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Created: June 17, 2003
Latest Update: June 17, 2003
Links checked and working: March 3, 2004
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Sleep Deprivation and College Students

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, June 2003.
"Fair use" encouraged.

This essay is based on a Los Angeles Times article from June 16, 2003: "Study finds early morning is best for limited sleep." by Diane Partie Lange. Backup.

Notice that the study was done with only 8 participants, and they were all male. That's too small and limited for any major conclusions. But the fact that Stanford Medical school conducted the study might make us aware that sleep deprivation (for which they seem to have invented the new term of sleep restriction) matters. Although you may not be able to conclude much about your own sleep patterns from this tiny study, you might try testing your own responses when you find yourself cornered into "sleep restriction."

Sleep deprivation is one of those things we seem not to notice until it catches up with us. And then we rarely recognize it for what it is, because we've been reducing our sleep cumulatively over a whole semester or longer. I worry especially about the 30 and 40-year-olds who add school into their regular schedule as though the extra work shouldn't matter. I know it matters to both you and your kids that you get your degree. But it matters a lot more that you stay healthy to take care of all of you. Driving with "restricted" sleep is dangerous, to you, and to others. If you must stick to these horrendous schedules, take out a day consciously, maybe even just classes for the day, and give yourself some extra rest time. Exhaustion slows all the reflexes, driving reflexes and thinking reflexes and immune system reflexes.

Take the Sleep IQ Test and the Daytime Sleepiness Quiz on the Sleep Foundation Site. This site offers answers with explanations. Check it out to be sure that you are not giving in to those "restricted sleep" impositions. They are dangerous and unhealthy.

Discussion Questions

1. Why do you suppose they came up with the new term: sleep restriction?

   Consider that deprivation suggests something negative and also suggests that the situatedness might be the source of the deprivation. Restricted doesn't have the negative connotations that the circumstances or someone is in fact involved in the deprivation. This is an example of foisting the blame off the infrastructure and onto the individual. This is a traditional response in American society, with the old values of frontier independence. To me, "restricted" is a sanitary euphemism for "deprived."

2. What's wrong with the linear approach to time deprivation: "I have to get this to school by 3 p.m. tomorrow, so I won't sleep tonight." ?

   Consider that the linear approach stops with the simple equation of time limit = no sleep. It doesn't consider the more complex underlying factors, like driving to school to turn the paper in after no sleep. It doesn't consider that suggestions like do the work ahead of time lead to not sleeping or cutting effective sleeping time some other night. It doesn't look at overall time commitments. It doesn't remind you that getting killed in a traffic accident could leave your family bereft and without you. It doesn't show any consideration of how you'll make up for that sleep deprivation.

   Sleep is a complex issue and deserves some of your critical thinking time. Consider how you could shift some of the time gobblers to other members of the family. Let the kids prepare supper. Get someone else to go to the store. Learn to see yourself within a family and to share some of the "time restricted" decisions and activities. And if there's no one to share with? Then that's a clear indication that something's wrong. You need to spend some of your time building a support group. And maybe you need to learn to ask for and accept help.

3. How did you score on the sleep quizzes?

   The quizzes are on the Sleep Foundation Site. The Sleep IQ Test and the Daytime Sleepiness Quiz.

4. In what ways is sleep an important issue in illocutionary discourse?

   Well, if illocutionary discourse is aimed at understanding the Other, though not necessarily agreeing with her, when we assign reading and writing that are bound to be time consuming (and more time consuming for those who have had little writing experience) we need to hear their desperation when this creates "sleep restrictions." Susan and I have spoken and written of the "fifteen minute hour." Our students are sometimes lucky if they can clear fifteen minutes for deep concentration without interruptions. Yet our teachers are assuming that every student spends or should spend three hours studying for every hour of class. Sounds like it's time for illocutionary discourse on our respective schedules. Faculty don't have to agree that fifteen minutes is enough study time. But they should be keenly aware of the way study is crammed into an already full day, and the way sleep is sometimes the price of buying study time.

5. How did your kids or your parents or your friends score on the sleep quizzes?

   Illocutionary discourse starts with us. If we don't address the big issues with each other, then how do we think we're going to get our faculty and our institutions to discuss them seriously? Since sleep is so important, share these issues with your family and friends.