7 College Sleep Myths
By Sandra McGill, graduate student, Georgia State University
It’s 8 a.m. You stumble into class bleary-eyed and burnt-out, fueled only by what caffeine remains in your system from those 18 frappuccinos you’ve been guzzling over the past 72 hours as you’ve been simultaneously cramming for four final exams, writing that 20-page term paper, and Facebooking your friends at hour-long intermittent intervals. Your only beacon of hope: an image of your fluffy pillow with your head on it as soon as this last exam is done.
Whether it’s because of conflicting work schedules, ineffective time management, or overwhelming course loads, sleep deprivation abounds on college campuses. And so too do opinions on what students can and can’t pull off in terms of sleep debt and functioning. So let’s separate fact from fiction as it pertains to your shut-eye.
Myth #1: All-nighters will help me retain information.
Who among us hasn’t sacrificed a good night’s sleep to cram for a test or finish a project? Does it work? Well, you may have been able to regurgitate the answers to a few true-or-false or multiple-choice questions, but when it comes to higher-order processes like taking exams that require you to apply what you’ve learned, giving an oral presentation or debate, or writing an essay, count yourself out. This is because the frontal lobes of your brain, which are largely responsible for verbal fluency, creativity, and executive function, take the biggest hit from sleep deprivation. This is often referred to by students as the “fried brain syndrome.”
In addition to the “fried brain,” learning new material improves only after sleeping at least six hours, and preferably eight, according to a study performed by Dr. Robert Stickgold, psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During this period of sleep, our brain takes information that has been acquired during the day and transfers it from short- to long-term memory, and this information is organized during REM sleep, predominantly in the last two hours of sleep.
Myth #2: Alcohol makes me sleep better.
Even though alcohol may help you fall asleep, it deprives you of the deeper, more restorative sleep stages, according to Drs. Timothy Roehers and Thomas Roth at the Henry Ford Hospital Sleep Disorders and Research Center in Detroit, Michigan. Once the booze clears your system, you typically experience greater amounts of both Stage 1 non-REM (light sleep) and REM sleep (during which you dream).
Sarah Rowe, a fourth-year student at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s, says that alcohol-induced sleep is not restorative. “Although alcohol may allow you to get to sleep quicker, you will find yourself waking up during the night and not being able to fall back asleep because of the alcohol levels in your blood.”
Myth #3: Sleep isn’t important; I can get by with just a few hours.
Although it does vary, most of us need that eight hours of sleep. Unfortunately though, there are always students who have to work at the same time they are going to school and studying. For many people, this involves working during the night into the morning hours, resulting in only a few hours of sleep per night, often for several nights in a row.
The ability to function on only four hours of sleep depends on the individual, says Judy Vorderbrugge, RN, community health co-ordinator at the University of Toronto in Ontario. “The amount of sleep that an individual needs to function optimally is not negotiable,” she explains. “If you need nine hours, you cannot “train” yourself to do well on less.” But she points out that there is a difference between functioning and doing well, particularly at school. “Most students want to excel or function optimally and that is going to be much harder, if not impossible, without getting the rest they need.”
And remember, there is such a thing as sleep debt, in which individuals consistently get less sleep than they need. According to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) in the US, sleep debt can make you more susceptible to type 2 diabetes and obesity, causes adverse effects in cognitive function, increases stress hormone levels and blood pressure, and may even shorten your life span, which isn’t a good thing.
Myth #4: Naps can help me catch up with sleep.
This one is actually true, within certain parameters. Most of us have heard of “power naps,” 20-minute to half-hour snippets of slumber we tend to slip into our day. They are effective at supplementing the eight hours we should be getting each night. According to the NSF, power nappers tend to wake up refreshed and energized, and experience more productivity and better learning later in the day.
Research led by Bryce Mander at University of California, Berkeley, has shown that power naps are most beneficial when taken from 10 to 11 a.m. and 2 to 4 p.m. when the body experiences a natural dip in its circadian rhythms. Short naps of 20 to 30 minutes are best, but don’t overdo it. Too long of a nap can cause you to wake up groggy, and deep-sleep naps interfere with nighttime sleep.
Myth #5: Exercising right before bed will get me tired and help me go to sleep.
The NSF reports that exercise is great for sleep, but too close to bedtime (three hours or less), is actually counterproductive. This is because exercise has an alerting effect and raises your body temperature. Your body needs a drop in temperature to sleep best, and when you exercise right before bed, you don’t get that cooldown until 5 or 6 hours later. So, do exercise—just not too close to bedtime.
Myth #6: If I wake up in the middle of the night, I should lie in bed until I fall back asleep.
Having trouble falling asleep, or waking up and not being able to get back to sleep, is a symptom of insomnia. If you’re lying in bed awake after 15 to 20 minutes of trying to get to sleep, get out of bed, go to another room, and engage in a calming activity such as listening to soothing music or reading. Go back to bed when you feel sleepy, and avoid watching that clock! It’s only a distraction.
Myth #7: I can stay up during the week and catch up on the weekend.
Using the weekends to sleep in an extra hour or two might be a good way to catch up on some lost sleep. Crashing all weekend and not sleeping during the week, however, is a no-no. This pattern upsets your circadian rhythms and makes it even harder to get refreshing sleep. Sleeping until noon also generally prevents you from hitting the sheets by 10 that night.
Besides, don’t you have a life on the weekends? Part of college life is getting out and experiencing new activities, meeting people, and enjoying yourself when you’re not studying. If you spend the weekend sleeping, you could be missing out on a lot.
So now you’ve met the myths and found the facts. Will you put any of this into practice? Now that would be a dream come true.
SANDRA MCGILL IS A FREELANCE WRITER AND EDITOR BASED IN ATLANTA AND IS PURSUING HER MASTER’S DEGREE IN BIOLOGY AT GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY. SHE HAS ALSO COMPLETED GRADUATE COURSEWORK AT BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE IN HOUSTON.
Find Out More
Click for more on sleep (including how to get enough) from the Canadian Sleep Society.
Click for sleep strategies in "Sleep Pays Off".
