Among college students, the plague of sleep affects over 80% of them. Statistics show that the number of college students with sleep problems is two times larger than the number of adults with those same problems. It has been proven that the amount of sleep required for teenagers is eight to nine hours a night, but college students report to only get around five or six on weeknights, and even less on weekends. Many students try to find ways to help their sleep issues, but students who turn to drinking alcohol to help sleep find themselves in an even larger sleep debt. An article in Newsweek, In Search of Sleep, claimed that 70 million people suffer from some kind of sleep disorder. It stated that "going more than a day without sleep affects performance as much as a blood alcohol level above the legal limit" and that more accidents occur because of sleep deprivation than alcohol. Many factors can keep people from sleep such as too much caffeine, smoking, alcohol, not enough exercise, irregular hours, a new baby, noise in the bedroom, and even an uncomfortable mattress.
             Sleep has been a scientific mystery for over fifty years. In more recent years, scientists have discovered a "sleep switch", a clump of cells in the front of the hypothalamus that are active in sleep but not in waking. These cells connect to other cells in the brain and release chemical messages to shut off other brain activity. The body also responds to the messages, and allows it to repair and rebuild in sleep. However, all of these depend on emotion and stress. What people don't understand is that even if they get what they feel is a sufficient amount of sleep, they are still impaired. "What they are doing is just sort of snacking on sleep. They want to take sleep the same way they take fast food" says David Dinges, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. His studies show that when you receive a full night of sleep, you're mo...