The Beat Generation

by Kristen Stand
Staff Writer

Caption What does your sleep position say about you? A recent study performed by Travel Inn, Britain's No. 1 hotel network, found that there is a direct connection between a person's sleep posture and his of her personality. Chris Idzikowski, Director of the Sleep Assesment and Advisory Service who carried out the research, developed six sleep profiles defining the most common personality traits identified with the most common sleep positions. The Yearner - Yearners have an open disposition, but maybe suspicious and cyinical. They are very rational and want to know all the facts before making a decision, but once they do, they'll stick to it. The Starfish -Starfish are good friends, in tune with other people's needs. They're always ready to listen to others and offer help when needed. They don't like getting a lot of attention, but enjoy giving it to others. The Log -Logs are easy-going, social people who like being part of the in-crowd. They are very trusting and maybe perceived as being too gullible. The Soldier -Soldiers are quiet, reserved people who don't like noist chaotic social settings. They set high standards for themselves and others and can be very demanding. The Freefaller -Freefallers don't like extreme environments. Though sometimes aggressive and outgoing, they are often thin-skinned and do not respond well to personal criticism. The Foetus -These people appear tough on the outside, but are actually very sensitive. They are often shy when meeting new people but tend to open up once they get to know them.

Kirk Jarrett, a 23-year-old business major, found himself in a crunch at the end of the semester. After being sick the whole weekend with a fever, he only had one more day to write a paper for his English class and study for his accounting and math finals, all occurring the next day.

�I had to manage my time like I had never managed it before,� Jarrett said. �I started popping caffeine pills so I would stay awake long enough to do everything.�

�There are times that I pray, �Please God, extend the day a few more hours so I can get in a few more minutes of sleep,� But He hasn�t answered yet.�

After only two hours of sleep, Jarrett made it to his exam at seven in the morning. That night, he was back at the library studying for his next exam. At 10 p.m. he was driving home from the library and began to dose off.

�My head went down and my eyes closed for a couple of seconds,� he said. �I shot back up scared with my heart racing, which kept me up for a few minutes till I started to feel sleepy again.�

Jarrett kept veering in and out of the lane on the highway as he nodded on and off, but he was lucky�there were no other cars on the road and he made it home safely. But Jarrett, like many other University students, had put himself at risk by not getting enough sleep.

According to Dr. Merrill Mitler, a program director at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), college students need around eight to nine hours of sleep at night. However, many do not meet this requirement.

�On average, I get about six or seven hours of sleep at night,� Betsy Vasquez, a print journalism major, said. �I wish I had more, but it can�t happen!�

What students don�t realize is that getting too little sleep creates a �sleep debt.� Mitler said that the sleep a person loses accumulates over time.

�Eventually, your body will demand that the debt be repaid,� he said. �We don�t seem to adapt to getting less sleep than we need though we may feel like we are getting used to it. But everything is affected; our judgment, reaction time, and other functions are still impaired.�

Joyce Walsleben, Ph.D., director of the Sleep Disorder Center at the New York University School of Medicine, agrees that students need to take sleep more seriously despite their stressful schedules.

�When we�re young, we think we can get by on little, or even no sleep at all,� Walsleben said. �That�s just not true.�

Like many students, Vasquez says everything gets in the way of sleep, such as work and going out with friends.

�I also lose a lot of sleep because of writing papers,� she said. �I start at about eight at night the earliest and finish at about three or four in the morning, if I don�t fall asleep on the keyboard.�

Some students have become accustomed to sleeping fewer hours and as a result don�t realize that their bodies are lacking the slumber they need. Abbas Meghji, a senior Operations Management and Finance major, believes he has grown accustomed to the lack of sleep college life demands.

�At first it used to interfere with my daily activities,� he said. �But I have seemed to gain some sort of tolerance.�

Though students may feel as if they can function without a full night�s sleep, eventually it catches up with them. A study performed by the National Sleep Foundation found that 36 percent of adults believe that feeling very sleepy in the afternoon is normal. But daytime sleepiness is just one of the warning signs of sleep deprivation.

On the Stanford University Center for Excellence Web site, Dr. William Dement, director of the Sleep Disorders Center, wrote about the warning signs college students should look for to signal when they are lacking sleep.

�If you believe that boredom, a warm room, or a heavy meal causes sleep, you are completely wrong!� Dement said. �If boredom, a warm room, or anything else seems to cause you to feel drowsy, you have a sleep debt and you need to be stimulated in order to stay awake.�

Mitler of the NINDS agrees with Dement.

�Boring classes or boring readings cannot put anyone to sleep by themselves,� he said. �The only thing that induces sleep is lack of sleep.�

Skye Hilton, a junior, said that his sleep debt causes him to pay less attention in class.

�My lack of sleep tends to make me fall asleep in class, especially when my teachers show slides and turn the lights off,� he said.

Decreased alertness and excessive daytime sleepiness can impair a person�s memory and cognitive ability. Mitler said that a student�s final mark in a class could be lowered by as much as one full grade point because of losing sleep.

�Sleep deprivation induces significant reductions in performance and alertness,� he said. �A student who loses as little as one and a half hours of sleep for just one night may only be at 40 percent of his or her optimum performance the next day.�

Walsleben said lack of sleep directly affects a student�s grades.

�Research has shown that lower GPA correlates with sleep deprivation,� she said. �Everyone is slower when sleepy.�

In addition to affecting performance at college, sleep deprivation can also be dangerous.

Researchers at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke found that sleep-deprived people who were tested by using a driving simulator or by performing a hand-eye coordination task performed as badly or worse than those who were intoxicated. Sleep deprivation also magnifies alcohol�s effects on the body, so a fatigued person drinking an alcoholic beverage will become much more impaired than someone who is well rested.

Drowsiness and fatigue have been identified as a principle cause in at least 100,000 police-reported traffic crashes each year, killing more than 1,500 people and injuring another 71,000, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Young drivers around the age of 25 or under are involved in more than half of these fall-asleep crashes because of their greater tendency to stay up late, sleep too little, and drive at night.

Despite all the consequences a lack of sleep can cause, college students still have tremendous difficulty finding the time to restore their sleep debt. Walsleben stresses the importance of enough sleep even if it means foregoing out another activity.

�It is always worth it. You function better, are faster, sharper and nicer to be around,� she said. �It is just so hard to get people to try it, but once they do, they are hooked on sleep!�

Students that do not make the commitment to sleep will continue to resort to other methods.