and a half. During the day, scientists ran a variety of test on these patients. Even after only the first night of deprived sleep, they found that patients could not think fast, react quickly, or remember things.<\/p>\n

After watching the news special on sleep and reading different studies, I decided to conduct an experiment of my own. I asked students on Centre\u2019s campus how much sleep they averaged per night. I was surprised by my results. Almost everyone I talked to claimed that they averaged anywhere from seven to eight hours a night\u2014the recommended amount.<\/p>\n

\"Photographer:<\/a>
Photographer: Judi Zhang<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First-year Evan Doyle understands the importance of sleep.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I don\u2019t get enough sleep I feel awful and unproductive until I finally catch up on sleep,\u201d he said. \u201cI average seven to eight hours a night, but I\u2019ll throw in an hour or so of naps a day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for first-year Haley Varnadoe, the transition to maintaining the rigorous workload has caused her to get less sleep.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been getting around six hours of sleep,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I get less than seven, I have a hard time staying awake in classes. Plus it messes up my eating schedule, so I am always hungry when I do not sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior Laura Tan claimed that she suffered from sleep deprivation during her sophomore spring term.<\/p>\n

\u201cI averaged four hours a day and it was horrible,\u201d she said. \u201cWalking the small incline from Grant to Young was a daily struggle after a week. I was not even able to fall asleep because I would worry about not getting enough sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a tough sophomore spring semester, Tan has transformed her sleeping habits. She now averages between six to eight hours of sleep.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I pay enough attention in class because I am not sleepy all the time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Unlike most of the students across campus that I have talked to, I do not usually get my recommended seven to eight hours. This is something I am trying to challenge myself to change and if you are in the same boat, you should do the same.<\/p>\n

If you are trying to catch some more Z\u2019s, here are three helpful tips that can make you sleep better:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Stop using your cell phone, computer, and electronic devices thirty minutes before you go to sleep. The lights block melatonin which helps you fall asleep. Instead, let yourself unwind by reading a book or stretching.<\/li>\n
  2. Limit your caffeine. This is much easier said than done, but it could help.<\/li>\n
  3. It will make you sleep better at night.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Getting more sleep will make you feel better and more productive in the long run, so kep that in mind the next time you consider pulling an all-nighter.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    BY DANA REYNOLDS – STAFF WRITER What is the one thing that almost all college students are lacking? It doesn\u2019t take a rocket scientist to figure this one out, it is most definitely sleep. But between hard classes, exams, sports practices, choir, student government, etc., how are we supposed to make time? Like everyone else […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}