Sleep Deprivation Among University Students: A Case Study

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PSYC 1504 Week 2

Effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive and physical performance in university students.

Sleep deprivation is the condition of not having enough sleep; it can be either chronic or acute. A chronic sleep-restricted state can cause fatigue, daytime sleepiness, clumsiness and weight loss or weight gain. It adversely affects the brain and cognitive function.
The need for sleep varies considerably between individuals .The average sleep length is between 7 and 8.5 h per day.
A group of researchers at Imperial College London among university the students. Supported by a School of Medicine Education Innovations …show more content…

Exclusion criteria were: any medication or medical history that would make participation in the study, in particular the sleep deprivation and exercise test, unsafe, or inappropriate; (2) mental incapacity to provide informed consent, or (3) recent (within 6 months) participation in a research trial. Participants were recruited via direct approach and posters on campus, social media, and a National Heart and Lung Institute newsletter. Participants travel expenses were reimbursed and all participants were offered the opportunity to be entered into a prize draw. Participants were told that the study involved testing parameters following sleep deprivation, but no information was given regarding the anticipated results. All participants gave written informed consent, and the study was approved by Medical Education Ethics Committee (Imperial College London, 23/4/15, …show more content…

Therefore, the study design was reliant on self-reported sleep deprivation and form completion, which may mean that some students had more sleep than others on the sleep deprivation night. Whilst this reduces the generalizability of our results in more diverse samples, the results are indicative of the effects of acute sleep deprivation on students in higher education. Alternate equipment and a larger test selection would have given a wider holistic prospective on the impact of sleep deprivation in university students; however, the interventions used in the study were chosen to maximize participant familiarity and minimize testing