Brittany Barnhill had been awake for three days.
A University of Georgia senior from Thomson, Barnhill has struggled with insomnia since entering college.
Her condition is cyclical, meaning she is sporadically unable to sleep. But one of her worst experiences came during her sophomore year, when a night of studying for organic chemistry turned into a three-day sleepwalk.
“I had a lot of trouble with organic chemistry. It was the bane of my existence for a very long time,” Barnhill said. “I had an exam coming up for it and so one night I stayed up to study for it and pulled an all-nighter. That was Monday night.”
Monday night bled into Tuesday morning, and Barnhill planned to sleep that night, but found herself unable.
“I couldn’t get to sleep because I was stressed out about the exam the next day,” she said.
Though she passed the test, Barnhill said the erratic sleep schedule of a college insomniac is hardly healthy.
“My roommates thought I was dead,” Barnhill said. “[Being tired is] like I’m walking through a haze. I won’t recognize people, things. I definitely shouldn’t drive. It feels like I’m swimming.”
Barnhill’s tale, while extreme, is familiar for college-aged students, who are more likely to experience sleep disorders than other age groups. The average college student gets 6-6.9 hours of sleep a night, much less than the recommended eight hours. Less sleep can cause increased weight gain, mental illness and automobile accidents, while resulting in decreased academic performance, according to the University Health Center.
Students with sleep problems can find relief at the health center. If a student’s insomnia is cyclical, an assigned physician may prescribe sleep aids or advise altered sleep habits. But if the condition has psychological roots, the student may also seek aid from Counseling and Psychiatric Services.
“Sleep is probably one of the number one problems on campus, so it’s something a lot of students come in for,” said Liz Cheely, the case manager at the health center. “They need to do a phone screening, which takes about 15 minutes, where they tell us what is going on...after that, we get them scheduled for an intake [counseling session], which takes about an hour.”
A psychologist might then write a prescription for sleep aids or offer further psychiatric sessions.
Alexis Havrilla, a sophomore from Cumming, said her experiences with chronic (long-term) insomnia led to a lost scholarship and disappointing class results.
“I lost [the HOPE scholarship] because I got two C+ grades in classes because of my sleep habits,” said Havrilla, who is working with CAPS to address her condition. “I didn’t get enough sleep. It affected study habits. I just felt like doing other things because I don’t like to sleep — I do have a sleep fear.”
Insomnia leaves students searching for limited answers. Insomniacs are advised by most physicians to avoid caffeine, maintain a regular sleep schedule and develop other sleep-friendly habits. But students report habit-changing techniques as only marginally effective.
When the techniques work, they seem to only work for a short time. Even then, it’s difficult to change unhealthy habits while meeting the demands of college life.
Potent sedatives and antidepressants, such as Ambien and Trazodone, provide a quick fix for sleeplessness, but their addictive nature deters some students.
“It just seems like with the medicines and choices that are there, they aren’t very long term,” Barnhill said. “It’s all habit forming and you get dependent on it, and I don’t want to be stuck on that for the rest of my life.”
There is another option for students.
The Athens Sleep & Wellness Center, located on Prince Avenue, conducts overnight sleep tests to diagnose common sleep ailments. The test, which costs about $150 for patients with insurance, provides answers to the uncertainty surrounding sleep deprivation.
Meredith Petry, the Sleep Lab Administrator at the center, said it was important to diagnose the root of insomnia, rather than mask symptoms.
“The actual true, true insomnias are much more rare than you think of,” Petry said. “Most students should not go on sleep aids, because it’s usually pretty clear that they have bad habits and that they can be corrected. You don’t want to just give them a sleep aid to knock them out when they want to go to sleep or try to go to sleep because it’s not that simple.”
The Southeast in particular struggles with insomnia, with 13.1 percent to 19.3 percent of adults reporting insufficient rest in the past 30 days, according to a study done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
The region’s higher reported rates of insufficient sleep could be traced to higher obesity rates.
“If you look at that map, with obesity and weight, it’s going to be very close,” Petry said. “There is much more of a weight issue in the Southeast than there is in the West. The more of a weight issue there is, it’s probably highly correlated.”
Petry said students make up a low percentage of the center’s patient base because most students don’t prioritize sleep.
“Maybe five percent would be students, if that,” Petry said. “But what it should be is at least 20 to 25 percent. There are a lot of students with these issues, but sleep gets put so low on the priorities.”
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