I average about 4-5 hours of sleep a night during the school week. I start the week off with maybe 7-8 hours on Sunday night and then head full stick into the lower sleeping amounts. Some nights of the week are even worst. For instance, on Wednesday night I make the CYHSB Weekly and typically go to sleep around 4 or 5, thus getting only 2-3 hours of sleep. Thursday night I try to make some of that back and push myself to get to sleep around 10-10:30. Unused as I am to going to sleep that early, I always take Nitequil to put me to sleep so I can get a few more hours of shut eye. I consider getting to bed during the week at 1 to be early. As the week carries on, I progressively get more depressed and tired, until Friday night I am ready to collapse. I normally only really wake up around 11:30 AM during the week, dozing through the first couple classes of the day.
I always took the fact I could still function with all the above a strength, a sign of greater productivity. But after learning about sleep in Psych I'm not so sure. We learned that REM sleep is necessary for sorting out the day's events and storing memories. I cannot get much REM sleep what with the amount of sleep I get. This is probably only further expounded by the fact that I go from waking moment to sleeping time in front of some form of a glowing screen. That means even when I go to sleep, my brain will still be up for awhile longer. What is scary is the fact that I do forget things. I often forget entire conversations that I supposedly had during the day. I am always forgetting which assignments are due.
But the effects are more lasting than that. I have constant shadows under my eyes. My mood shifts from moment to moment, fluctuating at alarming rates. I often seem to get down, always when I am at my most tired. I am more irritable with the small amount of sleep I get. Unless I am constantly engaged, I just start to doze off. I now seem to have an aversion to sleep, unable to get to bed early even if I try. Whenever I do want to go to bed early, I need to take Nitequil to put me to sleep. That has its own problems, such as often suppressing the much needed REM sleep.
I always just put all these things to the side, assuming that there was nothing wrong with them since I could function, for the most part, fine. But now, after learning the Unit of sleep in class I am quite worried for both my mental and physical health. Yet I am unable to do anything about my sleeping patterns. Going to sleep earlier means not completing all the assignments I need to do. Going to sleep earlier means not fulfilling all the obligations that I need to. Going to sleep earlier means missing school work and earning bad grades. Being in school has created a damaging cycle in which, to finish the work that I need to, I stay up to all hours of the night. This, however, is sacrificing my health for my grades. I am lately wondering if this is worth it, but cannot give myself in to falling behind on work.
Two notes: 1. This was posted at 2:43am, solidifying your lack of sleep. 2. I think we can come to a consensus that this post may be better directed towards your doctor than to your fellow students, but of course we love reading what you have to say anyways. Sleep deprivation, as you mentioned, has long lasting terrible effects. We learned in class more several reasons why we need sleep (many of which you mentioned, such as retaining memories), and I suggest you put down the Apple products and head to bed. I hope you can catch up on sleep over the break.
ReplyDeleteWow. The sad part about reading this post was that it seemed like I was/could have written it. I share the sleep troubles you are having; late nights seem necessary with the ever increasing work load. And furthermore, giving up on an assignment would just cause (at least me) to be worrying about the forthcoming bad grade, and then I would not sleep anyway. However, one positive your brain does in this period is it makes up for lost REM sleep. Like if you have one terrible night of sleep, the next night your brain will go to the REM cycle faster and more often. This is essential since REM sleep aids in your ability to learn as well as strengthening your immune system.
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