If you know anything about American college life you know that sleep is often a rarity. Between the activities, festivities, oh, and the education sleep is sometimes not a top priority. Thus, the findings of a new study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health should not be of any surprise – that only 30% of college age students get at least eight hours of sleep per night (the average required for young adults). Furthermore, on weeknights, 20% of students stay up all night at least once a month and 35% stay up until 3 a.m. at least once a week. Sleep deprivation can induce extra stress on the body, lead to weight gain, not to mention impair the cardiovascular and immune systems. Even more jarring, more than 60% of students have sleep-wake cycle disturbances and many take drugs and alcohol regularly to help them do one or the other. [via Medical News Today]
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Dr. Steven Chang, the author of DailyDose, is a staff physician with Kosmix RightHealth. Dr. Chang practices Family Medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center, where his medical interests include both pediatric and geriatric care, public health, gay and lesbian health, and sleep medicine. Dr. Chang trained at the Stanford University affiliated O'Connor Hospital, and was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health. He holds an M.D. from McGill University and a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.