Please bear with us as we work to provide a better web site for you. For the average student, when the stress begins to peak, sleep is in short supply and the two feed on each other. But many feel they can just catch up on sleep at a later date. Our last Healthy U contained a short segment on the effects of sleep deprivation and some students called with questions about the risks associated with lack of sleep. By far, however, we spend a lot of our time trying to help you find ways to prevent stress.
Poor sleep can make coping with stress much more of a challenge.
Aside from the more serious types of sleep disorders, falling asleep at the wheel and in other hazardous situations is a leading cause of death among the college age group. According to Dr. William Dement, a nationally known sleep researcher, each of us has a specific daily sleep requirement. The average requirement for college students is over eight hours, plus or minus one hour. He uses the analogy of a heavy load for your sleep debt. You, and two companions, one your biological clock, and the other, represented by external stimulators such as noise, light, frustration, pain and so on, carry this heavy load.