Twenty-year-old Taylor Rutledge, a college junior, said it’s normal for him to not fall asleep until 5 or 6 in the morning. It’s not because he’s out with his friends or studying for exams — Rutledge has a sleeping disorder.
“It’s almost like my body forgot how to sleep,” he said.
He isn’t alone. Dr. Victoria Skellcerf of the University Health Center said the majority of sleep problems she treats in college students between the ages of 18 to 26 are related to anxiety or depression. And she said these problems are more accelerated around traditionally stressful times at the University — midterms and finals.
The health center reported that one out of every three Americans had trouble falling asleep or staying asleep in the past year. The majority of adults need at least seven hours of sleep a night, and most need eight or more to function optimally.
Since he was a sophomore in high school, Rutledge said he has tossed and turned in bed. He has tried watching television, listening to music and reading books — but nothing really works. So Rutledge, who attends Boise State University, said he has had to adjust to his irregular sleep patterns.
“I’ve already accepted it,” he said. “It shows up whenever it wants and goes away whenever it wants.”
Even sleep aids such as melatonin and NyQuil caused what Rutledge called a “reverse reaction,” and because of his high tolerance to the supplements, he stayed up even later instead of falling asleep. Without a good night’s rest, Rutledge said he is often too tired to do homework, and instead dwells on stressful situations in his life.
“Usually I’m just thinking about everything that goes on in my day,” he said. “If I’m thinking about something — I won’t fall asleep.”
The computer information science major originally from Kailua Kona, Hawaii, said he plans to continue coping with his sleep disorder because he doesn’t like doctors.
“The only thing they do is give me sleeping pills, and that defeats the purpose,” he said.

Identifying the problem
Skellcerf said that sleeping disorders are classified as more than just going a night or two without sleep.
“Snoring is a partial airway obstruction. … Insomnia means that you are not able to go to sleep but you want to,” she said.
Skellcerf said older people are more prone to sleep apnea, which is when a person actually stops breathing during his or her sleep. The muscle that usually holds the airway open collapses, she said. If people experience these conditions, Skellcerf suggested they be evaluated.
But even if a person looks at the clock every hour during the night or is tired during the day, Skellcerf said she very rarely prescribes sleeping pills, because there’s a better, simpler solution.
“You need to set a regular time to get up and get up at the same time everyday,” she said. “Teenagers want to push it and stay up later and later. They sleep in to compensate.”

Solutions to sleepless nights
To establish better sleeping patterns, Skellcerf said it’s important to associate a bed with sleep.
“Try to save your bed for sex or sleep,” she said.
But if problems persist, there are other alternatives, such as overnight sleep testing. Dr. Robert Tearse of the Sleep Disorders and Neurology Clinic in Eugene specializes in such testing.
“Going through a primary physician is a good first step,” he said. “We function here as a resource for the primary doctors.”
The two-physician clinic tests patients during the evening by monitoring their sleep with infrared cameras and other advanced equipment.
“We want to find out what is going on — what’s disrupting their sleep,” Tearse said. “We’re looking for apnea, snoring, sleeping walking, twitches, nightmares and seizures.”
Information about a patient is collected using a special software program during the night. It can then be displayed in the clinic’s computer system for analysis. He said most people wake up about three or four times every night for 30 to 40 seconds, but because the awakenings are so short “people don’t remember them.”
There are two groups of people with sleeping disorders, he said: those who are too sleepy and fatigued during the day, and those who have night complaints such as apnea and snoring. Tearse said his patients vary from those who have breathing disorders and insomnia to those who sleep excessively during the day.
“College students are subject to the same variety of sleep problems of all the other patients we see,” he said.
He said college students are often not sensitive to medical problems because they have young, healthy bodies.
“Sleep is an aspect of our lives that we take for granted,” he said, adding that to fall asleep, a person needs to be relaxed, and there has to be a significant duration of time since they were last asleep.
Skellcerf said drinking a lot of alcohol can disrupt sleep patterns.
“Alcohol will relax most people and help you get to sleep quicker,” Tearse said. But during the night when the alcohol wears off, Tearse said the body may go through a “mini-withdrawal” and experience more awakenings than usual. He said alcohol relaxes the throat, and the muscle in the throat can collapse during sleep, making a person more prone to sleep apnea or snoring. Because of this, the body has a low oxygen intake, and Tearse said this can contribute to the headaches and hangovers a person may experience the day after drinking.
“College students have always gone through a learning process to find out how much their bodies can stand and how sensitive they are to stress,” he said.
Counselors can help students to cope with this stress, he said. College students often sacrifice sleep because of the responsibilities and demands of college life, but he said those problems will apply even when they finish school.
“The price you pay is how you are going to feel the next day,” he said.