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Rodney Appling Ms. Ingram English 1102 Nov 4, 2012 Cover letter This is my argumentative research essay on how sleep can affect the grades of a college student. On that note, the intended audience for this paper was college students in general. I chose this audience because the paper relates to them the most. It has to do with what is relevant in their lives, so why not. When writing this paper, I had to remember that I was talking to college students, who are not children. So I used some vocabulary and kept a more professional tone. I made the topic something that this particular audience would be interested in. They probably experience it and they are hearing it from me, a college student myself. I tried to make the paper an easy read, and fairly interesting, with explain the different things that can hinder sleep, and how that can affect your academic performance. There are also some explanations on how to utilize time and get better sleep. Writing itself can be hard, but I have learned that writing about something you can relate to can change the game. An interesting topic can make a paper easier to write and that can be reflected in the sentences. This can also make a paper flow much better, which is something that I find achievable. There are still things that can be still present a challenge, like coming up with other things to write, instead of accidentally repeating yourself. I found that re-reading your work

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before proceeding can help with this. All in all, I think this paper is pretty straight forward and to the point, and can hopefully help college students open their eyes and get some sleep!

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Go to Bed Sleep is very mysterious, in the sense that it is still not really fully understood, but it is a natural cycle the essentially replenishes the mind and body. After a long day of stress and fatigue, an over worked mind needs peace and tired muscles need to rest. This has been observed since the beginning of time, considering most animals have some sort of sleep pattern. So when the mind and body does not get adequate rest at night, what starts to happen? One would start to experience sleep deprivation, which is when sleep restrictions cause fatigue, constant sleepiness, weight issues, and clumsy behavior from an absent mind. Lack of sleep can cause more of a health hazard if prolonged, and maybe even death. This has been observed for example, "Fatality is almost always observed in animals who suffer from long term sleep deprivation"(Colten). In this modern time, not getting enough sleep is becoming more common among teenagers and adults. This is due to the many commitments one may have in a single day, may it be work, kids, school, or friends. If only there were more hours in a day to accomplish more tasks. College students seem to have it worst trying to deal with an insane amount of obligations each day. Most try to get sleep whenever they can, but this can have a huge drawback on the daily schedule. A lot of people can say that not getting enough sleep is terrible for any busy adult, what about closely examining college students? When a student puts off sleep to do other things, the sleep deprivation can become dangerous to their mental focus. Things can go downhill fast and even though sleep deprivation can seem to be just a normal part of college life, it can become detrimental to ones academic progress. As if having a busy schedule is not already a hassle, trying to get some rest when there is actually a moment can be challenging. Loud noises, TVs, cell phones, social media can all keep a person wide awake when sleep is needed. These in particular are just some of the many things a

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college student might have to deal with. In a study on the younger student population, one doctor noted , "Freshmen usually have a tough time trying to sleep the most, due to anxiety, depression, stress, and loud dorm halls"(Yahalom).This along with pulling all nighters to study, or partying all night can lead to sleeping through class, or just not attending. If a student should try and attend class, they're usually too tired to pay attention and keep up with the teacher. Some might disagree, that the only way to get anything done is to just put sleep off. This is true to some degree, meaning that if you are asleep then you are inactive and accomplishing nothing, but if you're awake all night, you're sacrificing sleep for time and can get more school work done. Furthermore, when students exhibit these horrible sleep patterns, their grades seem to coincide and drop a letter grade or two. Sleeping through class or being to sleepy to pay attention is almost as bad as just not going. Getting a good rest refreshes the mind, so in the long run, mental alertness and ability to retain information gets thrown away in a sense. Some experts have noticed that sleep alters the mind and have stated that "As sleep deprivation becomes severe, the thinking process begins to deteriorate" (Kushida). This has been known, and can be considered dangerous for the individual. There is not only danger of screwing up the grades but the danger of causing extreme accidents due to clumsiness. When the desire to fall asleep becomes so severe, then the chances of making careless mistakes increase. A careless mistake while driving or maybe a careless mistake on a test, either way this is a huge impact. Observing all of the negative effects of achieving so little sleep, there are many ways to improve sleeping habits in college students so that they can perform better in class. The most common way would be to develop a pattern of going to bed and waking up at the same time every day. This establishes stability and trains the body to get use to the repeated routine. Other ways to get some sleep would be to avoid things such as TV, video games, computers and

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caffeine right before going to bed. These would obviously keep you awake and impede you on the path to a great sleep. For college students, sometimes managing stress in general can have a positive impact on sleep. It is amazing to see how much stress can keep one from falling asleep. Dealing with the anxiety first is important because this in turn can help with sleep issues, which could overall lead to a better academic experience. In an academic study at Cornell university, "Students have noted that setting up a schedule to help manage time and stress, has helped tremendously with their focus" (Kunken). The main impact of getting no sleep, to a college student would ultimately be the destruction of one's academic work. The way that some busy students just continue to brush sleep aside in order to complete other things that their lives revolve around, leads to sleep deprivation. Students become so tired that they can't pay attention or sleep through class. In today's world, a college education is crucial to success, and the amount of sleep you get during the college years can have a huge impact on this. Students shouldnt let sleep mess up their future and should take the time and take a nap or two.

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Works Cited Colten, Harvey and Bruce Altevogt. "Sleep disorders and sleep deprivation: an unmet public health problem/ committee of Sleep Medicine and Research, Board of Health Sciences Policy." Washington DC: Institute of Medicine, National Academic Press, 2006. Kushida Clete. "Sleep deprivation: Basic Science, Physiology, and Behavior." Informa Healthcare. 1 Jan 2005. Krueger, Patrick. "Sleep duration in the United States: A cross-sectional population based study." School of Public Health, University of Texas. 18 Mar 2009. Carney, Paul. "Clinical sleep disorders". LWW medical book collection. Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2005. Kunken, Kenneth. "College students' sleep patterns: selected factors affecting the length and quality of sleep." Cornell University. May 2010. Yahalom, Tali. "College students' performance suffer from lack of sleep." Usa today. Aug 2007.