My Relationship with Sleep Throughout my Academic Career
There’s a neurobiology paper (Singh) I read for a journal club where researchers studied the effect physical trauma/injury has on Drosophila melanogaster, otherwise known as the common fruit fly. In short, when the flies had their antennae removed it was observed that their amount of sleep increased because the trauma caused neural damage that required more sleep to heal. When I read that, I was surprised to learn that flies slept. I never thought about how every animal needs sleep. In this blog, I want to share the relationship I have had with sleep and how it has evolved over time.
There have been many studies conducted to study sleep in humans and if there is any consensus, it’s that humans require enough quality sleep in order to develop and function. I’m sure you already knew that. Students in particular are constantly reminded that they should get enough sleep. Numerous studies show that sleep is correlated with our ability to learn and remember (Curcio). So if we, as students, know sleep is so important, why are so many of us sleep deprived? I would argue that students often have grueling schedules that prevent them from sleeping the amount they would prefer. After all, we can’t all have the luxurious life of a pet and sleep whenever, like the dog in the thumbnail is (yes, that is my 13 year old pup, Lucky, fulfilling his sleep needs).
My sleep schedule in high school was trash. On a “good” night I would get six hours of sleep, which is not enough. According to the Mayo clinic, adults need seven to nine hours of sleep and teenagers need seven to ten! Unfortunately, my schedule in high school was intense and it required me to stay up too late in order to complete my homework assignments. Therefore, I was really excited to start college and hopefully move away from the world of having daily homework.
During my freshman year at San Diego State University (SDSU), I no longer had homework due every day but I definitely still had work to do for my classes every day. I also lived in a residence hall where I had befriended a large majority of the kids, so there would frequently be late nights in the dorms. I wouldn’t say I was prioritizing my sleep until junior year started. Up until then social events and due dates greatly affected my sleep schedule, but I didn’t feel so bad about it because I wasn’t alone and I could sleep in on certain days.
The issue that I ignored is that one can’t catch up on lost sleep by sleeping in only on the weekends (Webster). The difference between the amount of sleep you get and the amount of sleep you’re supposed to get is called sleep debt. The way to get rid of your sleep debt is to consistently get enough sleep and that is hard to do if it isn’t a priority. At the start of my junior year, I had a better grasp on my classes and knew how to study (which was essential because the complexity in material increased in my upper division courses), and I had learned how to be more consistent with my sleep schedule.
I ultimately had a shift in perspective. I realized that many of the things keeping me up late at night were not worth it. I began to see getting quality sleep as a part of self-care. I felt better when I slept enough. This realization, in addition to knowing that sleep is helpful for our: memory (Stickgold), brain health (Tarokh), mood (Rosen), and the immune system (Besedovsky) was sufficient for me to shift my priorities. It also helped me to live with people who were early birds, because it incentivized me to begin the day earlier with them.
I recently started graduate school and I’ve heard too many stories from friends in grad school who don’t sleep and run on caffeine. Everyone is different and it might be effective for some, but I don’t see how that lifestyle is sustainable. Ever since I have started grad school, I have been prioritizing my sleep. Frankly, I’ve noticed that I have been needing more sleep to function well, but that could also be because there is so much going on in the world right now, that life is a bit more exhausting than it was a year ago.
I realize that everybody’s relationship with sleep is different and for some people getting sufficient sleep is more complicated than just going to bed earlier. So I encourage you to take some time and think about your sleep patterns and needs. Are you getting enough sleep? How can you adjust your routine to prioritize sleep?
References:
Besedovsky, Luciana, Tanja Lange, and Jan Born. "Sleep and immune function." Pflügers Archiv-European Journal of Physiology 463.1 (2012): 121-137.
Curcio, Giuseppe, Michele Ferrara, and Luigi De Gennaro. "Sleep loss, learning capacity and academic performance." Sleep medicine reviews 10.5 (2006): 323-337.
Rosen, Ilene M., et al. "Evolution of sleep quantity, sleep deprivation, mood disturbances, empathy, and burnout among interns." Academic medicine 81.1 (2006): 82-85.
Singh, Prabhjit, and Jeffrey M. Donlea. "Bidirectional regulation of sleep and synapse pruning after neural injury." Current Biology (2020).
Stickgold, Robert. "Sleep-dependent memory consolidation." Nature 437.7063 (2005): 1272-1278.
Tarokh, Leila, Jared M. Saletin, and Mary A. Carskadon. "Sleep in adolescence: Physiology, cognition and mental health." Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews 70 (2016): 182.
Webster, Molly. “Can You Catch Up on Lost Sleep?” Scientific American, 6 May 2008, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-can-you-catch-up-on-sleep/#:~:text=That%20means%20on%20average%2C%20we,the%20way%20to%20catch%20up. Accessed 8 November 2020.
