One of the most important factors in maintaining a healthy lifestyle is ensuring we are well rested enough to perform our daily demands.

The necessary hours of sleep varies throughout life’s stages, with adults needing about eight hours of sleep per night, teenagers requiring about nine hours of sleep and infants, who are rapidly developing, needing about 16 hours of rest daily. However, many college students put sleep on the back burner in order to accomplish school work, jobs and social activities. But what they may not realize, is how much harm they are causing their bodies.

Sleep is important for many reasons, including keeping our memories sharp, strengthening our immune systems, preventing chronic illnesses like obesity, diabetes and heart disease, and combating depression.

In addition to sleep deprivation, many adults suffer from other sleep disorders that interfere with adequate rest, like insomnia, sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, narcolepsy and sleep walking.

Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder and causes sufferers to lie awake at night for hours before falling into a restless night’s sleep. This disorder may be caused by a number of poor habits including drinking coffee and consuming caffeine-rich foods in the late afternoons and evenings, going to sleep at different times each night, smoking or eating heavily before bed and sleeping with the lights or television on.

Additionally, sleep apnea, narcolepsy and sleep walking are potentially dangerous sleep disorders. Sleep apnea sufferers experience multiple times during sleep in which they stop breathing. This disorder is commonly associated with men, overweight people, those over the age of 65 and children with enlarged tonsils.

Narcoleptics experience extreme sleepiness during the day and may find it hard to get through the day without a nap, even if they’ve had enough sleep the night before. They also may experience dreaming during naps, loss of muscle control triggered by intense emotion, hallucinations associated with falling asleep or waking up, and sleep paralysis. Narcoleptics most commonly experience uncontrollable episodes of sleep throughout the day that can interrupt the person’s daily routine tremendously.

Whether you are experiencing symptoms of sleep deprivation or suffering from a sleep disorder, it’s clear that getting the right amount of rest is important, especially for college students. Many students do not realize the toll lack of sleep takes on our bodies. Little things like being frequently ill, dozing off during class or work, and mood swings can be influenced by lack of a good night’s sleep.