Daily Bruin File Photo Students spend time studying in
the Terrace Food Court over the summer. With increasing academic
and other pressures, many college students suffer from sleep
deprivation, which may lead to decreased school performance.
By Dharshani Dharmawardena
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Sleepy drivers are as dangerous as drunk drivers, said Dr.
Frisca L. Yan-Go, medical director of the UCLA Sleep Disorders
Center.
“Sleepiness can kill,” she said. “You can fall
asleep driving, and motor vehicle accidents are one of the leading
causes of death for college students, and falling asleep while
driving is one of the main reasons.”
College students tend to neglect sleep, and this
self-deprivation isn’t a new phenomenon, said Ronald Harper,
a UCLA Neurobiology professor.
“I think there’s just too much going on in life
these days,” he said. “Lives are getting more and more
busy and sleep is considered a waste of time.”
When Harper attended college, many of his friends used
amphetamines to stay awake ““ a substance that can cause
paranoid psychosis, according to Harper.
He recalled that one of his friends wanted to stay awake so
badly while driving across the country that he took
amphetamines.
“He got so paranoid that that he actually pulled over to a
patrolman and told him that someone was following him,” he
said.
But today, the popularity of using amphetamines to stay awake
has waned, Harper said.
HOW THE BRAIN CONTROLS SLEEP Rapid Eye Movement
(REM) sleep is generated in an area of the brainstem called the
pons. While Non Rapid Eye movement sleep is controlled by the basal
forebrain, which lies in front of the hypothalamus.
SOURCE: World Book Encyclopedia 1997
Original Graphic by JACOB LIAO/Daily Bruin Web Adaptation by
CHRISTINE TAN/Daily Bruin
In their place, however, drugs such as caffeine have found a
following in the student population.
Staying up late to study and maintain a social life leads some
students drink coffee and take caffeine pills to extend their hours
of wakefulness, Harper said.
But students also pay a high price for the extra hours, he said.
Not only can their bodies generate a high tolerance for the
substance, but they can also develop a drug dissociation state.
“When you’re studying, you can remember things while
you’re under the drug,” Harper said. “But, when
you’re taking the test, you won’t be able to remember
it because you’re no longer under the drug.”
Other substances, like alcohol, can also cause sleep
deprivation. Although it can initially make people fall asleep,
alcohol consumption may also lead to a condition called rebound
insomnia, according to Yan-Go.
Because of the way alcohol metabolizes, Yan-Go said it causes
people to wake up prematurely and keeps them from going back to
sleep.
There are two kinds of sleep, called rapid eye movement sleep
and nonrapid eye movement sleep.
During REM sleep, which is controlled by the pons region of the
brainstem, people can experience vivid dreams.
Generated by neurons in the basal forebrain, NREM sleep
accompanies slower breathing and heart rates as well as lowered
body temperature and blood pressure. Most adults spend 80 percent
of their sleep time in the NREM state.
Although researchers lack an exact explanation as to why people
sleep, Harper said it appears essential for good mental health.
Yan-Go said sleep deprivation can mean a lack of sleep both
quantitatively and qualitatively, and can hinder other body rhythms
and mechanisms as well.
Often, body temperature regulation, hormone secretion, and other
bodily functions respond negatively to lack of sleep or irregular
sleeping patterns, she said.
It can also cause physical aches and pains as well as, in some
people, lead to depression and lack of interest in life.
Third-year design student Graham Haynes said he believes he is
sleep-deprived, but has never been in any such accident.
“But I have done things and don’t really remember
doing them,” he said. “It really scared me.”
Haynes, who sometimes sleeps as little as two hours a night,
noted he has trouble paying attention in class after a short night
of rest.
“Surprisingly, I don’t fall asleep in class,”
he said. “But I spend more energy trying to look like
I’m being active rather than actually being
active.”
To remedy the problem of sleep depravation, or to avoid it in
the first place, both Harper and Yan-Go recommended taking naps
during the day.
“What you owe your brain at night, you need to pay during
the day,” Yan-Go said.
She said she advises her patients to take “power
naps,” which last 15 to 20 minutes at a time, as often as
they need them. She also recommends that people refrain from
varying their sleeping habits, and go to bed within two hours of a
regular set time.
Harper said although the amount of sleep people need varies
according to metabolism and age, most people, especially college
students, need at least seven hours of sleep.
“It’s always preferable to sleep in blocks,”
he continued. “But they should pull off time and take a nap,
and try to compensate in the afternoon for what they miss at
night.”