Sleep: Big problem for college students

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich., May 12 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers suggest college students returning next semester include some white noise to help with sleep.

The study, published in the Journal of American College Health, determined many college students have sleep patterns that may be having detrimental effects on academics, driving and health.

LeAnne Forquer formerly of Central Michigan University and now at Delta State University in Cleveland, Miss., wondered if other students had sleep problems as she did. Forquer and Carl Johnson surveyed more than 300 freshmen through graduate college students and found one-third took more than 30 minutes to fall asleep and 43 percent woke more than once per night.

"What I found most interesting about the study was the large numbers of students who were having the same problems as me, such as taking a long time to fall asleep and waking numerous times throughout the night," Forquer says in a statement. "I had felt for so many years that I was the only one."

Forquer and Johnson, in another study published in Sleep and Hypnosis, found the use of continuous white noise may help college students get better sleep. The study showed white noise decreased difficulty in falling asleep and reduced night wakings in college students who had self-reported sleep problems