COLUMN: Getting too much sleep

From Andrea Ahles "Hawaiian Style," Fall '97 From Andrea Ahles "Hawaiian Style," Fall '97What did you do over break?" As undergraduates return to Penn after a restful winter break, the previous conversation has echoed across campus. For the most part, we look forward to vacations to catch up on sleep skipped during finals. But when did sleep become the number one thing to do on vacation? A recent national survey of undergraduates -- conducted by Columbia University Teacher College President Arthur Levine -- found that when asked what they did for fun, 21 percent answered study and 11 percent said sleep. There must be other things to do that are more fun then sleeping or studying, aren't there? During winter break, one could go skiing, attend a holiday concert, read a book or (if you're lucky) go to the beach. Vacation is when we should do all the things they do not have time to do during school. It can be argued that we do not have time for sleep during the semester. But that's not an excuse to sleep 16 hours a day during break. Spending time with your family and friends is important during winter break. Often times these are people you only see twice a year. Even on weekends during the semester, we tend to sleep most of the day away. How many times have you planned to go out early in the day but then decided not to in favor of sleep? Too many times, probably. This drive to sleep -- especially on breaks and weekends -- is a result of students' lack of sleep during the week. Think of this typical conversation: "You look horrible. How much sleep did you get last night?" "Only four hours." "Yeah, well, I only got two." Students often compete to see who got the least amount of sleep, taking pride in being able to stay up all night. Everyone has done it, including myself. But there's proof that the average human needs about six to eight hours of sleep each night. Sleep and the lack of it was also the subject of last week's New York Times Magazine cover story. The article focused on current research being conducted in the sleep-disorder field and a world-wide culture obsession of getting small amounts of sleep. The author also discussed how visible fatigue is considered a good characteristic of an ambitious person in the business world -- much like how we are proud of the all-nighters we pull during finals. "Modern sleep -- severely delimited sleep -- is largely a cultural product. It is only at most, a few centuries old, a result of our profound conviction that we can control the details of our biological destiny," the article said. While we do control how much sleep we get with an alarm clock, our bodies usually tell us when it needs more or has had too much. Falling asleep in class is only one indicator that your body needs to rest. Light-headiness and slower motor skills are also indicators. The detrimental health implications of long-term sleeplessness are still being studied by scientists. But more importantly, we are less productive when we've had no sleep than when we've had lots of sleep. The quality of our work decreases with every hour of sleep we don't get. In this new semester, try to get more sleep at night during the week. Then you'll have more energy to party throughout spring break. And you'll feel more rested on the week-ends to either get a lot of studying done or to participate in other extracurricular activities. While sleep is necessary and we should not deprive ourselves of it, sleep should not become the activity we most look forward to during our free time.