Kate Vanhorn

TITLE

“I’ll be able to cram the formulas tonight for my physics exam tomorrow. No problem”,

Jake tells his buddy Sam. Jake ends up spending the entire night in the library of his campus

trying to memorize formulas, learn theories and principles, and other nuances of facts about

famous physicists. Throughout the night he drinks two coffees and chugs 5 Monster Energy

drinks to keep him going through the weening hours. Jake earned a 70 on his exam, barely

passing. While his buddy Sam, who chose to spend his evening before the exam studying for a

couple hours and then going to bed around nine, passed the exam with a 96. Maybe Jake is not

good at physics and Sam is naturally a physicist. Other possible contributing factors could be that

Sam was confident and content in the knowledge he had on the subject and applying that

knowledge to the exam was easier when he wasn’t tired. Jake was not confident in his current

physics knowledge and sacrificed his pre-exam sleep for an all nighter of cramming. He may not

even have remembered everything he crammed from that night while staring at his exam paper

because he was so exhausted, mentally drained and his eyeballs were burning red from straining.

Between Jake and Sam, sleep is one of the apparent variables differing between their exam

performance. Jake is not a rare case on college campuses, according to MedicalNewsToday

approximately 20 percent of college students pull an all-nighter once a month and 35 percent

tend to stay up until three in the morning once a week. The sleep habits of college students can

lead to more than poor academic performance but also putting their health at risk.

College students strive to maintain a lifestyle that embodies the three main corners of the

triangle; a social life, academics, and sleep. Sarah Hedgecock, a Princeton student interviewed

by Arianna Huffington, tried to maintain this triangle and ultimately realised it is only possible to
maintain two. Sarah picked academic’s and her college social life believing she could make up

the sleep later once she graduated (Huffington, 2016). This triangle is a common struggle for

students to determine between, the three corners are all necessary and revolve in a circle.

Without sleep it becomes more difficult to maintain strong academics and from there being

involved in a social life either means your grades are impacted or sleep time becomes drained.

Either way, to have two of these corners, one must drastically suffer or all will.

The struggle to maintain all three corners can lead to students use of drugs and alcohol. In

2014, a study conducted by the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota found that sleep

deprivation has an equivalent effect on college students' grades as binge drinking and the use of

drugs. So we have a college student body of sleep-deprived individuals who are using drugs and

alcohol to cope when both have negative implications for their grades. According to Russell

Foster, a Professor of Circadian Neuroscience and the Head of the Department of

Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, notes that a good night's rest where one awakens

energized for the day without drugs in their system is the goal. Foster connects the accessibility

to these drowsy and sleep aids to be the main purpose for their steady use opposed to other

natural methods. Drugs aid students in staying awake during the day to engage in their courses

and social activities, and alcohol is assumed to aid in the students effort to fall asleep. An Idaho

State University 2015 study discovered how sleep-deprived college students were 47 percent

more likely to binge drink. Waking up from a good night's rest created by alcohol consumption

does not result in an alert engaged student when walking in to their eight am course, but can lead

to being drowsy and hung over. Beyond an increased stress level when the brain is tired it craves

stimulants, caffeine, and nicotine to counteract and then realizes it needs to be asleep and craves

alcohol. While alcohol does successfully help initiate sleep, it isn’t a healthy sleep aid because it
simply sedates the brain so that no memories or functions occur. Sleep is intended to rejuvenate

the body and mind.

A lack of sleep is too common in today's culture, as the interviewee John Cline, an

assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Yale University, shares that going without sleep for

greater than 24 hours - often a common case for college students - can result in cognitive

impairment that equates to a 1.0 BAC which is higher than the legal level (CQ Researcher).

Sleep deprivation can lead to more problems than academic struggles but drowsiness while

driving, and other situations of impaired judgement. Marica Clemmitt learns that natural

solutions are often not even offered by doctors to their patients when sleep problems are brought

up. Medicine is not an answer to our societal sleep deprivation, it is not natural or a long term

solution.

Throughout history sleep has grown to become less of a priority for our culture and more

of a luxury. Over the past 200 years the introduction of gas lights and then electricity pushes the

extension of daylight hours and working hours, resulting in the dark sleep hours to decline. Our

society has continued to push a culture that constantly goes day and night, allowing sleep to be

placed on the back burner. There are night shift workers who are required to find sleep during

natural daylight when the body wants to be out and about. These workers with some of the most

important societal jobs push their bodies to do their best work at night when the body naturally

wants to relax and sleep.

Sleep is important because at night our brains are not wasting away doing nothing but

instead are being more active than we thought. It has been found that we can better solve

complex problems with simple solutions through enhanced sleep because of its link to brain

processes and memory consolidation. This should deem very important in relation to college
students and their sleep habits impact on their education, to learn the best you need the best brain

function. While sleeping, learned material is solidified through memory discusses Foster. A loss

of sleep can lead to stress and therefore can compromise the students immune system allowing

them to be more susceptible to illnesses. On college campus’ studetns are living closer together

with more germs, a weakened immune system can be dangerous. Once a college student is sick it

can spread easily and the unhealthy students academics can be impacted as a result. While sick

class attendance can be difficult and keeping up with assignments can be a struggle, not all

professors are understanding and willing to work around an ill students schedule resulting in

more stress for the student. The cycle of stress, lack of sleep and illness results in an endless

circular downfall.
 Works Cited

Clemmitt, Marcia. “Sleep Deprivation: Are Chronically Tired People at Greater Health

Risk?” CQResearcher, vol 20, issue 6, 12 Feb. 2010. CQResearcher.

library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2010021200&type=hitlist&n

um=0. Accessed 16 Oct. 2019.

Foster, Russell. “Why do we need sleep?” TED, June 2013,

www.npr.org/2015/04/17/399800134/why-do-we-need-sleep. Accessed 2 Oct. 2019.

Huffington, Arianna. The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a

Time. Harmony Books, 2016. Accessed 5 Oct. 2019.

Orzech, Kathryn M, et al. “The State of Sleep Among College Students at a Large Public

University.” 08 Aug. 2011, Journal of American College of Health, Vol 59, No 7.

Accessed 20 Sept. 2019.

 My apologies for pointing out the obvious, but don’t forget about the title! I don’t think

you were in class when we did this, but everyone wrote down three different titles and

got feedback from a partner—I can help you with this if you need it. Try to do something

interesting that is going to catch the reader’s attention. You need your topic in the title as

well; don’t leave us wondering what the essay is about

 Starting with a story is a good strategy! Nice job. It captures the reader’s attention

 “…in the library of his campus…” is a bit confusing, maybe just try using “campus

library instead, or something similar

 Remember to spell out any number less than 10… change “5” to “five”

 Maybe cut out “while” in “while his buddy Sam…” as the wording is a little confusing

there because of the dependent

 Good use of counterargument! Don’t want to forget about that

 Take another look at the sentence beginning with “He may not even have remembered

everything…” there’s some grammar mishaps that make it difficult to read

 “Jake is not a rare case…” split this into two sentences so it’s easier to read

 Malcolm mentioned one day that having shorter paragraphs can keep the reader’s

attention span— think about splitting your longer paragraphs up

 Nice job listing the credentials of the authors/experts you are quoting!

 The subject of today’s society and sleep is very interesting, as well as the history of how

the idea of sleep has changed for society— maybe investigate this further, or try to tie it

in more with your main topic of college students

 Again, I’m pointing out the obvious, but remember your conclusion! Malcolm says it’s

better to write a conclusion, then wait a day or so and come back to it and refine it.

 Go through and read the entire thing very carefully—pay attention to grammar and

spelling

 Look at your formatting for your works cited page. Remember the hanging indention.

 Overall, very interesting topic and your presentation of your findings and why it matters

is well done!

Peer review: Tabitha Baker