Causes And Effects Of Sleep Deprivation

Many college students suffer from sleep deprivation; only a few students would say that they are getting enough rest at night. Sleep deprivation is caused by not receiving the amount of sleep that the human body needs to function properly throughout the day. Sleep deprivation has many causes and effects that most often lead to depression, physical illness, learning problems, and irregular sleep patterns; Elizabeth Austin offers two solutions to help college students cope with sleep deprivation. In order to function normally, “adequate sleep is a biological necessity” (Austin 34). College is a transition for many students, and without prioritizing many can become sleep deprived. There are various reasons that college students could become deprived of sleep. Reasons include loud roommates, sororities/fraternities, late night jobs, and procrastination. Additionally, a student could be struggling financially or academically, and this could be possible causes for keeping one up late at night. Little to no sleep could affect how young adults function leading to multiple effects. Depression can be a result of not getting enough rest, and the “longer this

Austin states that most students manage to “get less sleep during weekdays and more sleep on weekends to pay back the sleep debt” (36). But this sleep pattern is not what the body is used to during the week and actually affects the student more than he or she thinks. The pattern of sleep the student chooses to have on the weekends makes it difficult to rise each morning for early classes, and it increases his or her sleepiness throughout the week (Austin 36). While each student thinks sleeping more on the weekends benefits them, it actually hurts them because it makes their sleep patterns irregular. When this happens it makes the week harder to deal with because everything is out of