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University students troubled by sleep problems: study

More than eight in 10 college students are troubled by sleep-related problems, a study released by the Department of Psychology at National Chengchi University yesterday showed.

A total of 916 National Chengchi University undergraduates responded to the recent survey, which was administered by e-mail, from which 873 effective samples were taken.

The survey showed that 46 percent of respondents suffered from insomnia, 43 percent complained of shallow sleep, 38 percent said they felt sleepy during the day and 46 percent said that they did not have a regular sleep schedule.

Overall, 86 percent of students said that they have some sleep-related issues, and 63.6 percent said that they were not getting enough sleep.

High caffeine intake and an inordinate amount of time spent online are to blame, said Yang Chien-ming (楊建銘), an associate professor in psychology at Chengchi.

"Young people sometimes forget to exercise restraint and spend too much time on the computer," Yang told a press conference. "They should set a time for getting offline and stick to it."

Sitting in front of the monitor late into the evening can interfere with the body's natural sleep mechanism, he said.

"The light from the monitor can interfere with melatonin production and hamper sleep," Yang said.

Sleeping in during weekends is another reason students have trouble falling asleep on weeknights, he said.

"By staying up late and sleeping in on the weekends, students are changing their circadian rhythm," Yang said. "No wonder they have trouble falling asleep on regular nights."

Yang said that about 4 percent to 10 percent of adults suffer from idiopathic insomnia, but added that most people can benefit from a simple change in sleeping schedules and habits.

Huang Wen-hsuan (黃文炫), a senior at Chengchi, said it was really easy to stay up later than he meant to "because all my friends are online."

"Sometimes they'd start a conversation on instant messenger just when I was about to go to bed, and it seemed rude not to chat for a while," he said.

Huang said that most of his peers also stay online all night, and that it was not unusual for some to do so until 3am or 4am.

"However, I really feel much better during the day now that I try to be in bed by 12," Huang said.
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