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Rodney Appling Suzanne Ingram Oct 11, 2012 Engl 1102-025 Cover Letter I did my three sided essay on the different viewpoints of groups of people, on sleep affecting college students, may it be school, work, and social activities. I think this was a good way to learn how to research different perspectives of a general topic. Looking into each argument and hearing each side is essential to any research. When doing my research, I found that I wasnt alone when I stressed the importance of sleep. There are many people who agree that it is important and it definitely affects your life and there is a bunch of research about it. The thing I found the most interesting is there are actually people who dont think sleep is all that important. This information brought a whole new light to my argument and was very crucial. All in all I think it is a good three-sided argument and I hope you enjoy.

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The three headed paper Sleep is the natural cycle that occurs in humans and other living things, that replenishes and rejuvenates the body. So what happens when the body doesnt get much sleep? Is it a bad thing to be sleep deprived? I guess it depends on the person to figure out how much sleep they need, than rather listen to someone tell them how many hours of sleep a person should get per night. Getting less sleep as an adult seems to be more common these days with so much to do in so little time. If only there were more hours in the day to do what has to be done. That being said, how does sleeping less affect your average busy minded adult? I think college students have a hard time as is finding time to sleep and maintain their life. There is school, work, and social activities that all make one day seem way too long. Since sleep is important in refreshing the body, it also helps with the mental aspect of health. I think it is true that sleep has an effect on college student's academics, whether getting too much or too little, it still has an impact. Most college students would say sleep is important on some level. They would also say that sleep plays an important part on their overall academic performance. Whether it is sleeping in class from partying all night, or just being too sleepy to attend class, as one would say sleep is essential. As a college student myself, I know firsthand what it is like to have to get off work late at night then cram studying and completing schoolwork all night. Doing all of that and trying to get up in time for class tough, but worse, trying to pay attention to the professor, and keep up with your work. In an online journal, it says that studies have shown that students who get adequate sleep maintain at least one letter grade higher than those who dont. Understood, but what about all of the modern interruptions? Noisy dorms, 24/7 access to smart phones and internet, social interactions, anxiety, depression these all contribute to less sleep and overall terrible grades in

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the classroom. The late night studying and all of the partying is classroom suicide. This is particularly a problem for freshmen, who have a hard time adjusting (Kruegar). The best thing to do is to set an actual bedtime, this way there is stability and a better sleep routine. Freshmen tend to get better adjusted to their schedules, and get use to a routine; this in turn is reflected on their grades. People in the field of sleep study would say that sleep indeed does have some affect on an individual's brain. Getting not too much sleep can impair ones memory retention and a focus rate, which is important to college students. Those who study sleep medicine always have been fascinated with how the mind and sleep go hand in hand with college students. The amount of sleep you attain can be detrimental to your school life, as most doctors would say. They also noted that with most sleep deprived college students, comes other problems such as depression, obesity, bad grades, and heart problems. Scientists want to know more about the causes that inhibits sleep and to come up with ways to initiate sleep. With the abundance of sleep aids on the market as one way to get a better sleep, some believe there are other ways. By planning out your day and making a schedule with the same sleep patterns every day can assist in getting a normal sleep cycle (Kushida). He thinks that having different sleep schedules during the week, due to different class times on different days, is a very bad cycle. Ultimately, by sleeping and restoring your body at night, you can perform better in school, your part-time job, and life. So far, most would say catching some Z's is a good thing, but how about the people who think that sleeping less is a good thing, in the sense that you would have more time to do other things? The big picture makes sense, considering that when you are sleep, you are inactive. This

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means more time for studying, partying, and work. Who cares about being sleep deprived when you have so much to do, sometimes you just have to put sleep on the back burner (Tanner).Some reports even indicate that if you sleep less and maintain an active lifestyle, you tend to weigh less and accomplish a lot more work. There is time to study, and be social, but is it actually healthy?

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Works Cited Colten, Harvey and Bruce Altevogt. "Sleep disorders and sleep deprivation: an unmet public health problem/ committee of Sleep Medicine and Research, Board of Health Sciences Policy." Washington DC: Institute of Medicine, National Academic Press, 2006. Kushida Clete. "Sleep deprivation: Basic Science, Physiology, and Behavior." Informa Healthcare. 1 Jan 2005. Tanner, Lindsey. "Study suggest less than 8 hours sleep is good for you." Peninsula Clarion. 3 Feb 2002. Krueger, Patrick. "Sleep duration in the United States: A cross-sectional population based study." School of Public Health, University of Texas. 18 Mar 2009.