Here\u2019s an easy math problem with a challenging solution: The average young adult needs nearly nine hours of sleep per night to ensure physical, mental and emotional well-being.<\/p>\n
The average college student gets just six-and-a-half hours of sleep per night. In case you\u2019re too tired to do the math, that adds up to 17.5 hours of lost sleep in just one week. Not good.<\/p>\n
These numbers are the result of research by Sue Adams<\/a>, professor of human development and family studies in the College of Health Sciences, and several colleagues. Other researchers have found that 25 percent of college students get fewer than six hours of sleep per night. If that statistic holds true at URI, nearly 3,700 undergraduates are stumbling sleepily through their days.<\/p>\n A 2016 study by Adams\u2019 team indicates that the problem is getting worse, thanks in large part to mobile phones. Students\u2019 compulsive cell phone use, triggered largely by FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), is a major sleep stealer, the researchers reported.<\/p>\n \u201cStudents are sleep deprived in part due to their phones and not wanting to miss important calls or texts from friends or parents. They fear that someone will need them and they won\u2019t be available,\u201d said Adams, who founded URI\u2019s Sleep Research Lab.<\/p>\n Study participants reported sleeping with cell phones under their pillows or otherwise within reach and responding to every jingle or jiggle. Such scenarios lead to the phenomenon of \u201csleep texting,\u201d in which barely alert students respond to text messages. Adams said weary students report dozing off in class or struggling to stay awake to study.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s normal, even a badge of courage, for this population to be sleep deprived,\u201d said Warren Schwartz, a psychotherapist in URI\u2019s Counseling Center who employs Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for insomnia, a well-tested, highly effective approach.<\/p>\n Adequate sleep is necessary for neurons in your brain\u2014and muscles and tissues throughout your body\u2014to repair themselves. A good night\u2019s sleep allows you to complete rigorous classwork, take part in sports or exercise, and remain resilient in the face of the emotional ups and downs of college life.<\/p>\n Sleep deprivation also can have lasting consequences. It diminishes cognitive functioning, raises the risk of depression and anxiety, increases risk-taking behaviors, and affects weight and appetite. Research by Kathleen Melanson<\/a>, professor of nutrition sciences in the College of Health Sciences and director of the Energy Balance Laboratory<\/a>, have explored the link between sleep deprivation and weight gain.<\/p>\n \u201cWe (and others) have found that sleep deprivation can shift hormones that regulate appetite, how your body metabolizes food and balances energy. This, in turn, can lead to excess calorie intake, along with dietary choices that are higher in added sugars, sodium and fats,\u201d Melanson said.<\/p>\n Although a person expends more calories when awake than during sleep, someone who is sleep deprived tends to take in excess calories and has less tolerance for exercise. \u201cThe caloric overage is usually stored as fat. Indeed, studies have shown that sleep-deprived individuals often have higher BMI and body fat,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Not surprisingly, lack of sleep can impact academic performance. Schwartz said research published in 2010 has shown that students who report poor sleep quality have lower GPAs and leads to the reasonable conclusion that students with poor sleep quality may be more likely to drop out of school than their well-rested peers.<\/p>\n Some barriers to a good night\u2019s sleep can come from the college environment\u2014a noisy dorm, a roommate who keeps a light on. But insomnia on college campuses is often voluntary, given the pressure to forgo sleep and socialize in person with new friends or electronically with old ones. And once your body gets used to odd hours, your sleep schedule is disrupted and rest is hard to come by.<\/p>\n Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can help ease insomnia, the most common sleep disorder, in a matter of weeks, Schwartz said. The treatment begins, perhaps counter-intuitively, by restricting sleep. \u201cPeople with insomnia spend too much time in bed trying to sleep. They are trying to control something they can\u2019t control. Sleep will come when your body is ready,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Schwartz restricts students to about five hours of sleep in order to build \u201csleep drive\u201d and to break the cycle and association between the bed and lying awake. The sleep restriction can be tweaked depending on how the student responds, and if it is successful, Schwartz increases the sleep quota slowly over a few weeks.<\/p>\n The next step is \u201cstimulus control.\u201d If students cannot fall asleep quickly or they waken in the middle of the night, Schwartz instructs them to get out bed and do something relaxing, rather than tossing and turning or checking the clock repeatedly. \u201cThe bed can become a battleground instead of a place of peace,\u201d Schwartz said. \u201cWe want the client to come to associate the bed with being asleep rather than a place of frustration, anxiety, and wakefulness.\u201d<\/p>\n Finally, he works with students to improve so-called sleep hygiene, avoiding alcohol, caffeine, and heavy meals at night, winding down before bedtime, and exercising during the day.<\/p>\n Quality sleep also ushers you into dreamland, which has its own benefits. Dreams, even nightmares, enable you to make sense of the waking world, Adams said. \u201cIt\u2019s your mind helping you prepare. It seems scary in the moment, but it\u2019s something really helpful and protective,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n Research featured in a recent article in The Atlantic explained how your brain actually solves problems and creates \u201cEureka!\u201d moments while you snooze, which it can\u2019t do when you are awake. Your brain needs to cycle through sleep stages to work out seemingly dissimilar patterns, make connections between neurons and tap into creative problem-solving.<\/p>\n Need proof? Mary Shelley conceived of \u201cFrankenstein\u201d in her sleep; \u201cDr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde\u201d came to life while Robert Louis Stevenson was sound asleep; Albert Einstein literally dreamed of the theory of relativity.<\/p>\n So the last thing you should do if you want to ace an exam, solve a tough math equation or write a stellar essay is to skimp on rest. \u201cStudents think the best strategy is to cram,\u201d Adams said. \u201cThat\u2019s the worst. You need sleep so your mind can put all the pieces of the puzzle together.\u201d<\/p>\n *Murdock, K.K., Adams, S.K.<\/strong>, Crichlow-Ball, C., Horissian, M. & Roberts, M. (2017, online). Nighttime notifications and compulsivity illuminate the link between emerging adults\u2019 cellphone use and sleep-related problems.Psychology of Popular Media Culture.<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n **Adams, S.K<\/strong>. & Kisler, T. (2013). Sleep quality as a mediator between technology-related sleep quality, depression, and anxiety. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here\u2019s an easy math problem with a challenging solution: The average young adult needs nearly nine hours of sleep per night to ensure physical, mental and emotional well-being. The average college student gets just six-and-a-half hours of sleep per night. In case you\u2019re too tired to do the math, that adds up to 17.5 hours […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2097,"featured_media":4493,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2097"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4487"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4814,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4487\/revisions\/4814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The FOMO Dilemma<\/h3>\n
A Weighty Matter<\/h3>\n
Creative Solutions<\/h3>\n
The Next Einstein?<\/h3>\n
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