By Alex Frank, Health and Wellness Reporter
Have you ever stayed up late one night studying? Or maybe you stayed up late going out with friends, watching a movie, or just scrolling in bed? For many young adults, these are common occurrences. Sleep is often the first thing sacrificed when work, school and social life get busy. Lack of sleep can affect more than how tired a person feels the next day. Consistently poor sleep can affect young adults’ mental health, mood, memory and overall energy levels.
Adjusting to the newfound freedom and lack of structure that comes with life after high school can be difficult. With so much to juggle while learning how to live on your own for the first time, sleep often falls low on the priority list. One night of poor sleep can affect you the next day, but what becomes a nightly habit for many young adults can have serious effects on long-term health and well-being. Lauren Woodard is a licensed therapist for teens and young adults with a master’s in social work and a bachelor’s in psychology. In an interview, Woodard explains how hard it is to get quality sleep, the effects poor sleep has on young adults’ well-being and ways to build healthier habits.
Lauren Woodard, MSW, LCSW
Her comments were edited for length and clarity.
Why do you think sleep tends to be such a problem for young adults?
Young adults are in a unique developmental period where they are often navigating a new phase of freedom, responsibilities and demands without the structure they had at home and in high school. For many college students, living at school might be the first time they haven’t had parental supervision and structure around sleep. College is also such a unique time where you are trying to balance so many competing interests: almost 24/7 access to friends and social opportunities, classes, internships, work, clubs, sports, volunteering, dating, all while managing sleep. Sleep is typically the easiest thing to cut! I can’t think of another period of adult life.
What are the most common unhealthy sleep habits?
In my work with college students, I most commonly see a pattern of uneven sleep where students might get very little sleep during the week and then sleep in a lot on weekends to make up for it. That in and of itself can severely disrupt your natural sleep-wake circadian rhythms and can also cause what I call “Sunday Scaries Insomnia,” where it is hard to fall asleep on Sunday evenings and you start the week sleep deprived. Another is alcohol intake. Although alcohol makes people feel sleepy at first, research tells us it is a sleep disruptor, causing early wakefulness. Excessive screen time and phone use in bed is another one. The blue light from your phone and the mental stimulation of what you are watching are big sleep disruptors.
How does stress affect someone’s ability to sleep?
Stress is a large component driving sleep disruption. Stress puts your body into a naturally more alert and activated state. So if you are stressed, it would take you much longer to be able to feel like you can wind down enough to fall asleep. So think about adding an energy drink in the afternoon, the stress of an exam and scrolling on TikTok a perfect storm for impacting someone’s ability to sleep and a reason why stress management through exercise and meditation is so important.
How can poor sleep affect mood, motivation and ability to handle everyday stress?
I say this weekly to my client: Sleep is a foundational component of your mental wellness. When we’re sleep-deprived, our ability to concentrate, tolerate distress, regulate our emotions, make decisions and manage everyday stress is impacted. A decision that might feel relatively easy when you’re well-rested can suddenly feel overwhelming or even impossible when you’re exhausted. You may find yourself feeling far more anxious, emotional, or frustrated by something you would normally be able to navigate; not necessarily because the situation has changed, but because you’re trying to handle it with a sleep-deprived brain. It is like functioning all day with a phone at 10% charged.
How do phones affect young adults’ sleep habits?
I could probably do an entire interview on just this. Blue light from your phone keeps you awake and alert and blocks melatonin production, which is a sleep hormone you need to sleep well. I also hear a lot of clients say notifications stress them out, and they feel like they have to respond right away, even if they are trying to rest. One other thing I see is a downside of social media where many of my clients get caught in a comparison trap with viewing social media – it may make them feel like they are less in some way by seeing other people have things they don’t. That can result in feelings of anxiety and depression, which impact sleep.
What are the first changes you would recommend to someone who consistently gets poor sleep?
Doing a complete reset of your sleep habits might be too stressful, so I say pick one area. Some ideas are, like, set an alarm on your phone to remind you to go phone or social media free for 30 minutes before bed. Stop consuming caffeine after lunchtime. Try to wake up at the same time every morning and go to bed at the same time every night; stay within 2 hours on each end of that on the weekends. If you stay out late, still wake up within 2 hours of your normal wake-up time. Another thing is to try to keep naps short and earlier in the day if you take them. Lastly, stay out of bed unless you are sleeping.
If you could change one sleep habit among college students, what would it be? Stop spending so much time in your bed. For many college students, especially those in dorms, their bed becomes a multi-purpose space: desk, couch, dining room and place to scroll. If possible, I encourage clients to create some distinction between where they are awake and where they sleep. We want the brain to develop a strong association between getting into bed and winding down.
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