A Close Relationship Between Alcohol Consumption - Essay Example

Sleep Studies Before going to discuss the relationship between alcohol consumption, sleep patterns, and academic performance, let us get a better understanding of how alcohol consumption affects mental and physical health of the young adults. Drinking creates a number of risks for the health of young adults. Zelman (2005) states, “Too much alcohol can lead to serious problems”. Some of the widely observed risks are related to decision-making abilities, liver’s functions, and hormonal changes. In this paper, I will discuss the relationship between alcoholism in young adults, sleep patterns, and academic performance in accordance with an article, ‘Alcohol consumption, sleep, and academic performance among college students’ by Royce Singleton and Amy Wolfson, in order to get knowledge of how the habit of drinking and irregular sleep patterns affect different behaviors of young adults. I will also write about my own drinking and sleep behaviors, which I kept during the last week. I slept for almost four hours each night of the last week and took three drinks each day of the week, on weekends I took even four. Two Unhealthy Behaviors College life is the most critical stage of life of a person. In college, a person develops different kinds of habits and behaviors. Some behaviors are useful for the success of a person in personal and professional life whereas some behaviors put adverse impact on the health and social life. Two of the unhealthiest behaviors which most of the college level students develop include excessive drinking and inappropriate sleep patterns. Both of these behaviors are very harmful for the health of young adults. Along with the effects on health, drinking and inappropriate sleep patterns also affect the academic performances of the students. Singleton and Wolfson (2009) state, “Both heavy alcohol consumption and unhealthy sleep habits are associated with various behavioral problems, including poor academic performance”. Let us now discuss the impact of drinking and inappropriate sleep patterns on the academic performances of children. Alcohol Use and Academic Performance Medical science has proved that alcohol consumption affects thinking abilities of the children, which consequently affects academic performances of the children. When children drink, whether on weekends or regularly, the effect is on the brain of those children, which is the most important contributor to good academic performance. Drinking not only affects the thinking abilities of the children but also intoxicate children and the intoxication smoothens their way to become habitual drinkers. Unfortunately, no controlled researches have been done to know the effects of alcoholism on academic performance of the children because in the United States of America, it is not easy for a high school student to drink because of alcohol prohibition laws. That is the reason why researchers have not conducted any considerable research on this issue. However, researches with adults have proved that drinking puts an adverse impact on the learning and thinking abilities of the adults. Although such effects are temporary in case of irregular drinking but if an adult consumes alcohol on daily basis, the effects on daily life are very unpleasant. Both national surveys and large-scale surveys have reported a close relationship between drinking and poor academic performance of students whether it is heavy episodic drinking or heavy alcohol use. If a child drinks a few beers on weekdays with friends and makes heavy use of alcohol on weekends, he/she is likely to develop the habit of excessive drinking soon in life. If a child drinks excessively on weekends, he/she is likely to fall behind in the schoolwork and show poor performance in exams. Therefore, we can say that use of alcohol, whether occasional or regular, puts an adverse impact on academic performance of the children. Effects of Alcohol on My Own Academic Performance As stated earlier, I took three drinks each day from 8th to 14th of October. My academic performance in the class tests was below than average. I was unable to remember the concepts, which made him suffer in the tests that held on 11th and 15th of October. An important thing that I noted in my behavior was that I was unable to do the tasks that involved my decision-making abilities. Therefore, I can say that excessive use of alcohol directly affects the academic performance of a person. Irregular Sleep Patterns and Academic Performance Researches have proved that those students who do not sleep properly get lower grades in their schools and colleges. Researchers have associated lower grades with a variety of irregular sleep patterns, which include delayed sleep phase syndrome, later bedtimes, shorter sleep duration, and later rise times. Poor sleep quality is a major factor behind poor educational performances of the children. Some researchers have studied the relationship between cognitive functioning and sleep disorders. If we compare the results of two of those researches, we find a difference in their results. Researchers of one of the studies found that students who have irregular sleep patterns perform low in exams as compared to those students who sleep for 8 hours a day. The reason is that if a child will not sleep for at least 8 hours a day, he/she will feel tired whole day that will affect his/her level of concentration towards studies. The main finding of this research was that proper sleep is very important for a student to show good performance. Researchers of the second research found that excessive sleep affects cognitive functioning of the children, which makes them perform low in exams. Results of both researches proved the fact that poor sleep quality affects academic performances of the children. Effects of Irregular Sleep on My Own Academic Performance As stated earlier, I did four-hour sleep each night from 8th to 14th of October. I noted that I was unable to pay proper concentration to my studies. My daytime alertness level was affected badly due to which I was unable to note down the lectures. My head remained heavy all the time during last week. Sleep Habits and Daytime Alertness Improper sleep habits put a negative impact on educational performances of the students. The reason is that improper sleep affects daytime alertness, which is a major factor behind low academic performance. Both quantity and quality of sleep are important to determine whether a child has adopted a proper or an improper sleep pattern. A misaligned circadian rhythm caused due to abrupt changes in the sleep and wake schedule affects thinking abilities of a child, which leads him/her to show poor performance in the exams. “Daytime sleepiness mediates the effect of sleep schedule on cumulative GPA” (Singleton & Wolfson, 2009). Regularization of sleep-wake schedules is deeply associated with daytime alertness level of a high school student. Alertness is a key to success for high school level students. If a student has a proper sleep-wake schedule, he/she is likely to be alert in the classroom. On the other hand, if a student does not have a well-managed sleep-wake schedule, he/she is likely to have low daytime alertness level. Alcohol Use and Sleep Use of alcohol has a close association with sleep disorders, which lead students towards failure in the efforts to show good academic performance. “Alcohol consumption tends to disrupt sleep, particularly during the second half of a night of sleep” (Singleton & Wolfson, 2009). When alcohol affects the second half of sleep of a student, it causes daytime sleepiness in the student, which is a very poor habit or problem. Revealing the findings of the research, Singleton and Wolfson (2009) state, “Students who drank more had less nighttime sleep, had later sleep schedules, got more sleep on weekends”. This finding clearly shows the association between drinking and irregular sleep patterns. How Alcohol Affected My Sleep I used to drink at nights. Watching movies and hanging out with friends made me come home late at nights. However, I used to sleep at daytimes when I was supposed to be attentive for studies. I was not doing this intentionally, rather drinking at nights and less sleeping hours made me sleep at daytimes. Summing it up, there is a close relationship between alcohol consumption, sleep patterns, and academic performance of the high school students. After examining the relationship of good and poor academic performances with the level of alcohol consumption and sleep patterns, we come to know that excessive alcohol consumption per week and less than 8 hours of sleep are those two factors, which adversely affect the academic performances of the students. References Singleton, R., & Wolfson, A. (2009). Alcohol consumption, sleep, and academic performance among college students. retrieved from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6378/is_3_70/ai_n31844102/ Zelman, K. (2005). The Alcohol Debate: Should You or Shouldnt You?. Retrieved from http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=56016   Read More