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The following is a visitor-submitted question or story. For more, you can submit your own sleep story here, or browse the collection of experiences and questions other visitors have shared here.
Why Am I Sleepy During The School Year And Not In The Summer?
by Kirstin
(Utah)
In the school year I go to bed at 11pm and wake up at 5am and most of the time I am still sleepy and I want to go to sleep at school; I also do take a nap in the school after I get done with homework because I am so sleepy. But in the summer time I go to sleep around 2am and wake up at 9am and am not sleepy at all.
I have no idea why I do not have any energy in the school year when I get 7 hours of sleep, where in the summer time I get 8 hours and am fine.
Kevin: Hey Kirstin, thanks for writing in. There are two main things I'd like to point out before handing it over to visitor comments. One is that 1 hour less of sleep per night can be hugely significant when stretched over a week, let alone an entire school year. If, for instance, you have a sleep need of 8 hours you'd be accumulating 1 hour of sleep debt per weekday. In a week you'd have a sleep debt of roughly 5 hours, over 20 hours of debt in a month, and nearly 70 hours of debt in 3 months. That's enough to seriously slow you down and make you super sleepy during the day. Go here for more on understanding sleep debt.
(Note: Individual sleep need varies. The 8 I used above was just an example. Your sleep need could also be something like 8.5 or 9 hours as well, which would lead to a faster accumulating sleep debt.)
Another point to consider is that at 5 am (when you wake up during the school year) your body is at a completely different point in its circadian rhythms than at 9 am (when you wake up during the summer). Different alertness-inducing or sleep-inducing hormones are being released at 5 am (and 6 am and 7 am, for that matter) than are being released later in the morning. Being awake (and struggling to stay awake at school perhaps) for the 4 hours before the 9 am alerting hormones kick in can give you an entirely different perception of how tired you feel during the day. These alertness and sleepiness hormones are known as part of a process called Clock-Dependent Alerting (CDA), and we should have some articles about it soon.
Kevin
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Welcome! This site is continuously being created by students of Dr. William C. Dement's Sleep And Dreams course at Stanford University.
We made this site as a call to action for people all over the world to live healthier, happier, safer, and more productive lives by learning about their own sleep. We have faith that reading the information provided on this site will motivate you to be smart about your sleep deprivation and strategic about your alertness in order to live life to your fullest, most energetic potential.
In fact, we challenge you to do so! What do you say, are you up for the challenge?
Interviews With Sleep Specialists: Insights Into the Worlds of Sleep Medicine & Sleep Business
America's Most Dangerous Disorder: What Is Sleep Apnea Doing To Your Sleep?
Sleep Debt: How Much More Will You Achieve When You Reduce Yours?
The Stages Of Sleep: The Journey Through The Night
Delayed Sleep Phase: You Want To Sleep But You're Not Tired Yet
Paralyzed at Night: Is Sleep Paralysis Normal?
Sleep In Words: Smart, Strange, and Funny Quotes About Sleep
Sleep Disorders In Children: What's Keeping Your Child From A Full Night's Rest?
Attacks of Pavor Nocturnus (a.k.a. Sleep Terrors, Night Terrors, or Incubus Attacks)
A Note On Visitor-Submitted Questions:
Publishing sleep stories and questions from our visitors is meant to create a forum for open and proactive dialogue about an extremely important portion of our lives (one that occupies 1/3 of it and affects the other 2/3) that isn't talked about enough. It is not meant to substitute a trip to the doctor or the advice of a specialist. It's good to talk; it is not good to avoid consulting someone who's profession it is to help you with this kind of stuff.
If you are in any way concerned about your sleep health, don't wait for an answer on here, and don't necessarily rely on them. See a sleep specialist in your area as soon as possible.
The Stanford Sleep Book
Dr. Dement's pioneering textbook has been the core text for Sleep and Dreams since 1980, but it has just recently been made available to the wider public for the first time.
In it you'll find a more detailed account of the most important things you need to know about sleep, alertness, dreams, and sleep disorders. Studies, statistics, plus plenty of Dr. Dement's classic anecdotes painting the history of sleep medicine.
Preface | Intro | Contents | Get A Copy
More Sleep Resources
The Zeo
A revolution in personal sleep tracking, the Zeo is a wireless headband that transmits your brainwaves in realtime to a dock (pictured here) or your smartphone. The result? You can wake up and see exactly what stages of sleep you were in during the night! Unprecedented personalized sleep knowledge.
Sleep Paralysis: A Dreamer's Guide
Ever woken up paralyzed? A surprising number of us have, believe it or not. But few know the actual causes of this phenomenon, and fewer still how to exert control over it. Dream researcher and sleep paralysis expert Ryan Hurd shares breakthrough insights into how to do just that.
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