Is College Affecting Student Health?

College, or, in other words, the sleep depriver. All of you who have experienced college life can relate to the "sleep late, rise early" motto because it is like the institution doesn't give us students a break! I feel that they make the work more extensive since we are in a higher level of education, but is it really necessary to assign assignments that take hours to do to become good at what you do? I know. Practice makes perfect, but a time restriction on your growth as you practice? It is NOT NECESSARY.

I usually stay up until one in the morning and wake up at six in the morning to get ready for class. It does take a toll on me because I always find myself nodding off in math class (and just to recap here, I used to NEVER sleep in class in High School. I just couldn't do it.) My High School days were almost the same as it is now. I would stay up very late and wake up at five forty-five to get ready to catch the bus. I still never had to force myself to stay awake. Today, I had to do exactly that for about three hours. As I was sitting in my math lecture, my eyelids became very heavy and I had to try to focus my vision so I could see the notes, but it was the most difficult thing in the world. It feels like you have been given drugs through an IV and you are slowly starting to fall asleep, but at the same time, you are fighting it because you don't know what the doctor is going to do to you while you lie there on that shower curtain plastic hospital bed. Just to say, nothing happens, but it is something to think about...

To make this story short, I could not keep my head up or keep my eyes open even while I was texting as I waited for my next class. I even debated with my cousin on whether I should have stayed in my dorm to rest.  The conversation went as follows:

Me: I am so tired. I didn't sleep good last night because I really thought my heart was slowing down. So, I tossed and turned all night freaking out a little until I finally became calm enough to sleep. I can't have caffeine anymore either because I think that is why I was feeling funny.

Danielle: Yeah u gotta let up on the coffee.

Me: This is so horrible. I can't even keep my eyes open while texting.

D: Aw :(

Me: I'm thinking about Emailing my UNIV teacher and telling her that I really can't come to class today, but I'm not sure if that is an excusable excuse?

D: Probably not :P

Me: Oh. Welllll, it sucks to be me I guess.

D: I mean u can just not go ur not gonna get in trouble.

As you can tell it was a big delima. I ended up going still because I gained some energy after lunch. You are probably wondering wait? Heart feeling funny? What are you talking about? Yes, I was born with Fetal Tachycardia (but it was only when I was an infant -- hence the fetal part) and now I have a slight heart murmur which is irregular heartbeat. It is very common for young people today, but it is still a scary experience because you never know if it is a symptom of a heart attack or just your mind playing tricks on you. This only happens to me at night and it has been since I was a preteen. They say that you tend to focus more on your heart beat when you are in a dark, quiet room. I know this is what I do, but I can't help it if it feels like my heart is stopping and I can't get enough air. 

I bring this point up about heart failure because I recently read an article about night shifts and their link to heart attacks and stroke. This article written by Jenny Hope on Mail Online states that irregular sleeping patterns mess with your body's overall health:

 "Shift work has long been known to disrupt the body clock and be linked to high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, but the overall impact on cardiovascular health has been unclear.

A team of international researchers analysed the results of 34 studies involving 2,011,935 people to investigate whether shift work was associated with major vascular events.

Shift work was defined as evening shifts, irregular or unspecified shifts, mixed schedules, night shifts and rotating shifts, and the studies also contained day workers or the general population for comparison.

Altogether 17,359 had some kind of coronary event, 6,598 had heart attacks and 1,854 had ischaemic strokes caused by lack of blood to the brain.

These events were more common among shift workers than other people.

Shift work was associated with a 23 per cent increased risk of heart attack, 24 per cent rise in coronary events and five per cent extra strokes."

 Although night shifts are associated with adults who have full-time jobs, college is still a full-time job and I believe this risk is also associated with college students (if my experience doesn't prove anything, then I have no reason to speak anymore, I swear.) Here is the link to the article "Night shifts can raise risk of heart attacks and strokes by more than 40%":

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2179572/Night-shifts-raise-risk-heart-attacks-strokes-40-cent.html

Our health is very important and is analogous to doing well on schoolwork. How is it possible to be the best you can be when your body is not? This should be put into consideration before something goes terribly wrong. This is a problem. We just don't know it yet.


*Hope, Jenny. "Night Shifts Can Raise Risk of Heart Attacks and Strokes by More than 40%."Mail Online.                                                  
     Mail Online, 26 July 2012. Web. 30 Oct. 2012.