In the books lack of sleep determined to decrease student performance

Author: Tess Russell

Last week, as I was settling into my nightly library routine - insert fresh earplugs, sip soy latte, extract yellow legal pad and applicable book from my bag - I spotted a friend at the carrel across the way. He, too, had just arrived, and after sending a quick wave in my direction, started to align his myriad study materials on the desk in front of him. Several minutes and only two sentences of French reading later, when I got up to refill my Nalgene, I noticed that he was completely passed out and drooling over his Econ textbook.

What I have just described is a fairly common occurrence at Middlebury, where overextended students often find themselves running on empty, or on dwindling reserves of caffeine (and, in some cases, more unseemly prescription substances). As a lifelong insomniac and oft-repeater of the phrase, "you can sleep when you die," I have always felt that how much - or how little - rest each of us gets is merely a matter of personal preference, much like which dining hall we choose to frequent for lunch.

Apparently, I am not alone in that line of thought. In his recent expose of the sleep industry, entitled "The Sleep-Industrial Complex" and published in the Nov. 18 issue of The New York Times Magazine, Jon Mooallem argued that, as Americans, "the most damaging and persistent delusion we've acquired about sleep is that the vital human function is optional."

Dr. Daniel Glaze, associate professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas and a board member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), has witnessed this misguided confidence firsthand.

"Many college students tend to believe that they can get by on four or five hours of sleep, that they can somehow will themselves into staying awake or 'train' their brains to exist on four hours of sleep," Glaze said.

Glaze explained that good sleep habits are absolutely essential to maintaining the physiological and immunological functions of our body's systems. Not just the amount of sleep we get, but also the consistency of our sleep patterns - that is, keeping a relatively similar sleep schedule from weekdays to weekends - is absolutely crucial to keeping our brains working at optimal levels.

"When students build up sleep debts, there are significant consequences," Glaze said. "These include the ability to perform well on tests, to pay attention in class and to remember what they have studied. Long-term effects can range from obesity, to recurrent health problems, and even to earlier mortality ages."

Jyoti Daniere, the director of Health and Wellness Education at the College, believes that sleep deprivation is a serious problem at Middlebury.

"My worry is that we are overburdening students with so many academic and extracurricular responsibilities," Daniere said. "It's great that students here are so involved, but I start to worry when I see clubs meeting at 10 p.m. because it just seems late for kids to still be firing at all cylinders."

To combat the unhealthy sleep schedules adopted by many students during exam week, Daniere's office recently tacked educational green flyers up around campus. The poster design is a riff on a popular commercial of our youth - "This is your brain without eight hours of sleep" - and implores students to take care of themselves, and of each other, by getting their "zzzzz's."

Some students expressed frustration at what they view as the office's oversimplification of the problem.

"I'm completely baffled by the signs commanding us to sleep eight hours a night," Katie Hylas '09 said. "I know the Health and Wellness Office is only trying to help, but for most students, that much sleep is often a logistical impossibility. Our best chance at healthy lives, minds and bodies, is to approach our professors and work with them to construct more manageable schedules."

Elizabeth Goffe '10 has tried this tactic, and found most of her professors to be surprisingly sympathetic.

"Sometimes I tell my teachers that I'll be handing in assignments a day late because I don't feel like hurting my body just to get some work done," Goffe said. "I think my health is more important!"

The goal, as both students and faculty seem to agree, is for students to achieve a balance between honoring their obligations on campus and honoring their physical needs. To that end, Daniere is looking into adding a "Sleep Hygiene" component to April's Mind/Body week, which will encourage holistic approaches to health by offering workshops on aromatherapy, acupuncture and meditation.

"Obviously the students that come here are all academically gifted, but if they don't achieve a balance between work and sleep, they are going to wind up so burnt out that they can't retain the information that they're trying to learn," Daniere said.