More causes of sleep deprivation as stated by Tsai and Li

(2004), are gender and grade differences. In Tsai and Li’s study,

they found that female students tend to receive lesser sleep with

poorer sleep quality and more awakenings in the middle of the

night compared to male students. The male students would receive

more sleep with better quality. This is because women went to bed

later but rose earlier.

According to Tsai and Li (2004), younger students such as

college freshmen also tended to sleep less than college seniors

no matter what their gender. This may be because of fewer

workloads and the more relaxed attitude of college seniors since

they have their life more balanced out as opposed to the incoming

freshmen that are just trying to figure things out. The college

freshmen may feel more stress as they try to balance having a

social life and keeping up with their academics at the same time.

As a result, sleep deprivation can be caused by both gender

differences and grade differences.

EMOTIONAL

There are many causes as to why sleep deprivation occurs in

college students. In a study done by Ahrberg and his colleagues

(2012), they found that different modes of stress affect the

circadian sleep rhythms of the students. OF these modes of

stress, stress from work and school are the most prevalent.

A working student can feel stress from going to school,

then working to hard at their job, and then having to come home

to do more schoolwork until the early hours of the day. Students

who do not have a job may also feel the same stresses as working

students if they spend too much time procrastinating and have to

spend time working on schoolwork until the early morning as well.

Ahrberg and his colleagues (2012) also state that as a result of

sleeping this late, sleep deprivation acts as another stressor on

the student.
 GENERAL AVERAGE

Many studies in the past have shown that sleep deprivation

does correlate with poor academic performance because of lower

abilities in cognition as a result of poor sleep quality. In the

study done by Gilbert and Weaver (2010), the two researchers

found that sleep loss interferes with a student’s academic,

extracurricular and vocational choices. They also found that the

amount of hours students sleep in a 24-hour period has greatly

decreased over the years while sleep dissatisfaction has

increased.

Another study done by Medeiros and three other colleagues

(2001), found a correlation between poor academic performances

and sleep deprivation but in this study, they analyzed how

irregular sleep cycles can be the result of different days of the

week. For example, their participants tended to have prolonged

sleep during the weekends because of their loss of sleep during

the weekdays because of school (Medeiros et al., 2001). Since

humans have the tendency to continue sleeping late as the result

of their human circadian rhythm, sleep deprivation is further

worsened (Medeiros et al., 2001) As stated before by Ahrberg and

his colleagues (2012), stress can also worsen the

desynchronization of circadian rhythms and make people moody and

cause them to not be as alert as they should be. In a similar

study done by Kelly, W. and two other colleagues (2001), they

also found that sleep deprivation greatly affects a student’s

ability to perform well in their classes. This is evident through

the students’ GPA’s. Kelly and colleagues reported that people

who slept 9 hours or more in a 24-hour period had significantly

higher GPA’s than short sleepers who sleep 6 hours or less in a

24-hour period. These short sleepers also tended to show signs of

anxiousness, were less creative, more neurotic, and more prone to

hallucinate as well (Kelly, Kelly, &Clanton, 2001).