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Judy Sandlin BIO
70 million Americans are believed to be sleep deprived. In addition, more automobile accidents are caused by drowsy than drunk drivers. Is sleep deprivation a current and severe health problem among college students? Can lack of sleep have a tangible impact on cognitive ability and stress levels? Some sleep experts and researchers believe that lack of sleep has reached epidemic status on college campuses.
Caffeine, sugar and pills are the usual quick-fix remedies employed by college students to deal with a shortage of sleep, whether they admit it or not. But can they truly alleviate a “lack of sleep” problem without causing other long or short-term health risks? Not likely, according to Dr. Judy Sandlin, who is an Associate Professor of Health Sciences and Kinesiology at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. Dr. Sandlin is among a handful of university educators currently engaged in sleep-related research with college age control groups and she has been testing the effectiveness of nap taking on the cognitive abilities and stress levels of college students.
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Dr. Judy Sandlin -- Learn like Einstein
Albert Einstein claimed he needed ten hours of sleep to function well. Does the average college age student get this much or even enough sleep?
Based on the students I’ve observed, college students get no where near enough sleep. I’d say that most college students get from 4 – 6 hours of sleep per night. Even they admit that they do not get enough sleep but they seem unwilling or unable to take action to change the behavior.
Tell us how you became interested in the problem of sleep deprivation in college age students.
I’ve been teaching at the college level for over 20 years and it seems that college students have never gotten enough sleep. As an undergraduate student, I was one of the few students that I knew who really attempted to get adequate sleep. I rarely got sick but I could always expect to be sick after the end of a tough semester. These illness could be attributed to the lack of sleep because of stress, which lead to not eating properly, not exercising properly, etc.
Also, for most of my adult life I’ve been a power nap taker. When possible, I’ll take a short nap in the middle of the afternoon and wake up refreshed. In fact, I took a 15 minute nap this afternoon!!
As far as being interested in the problem of sleep deprivation in college age students, I would say that the interest has evolved through the years. I’ve taught at schools were students were killed in automobile accidents due to sleep deprivation. Every semester I see and hear of students who do not get enough sleep, get sick, make bad grades, and have to repeat courses or flunk out of school.
The interest was peaked when I saw the Power Nap Kit at a conference that I attended. I picked up the CD and brought it home and listened to it immediately. I work with Honor’s students at Liberty University. One of these students, Emily Rolsten, was looking for a research topic and I told her about the Power Nap Kit and the sleep deprivation problem among college students. She listened to the CDs and was immediately intrigued.
In brief, what are some of the key factors that contribute to the sleep problems of college students?
Various factors that contribute to the sleep problems of college students have been identified. These include stress, poor time management, poor sleep habits, and environment.
I might add to the list the lack of knowledge of the need for adequate amounts of sleep and how the lack of sleep leads to many health problems -- the susceptibility to illness and other health problems. It’s a form of negative health momentum – students get stressed, do not get enough sleep, do not eat properly and stop exercising, and then get sick.
Have you discovered any gender differences in coping with sleep deprivation?
Researchers have investigated a number of sleep deprivation issues including gender differences in the specific sleep problems and methods of coping with sleep deprivation. More women than men report an inability to stay asleep and more morning tiredness. Men are more likely than women to ignore sleep problems.
What is the most common method of coping with lack of sleep?
The most common method of coping with the lack of sleep for both genders is nap taking. Some say that taking a nap will keep one awake at night and cause him to be unable to go to sleep at his normal time. Others contend that a nap provides an extra boost but only when one knows how, when, and where to take a good nap.
So, it sounds like you’ve found that “to nap or not to nap” creates confusion with some people.
Yes, nap taking is a controversial topic. Yet, throughout history, many famous people have unashamedly admitted to taking naps, including both Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan.
Describe the power nap study that you implemented with one of your students, Emily Rolsten.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of two methods of nap taking - Relaxation Visualization and Tension Relaxation - on the cognitive abilities and stress levels of college students. More specifically, the effects of a daily power nap were assessed. A power nap is a 30-minute exercise that yields the benefit of up to four hours of restorative sleep. A control group was used to establish baseline information. All subjects completed a sleep test used to detect symptoms of sleep disorders and kept a sleep journal throughout the duration of the study. Cognitive ability was tested using self-administered short-term memory word test and stress level was assessed using a 15-item stress questionnaire.
Tell us about your research results.
Our results indicate that nap taking - Relaxation Visualization or Tension Relaxation - is an effective coping strategy for college students. Subjects in both nap-taking groups had higher cognitive scores and lower stress levels when compared to the control group.
Were there any surprises or findings of particular interest?
Perhaps the most interesting findings came from the qualitative information provided in the sleep journals of the students. Subjects reported being refreshed by their nap with no disruption in nighttime sleep cycle.
Are you working on any additional sleep/nap research studies?
Yes, we would like to expand the research to include more subjects and have the students practice the techniques for a longer period of time. We also want to focus more on the qualitative results of future studies – what the subjects say about how they feel after taking a nap. I have several colleagues, Dr. Rosanne Keathley at Sam Houston State University and Dr. Michael Sandlin at Liberty University, who will take part in future studies using the PNK.
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 Candiss Newman BIO
Candiss Newman is a health educator at one of the most highly regarded suburban public high schools in the nation. The high school she has been teaching at for the past fifteen years is renown for academic competition, high achievement, and is consistently ranked in the top ten nationally.
Luckily, Candiss is the type of teacher/counselor that you gravitate to immediately. She is warm, down-to-earth, knowledgable and cares deeply for the students in her school. She is also forthright and ‘tells it like it is.’ No subject matter is too delicate for her to address. She tackles any subject with unflinching honesty and ‘bare-fisted’ advice.
As the teacher of a required Health class, she faces 150 students each semester and she leaves no stone unturned in providing meaty, informative answers to their tough questions. We met with Candiss and asked her to share with us her “inside view” about today’s sleep-deprived and stressed out teens.
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Candiss Newman: Stressed Out + Sleep Deprived Teens
Can you tell us why teens and young adults are so stressed out and sleep deprived?
As both an educator and the mother of two teenagers, I’m painfully aware of the pressure that today’s teenagers are under from their parents, their teachers, their peers and even themselves. There are students in my school taking as many as six AP (college level) courses in the race to gain admission to the most prestigious colleges. That’s more than some college students are taking. We have more kids than ever seeing counselors. They drink or take drugs because they feel they’re under so much pressure. They don’t know how to deal with it.”
Are teens more stressed today than they were 20 or 30 years ago? Why?
Teens are definitely more stressed than in the past. There is a lot more competition on every level. They compete to get on sports teams so they can compete weekly against other teams. They compete to build the best resumes for their college applications. They compete to get into the most prestigious colleges so they can compete in a job market that does not offer any promises. A lot of this competition and drive is reinforced by their baby-boomer parents who grew up differently and were able to be successful without the same level of pressure at such a young age. Many people measure their success as parents by how well their children "place" in college. Even if the child's immediate family has not succumbed to this peer pressure, the kids go to school, hear their friends talking about how important all of this stuff is and it becomes contagious.
What do you see as major stressors in teen's lives?
These are the perennial stress factors or pressure points that kids talk about: sports teams, academic success, college acceptance, social approval by peer groups,
physical appearance (being skinny, looking cool), easy access to drugs and pressure to have sexual experiences.
Everyone has stress in their lives, although the stressors are different at different ages. However, the stress on modern teenagers today is off the charts. For example, when I was a teenager the decision to become sexually active did not include worrying about HIV!
How does the stress manifest itself?
The stress starts building young (age 4 and 5) with the pressure to make community sports teams and continues to build to a crescendo in the high school years. The biggest problem is that no one is teaching these young adults how to cope with all of this stress. Many adults harbor this romantic notion that it would be great to be a teenager again. They think, “What is all this bellyaching about???? Does my kid have to worry about bills and jobs? No! They have a great life!"
Yet, most people don’t realize that the teenage brain is at a different stage of development than adults. Maturing kids feel some things a lot more intensely than adults. Hence the "first love" thing. Well, they feel their stress acutely as well. Yet, this stress is often not even validated by the adults in their lives who feel their own lives are even more stressful.
Do young adults seem to have coping skills to fall back on?
No, generally they are not taught how to cope with stress which then results in the teens dealing with it in often harmful ways including “self-medicating” with drugs, sex, and other self-destructive behaviors that numb their feelings or shift their focus.
Parents and educators need to teach young adults skills to deal with the stress and pressure that starts early in adolescence. We are remiss if we don’t teach kids coping skills. They need to learn stress reduction strategies like time management, prioritizing, knocking stuff off their ‘to-do’ lists that doesn’t have to be done and more. I’m a big proponent of the guided relaxation techniques offered on the Power Nap CD. Learning how to relax and rejuvenate is a necessary life-skill. Once you learn this you can use it for the rest of your life. Not only is learning to Power Nap a life-skill, it could be a life-saving skill!
Which teens are at the greatest risk?
All teens are at risk. One high-risk group is families with parents who are very successful in terms of their own careers, financial situation, etc. They tend to be around the least due to their busy schedules and their kids are not getting a good dose of parenting. Some of these parents have reached such an impossibly high level of success that their kids can never hope to achieve. Yet the expectation is that naturally their exceptional kids will be able to do the same. This kind of pressure paralyzes some kids and even prevents them from being able to figure out what they really can and want to do with their own lives.
How can kids help themselves?
If they knew how to help themselves they would. They have no idea. The more self- esteem they have the more they can resist the pressures of drugs and sex. In addition, they need to have some interests, skills and talents they enjoy that are NOT competitive, but are more about pure enjoyment of their own "personal best" or possibly hobbies that involve exploration, curiosity and learning but do not involve being graded or measured against their peers.
Time-tested Stress reduction strategies
from Candiss Newman:
Learn time management skills.
Try keeping a log of how much time you spend doing things in a day. It is interesting to see how much time is wasted!
Budget your time.
Plan a budget for your time, including activities that you want to do and enjoy doing just as you would plan a budget for money. Stick to the budget and you will find that you have more time for getting everything done.
Make Lists.
Before you go to bed at night, make a list of everything you need to do the following day. Jot down everything and don’t worry about the order of importance. Once you have completed your list, then number and prioritze items on the list. The next day, do your activities according to the order you have assigned on the list. You may not get to everything, but you’ll accomplish a lot by not just responding impulsively whatever happens to you and you’ll feel a greater sense of control once you start ticking important things off your list.
Learn good study skills.
There are numerous books written on this subject and some high schools or community colleges even offer it as a course.
Learning how to relax and rejuvenate is a necessary life-skill.
Take a power nap to relax or catch up on sleep and never drive if you’re feeling drowsy.
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Anton Anderson BIO
Anton Anderson is an affable, popular, high school English teacher with a deep, melodious voice and the slightly rumpled appearance of a college professor. On any given Monday afternoon, right after the final class of the day, Anderson can be found in his classroom with a group of 10-20 teenagers, all chatting and rehashing the events of the day and weekend.
He quietly brings them to order and instructs them to get into a comfortable position, take off their shoes if they wish and get ready to relax. He begins, “Your lungs are a pear shape—imagine filling them with air from the bottom. Let them slowly expand, then slowly exhale. Imagine that your consciousness is a ball of light hovering over your head. Feel its warmth on your scalp. Feel your facial muscles relax. Look back at yourself and see that your head is aglow with a warm, soothing light. Breathe so your abdomen fills up first…”
Is it any wonder that his students, some seated at their desks with their heads down and some lying on the carpeted floor, are completely silent and still? Anderson continues with the guided meditation with soothing music background for another 20 minutes. He instructs them to feel a band of relaxation around their elbows, their wrists…to let the relaxation flow like water down their forearms, to open up little dams and let the tension flow from their fingers…During this time, one boy nudges himself awake, silently gathers his backpack and tiptoes out of the room to go to basketball practice. Anderson then begins to bring the students back to consciousness just as methodically as he helped them relax.
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Anton Anderson: Ready…Set…Rest!
How does stress affect the kids you see everyday in school?
Young people today experience a tremendous amount of stress and that their ability to learn is compromised by it. Stress reduction is directly related to the ability to learn. If you are able to defuse stress, you will feel better rested and will be able to concentrate and pay attention more effectively.
Q. Is this why you started the Power Nap Club?
Yes, I saw that my students were increasingly burdened with an overwhelming load of responsibilities -- academic course work, extracurricular activities, sports, work, etc. My consciousness was raised about the level of anxiety and stress in the adolescent population. Guided relaxation with sleep as the goal is easy to learn but we needed to create the club to turn it into a regularly scheduled activity, where I could dedicate myself to teaching students how to relax and recharge themselves.
Did some people think your idea was a joke?
To some people, Power Nap sounds like an oxymoron. We tend to think power=busy and napper=slacker. But, in fact, a Power Nap increases your ability to concentrate, to pay close attention and to make critical decisions—what could be more powerful than that?
How has taking a “power nap” helped you?
Early in my teaching career, I was working two and three jobs at a time to make ends meet and often found I needed an energy boost. My meditation instructors recommended I practice twice a day for 20 minutes but I found there was no place where I could go and be alone and not be interrupted. The irony is that school is supposed to be an environment where the brain is the paramount tool, but there’s no place for the quiet development of the brain. My recollection of this frustration sparked the idea to start the Power Nap Club, to create a place for students to have uninterrupted quiet time to recharge themselves.
How is a power nap different from guided meditation?
A power nap differs from meditation in several ways. The primary way is in orientation. The power nap experience makes sleep the goal; the meditation experience does not. In fact, it actively discourages it. During meditation sessions, I found myself trying to fight falling asleep and didn't get a good meditation session. When you are trained in meditation, if you fall asleep, you may feel you have ‘failed’. A power nap has fewer requirements and the same benefits --renewed energy and clear thinking – of meditation.
The advantage of a power nap is that you are refreshed and don't have to feel guilty about falling asleep. FALLING ASLEEP IS THE GOAL.
How often does your Power Nap Club™ meet?
My Power Nap Club meets on Mondays after school at 2:30 but before sports team practices begin. It gets the week off to a great start, though it would also benefit the kids anytime during the school week. My students said it was great to get recharged at the end of what is typically a high-stress day. Did you know that more heart attacks take place on Monday mornings than on any other day of the week? It gave them a boost for the rest of the week.
My experience, and that of my students, has shown that frequent practice makes for a well-rested and more energetic physical and mental life-experience. The more you Power Nap, the better your ability to enjoy life and learning. With practice, you can even gain control over the level of sleep you achieve. If you are waiting in a doctor’s office and need to hear when they call your name, you can control how deeply you sleep.
You even have a club slogan?
I teach students about the classics in my AP English class. Our club slogan -- “Veni, vidi, dormivi” (I came, I saw, I slept) is a lighthearted variation of Caesar’s motto: I came, I saw, I conquered. But this doesn’t mean that the purpose of the club is not serious and that the benefits are not real. Club members view their ability to Power Nap as a life skill they will take with them to college and beyond. There’s no escape from stress --the key is to learn coping skills to deal with it.
Is it easy to start a Power Nap Club?
Yes, it is easy to learn how to power nap but it is helpful to know where to start. That’s why we created the Power Nap Kit™. The kit includes a 72 minute Power Nap CD with three different power nap sessions that I wrote, accompanied by the same At Peace™ music that my students listen to in our Power Nap Club. The Teen Edition of the Power Nap Kit also includes a Power Study CD with 66 minutes of music ideal for study, concentration and reading. This CD has wonderful At Peace music that my students have found effective for activities requiring concentration and focus, such as reading, writing and studying.
The 44-page booklet, TEEN STRESS: An Inside View, does a great job of putting into perspective the issues facing today’s teens and young adults – the overload of stress and expectations – that has created a need for coping strategies such as taking a power nap. I highly recommend this booklet and the entire Power Nap Kit to educators, parents and young people.
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