By EUN SIL KANG
Observer Staff
April 16, 2008

“I can’t function when I don’t get enough sleep,” Celeste Young said matter-of-factly. “I try to get at least six hours of sleep [per night], and that’s not even good. Thank God for the weekends. That’s when I get my sleep.”

Observer photo by EUN SIL KANG
Karim Lashin, 29, a sleep technologist, attaches electrodes to Monique Greene, 22, a medical records coordinator at The Center for Sleep and Wake Disorders in Chevy Chase, Md. Electrodes record signals from the brain, which can then be printed out and analyzed.

Young, a 23-year-old student at Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg, Va., who plans to become a gynecologist, suffers from sleep deprivation. But she is not the only one to experience its negative affects.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, a nonprofit organization which supports public awareness of sleep health, people need between seven and nine hours of sleep per night. This means that people tend to perform at their optimum level if they receive that amount of sleep. But getting this recommended amount of sleep is a luxury that few people can enjoy on a regular basis. A 2008 “Sleep in America” poll, conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, found working Americans on average sleep for only six hours and 40 minutes per night. This number is no different among young people who are starting out in the workforce or attending college, like Young.

While health experts and the general public know that being sleep-deprived can affect how one goes about his or her daily activities, they also recognize that sleep deprivation can be linked to some major health conditions people are facing today: obesity and depression.

Observer photo by EUN SIL KANG
Greene demonstrates what patients must go through when they are initially being studied for a sleep problem. Patients typically either nap during the day or sleep overnight at the center.

Sleep deprivation can lead to several cognitive, physiological and psychological conditions.

“Sleep is critically associated with learning,” said Dr. Helene A. Emsellem, the director at the Center for Sleep & Wake Disorders in Chevy Chase, Md.

“Research has also shown that getting a good night of sleep helps our thinking. If you are trying to learn things, and if you can get a full night of sleep, that sleep somehow helps you absorb the material and recall it more later,” said Michael Twery, the director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research at the National Institute of Health.

But sleep deprivation and staying awake well into the night does not only affect an individual’s cognitive function — it can also impact a person’s waistline.

“The intuitive thinking is that ‘Gee, if I’m up more hours, I’m going to burn more calories and I’m going to be thinner.’ But in reality, when you start getting an insufficient amount of sleep, you develop an imbalance in leptins and grehlins,” Emsellem said.

Observer photo by EUN SIL KANG
Lashin analyzes a patient’s eye movements, brainwave, heart and chin muscle activity following a sleep study.
Leptins and grehlins are hormones that let the body know when it needs food, according to Emsellem.

Twery, like Emsellem, said obesity and sleep deprivation are interrelated.

“[Leptins and grehlins] help regulate blood sugar. We’ve seen mixed messages [in the body], that you feel hungry and that you need more sugar. It increases appetite and can contribute to weight gain,” said Twery.

And indeed, there have been several studies that have tested the physiological impact sleep deprivation has on the body.

In a 2004 University of Chicago sleep study, participants were told to sleep for eight hours for a few days, and then were later restricted to four hours of sleep.

Dr. David N. Neubauer, an associate director of the Johns Hopkins Sleep Disorders center in Baltimore, Md., said that when people do not get enough sleep, it affects their appetite, as he found in a university study.

“People tend to eat more when they haven’t been sleeping enough, and they tend to gravitate toward junk food. Obesity could be one possibility. It could be one of many factors contributing to [sleep deprivation],” said Neubauer.

Obesity and sleep deprivation are also linked in terms of causing sleep problems.

Dr. Rocco Santarelli, a physician at the Sleep Health Center in Wyomissing, Pa., said that young people who have problems with obesity often have problems with sleep apnea, a condition in which a person has repetitive episodes and disruptions in his or her sleeping pattern.

“Obesity is strongly related to sleep apnea. It severely reduces the consolidation of sleep,” said Santarelli.

While sleep deprivation may lead to obesity, as some experts say, this is not the only affect it may have on an individual. According to health experts, sleep issues are related to psychological conditions such as depression.

Santarelli said sleep deprivation mostly has an affect on mood and stress disorders, like depression.

“A sleep problem may be a manifestation of an underlying psychiatric problem,” he said.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean that people who are sleep-deprived will become depressed.

Santarelli made a point that the argument could be switched around — that depression could lead to sleep problems.

“Some people could do things at work, and now they can’t do them anymore because their job may be requiring more of them now. Are they becoming depressed because of their inability to do work?” he said.

Despite all of the negative effects sleep deprivation may have on individuals, people continue to not get enough sleep. In order to help combat this insufficient sleep, mankind has devised ways to get around the issue; mainly by using stimulants like coffee to help them stay awake and alert throughout the day.

But coffee is just one of many stimulants that can have harmful effects. Neubauer said energy drinks could cause sleep issues.

“There’s a lot of caffeine in them, and if you drink them later in the day, it makes it harder to fall asleep,” Neubauer said.

Twery on the other hand, said people who consume caffeine could have headaches, or even a sudden loss of alertness. But the stimulant could have an even greater impact for young people in the long run.

“You may be able to do it now, but all these things may put you on a path of not having as good health later in life. It’s not until you get into your 40s and 50s that that history starts to catch up with you,” said Twery.

“Some [people] develop palpitations and an irregular heartbeat,” said Santarelli. “To rely on it … is not optimal — you’re still robbing yourself of sleep. It can keep [young people] alert, but it’s not meant to be a replacement to stay up and party,” he said.

Amy Bowers, a psychologist and assistant director for Outreach and Consultation at the Counseling Center at American University, knows all too well the dangers of substance abuse among young people. She sees such cases on campus.

“There’s usually a high use of caffeine, nicotine, Adderall and Red Bull. I think for young people, their bodies can metabolize that stuff, so their bodies can recover more quickly. But it’s never good for the body,” said Bowers.

She said sugar, like that found in soda, inhibits sleep.

“Sugar has an excitability affect on the body. It can certainly affect energy level and interrupt sleep,” Bowers said. This means that consuming soda before bedtime might not be the best choice of beverage if you are sleep deprived. Like other stimulants, it could have the same affects as coffee.

Bowers said that in her own personal experiences with students, she has seen the positive effects cutting stimulants can have on a person. Students come back, after decreasing their substance use, and notice it helps to alleviate their sleep issues.

“I certainly hear that that can make a significant affect,” she said.

Even though Bowers often sees, “with some frequency,” students who come in with sleep deprivation concerns, they do not always recognize they are having sleeping issues.

“It’s definitely an issue for college students for a variety of reasons. They may or may not complain about it. Some people come in and say ‘I’m having a hard time sleeping.’ Other times, people don’t report until we ask them about it. They don’t always think to talk about it,” Bowers said.

There are also other methods in which people try and curtail sleep deprivation effects. For example, some people, like Celeste Young, catch up on sleep on the weekends when they don’t get enough sleep during the week.

But Emsellem said that sleeping in on the weekends could negatively affect the sleep-wake cycle. She notes that having an “out of sync” sleep schedule could lead to “trouble falling asleep as early as you need to during your workweek or your school week.”

“The price you might pay for that is difficulty falling asleep on Sunday night. Now your brain is used to sleeping until noon, so your 16 hours of wakefulness from the wake-up time may not allow you to be sleepy until 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning,” said Emsellem.

Neubauer approves of sleeping in on the weekends, but to a degree.

“Making up for sleep on the weekends is better than not, but they rather should pace themselves during the week and allow for more time in bed,” he said.

He also does not see much of a problem with taking naps when you come home after a hard day at work or school.

“A short nap in the afternoon can sometimes be pretty helpful,” Neubauer said.

Although naps could help you get through the week, experts agree that the best thing to do for a sleep-deprived person is to try and get between seven and eight hours of sleep per night, and try to avoid unnecessary distractions.

“Set up a regular sleep wake schedule and protect your sleep time — have an absolute goal of at least [seven hours] that you protect for your sleep. Try not to allow more than a two-hour difference between the weekday and weekend wakeup times,” said Emsellem.

“It’s not necessary to watch too much television, spend time on Facebook, or putting off on writing papers. Get them done earlier. We just need to give sleep a higher priority,” said Neubauer.