Tufts Health Service next month will launch a campaign that will focus on raising student awareness of the importance of sleep and educating the community about good sleep habits, as well as the physical and emotional repercussions of lack of sleep.
The campaign was organized by Violence Prevention Education Coordinator Elaine Theodore.
Theodore believes that most students are not aware of the far−reaching effects sleep has on their lives. Each night's sleep affects not only how tired students feel next day, but also their overall health, academic performance and well−being.
"I thought sleep would be a nice way to address something that everyone has a relationship to, and everyone feels that they probably know a lot more than maybe they do about how it affects you physiologically and possibly emotionally and your well−being," Theodore said.
During March, students can expect to find various helpful websites and sleep tips throughout campus. Information packets will be given to Residential Assistants (RAs) to make information boards in dorms, according to Theodore.
"We'll be tabling in the campus center," Theodore said. "We will have sleep masks."
"This campaign is really meant to bring more awareness to the necessity of getting good sleep for your academic life and for your emotional well−being," she added.
Theodore believes that sleep can reduce students' overall stress level as well as improve their physical health.
"They really have seen that sleep is probably the number one booster of the immune system and, if sleep goes, then the immune system just kind of falls away," Ellen Sitron, a nurse practitioner at Health Service, said.
There is no quick fix for sleep deprivation. Students who sleep less than eight hours a night develop a deficit, according to Sitron. A student who gets five hours of sleep one night and four hours the next already has a seven−hour deficit. The student's brain cannot compensate without the good sleep needed to make up for the deficit, she said.
This cycle is insidious and nearly impossible to break because sleep deprivation leads to stress, which in turn leads to difficulties in falling and staying asleep, Sitron added.
Sitron said that daytime naps are not as effective as students might think.
"[They] don't make up for night time sleep … When the sun goes down is when you're supposed to go to sleep," she said.
Commonly used melatonin tablets likely operate using the placebo effect, rather than having a direct effect on capability to sleep, she added.
Many students rely on caffeine and other stimulants to make up for their sleep deficit — alternatives that, according to Theodore, are futile. While using Adderall to stay up to finish a paper or study for an exam may seem harmless, it can actually be quite damaging, Sitron warned. The drug — which is prescribed to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder — can seriously disrupt a person's sleep cycle if used without the guidance of a physician, she said.
Sitron added that many students complain about not being able to fall asleep after pulling "all−nighters." Pulling an all−nighter changes circadian rhythm, which changes when the body thinks it should sleep. Also, working on computers right before bed makes falling asleep difficult, because the bright light from the computer screen makes your brain think you are awake. As a result, it takes an hour before you can actually fall asleep, Sitron added.
There are many small changes that students can implement in their daily routines that would make a huge difference in their sleeping habits, according to Theodore. Mindfulness and meditation are important keys to sleep, relaxation and overall stress management, she said.
"I think [students] know the facts. Whether they actually act on it is another thing," Theodore said.
Sleep is something that many students are willing to sacrifice for school work or even just for hanging out, according to Demetra Hatzis−Schoch.
"I try to prioritize sleep because I definitely function better when I sleep enough," Hatzis−Schoch, a freshman, said. "But definitely, when I'm busy, I will do the work over sleeping. But I have never pulled an all−nighter, completely, and I definitely need at least … six hours to function okay."
