Fact and Statistics on Young Adults

Facts/Stats on Uni Students

Statistics on Auckland University Students

-A questionnaire was sent out to 1933 students that went to the University of Auckland and 66.8% completed the questionnaire. The median of the age group was 20 years old (range 16-38) and 63.9% were women. The survey showed that 39.4% of the students that completed the survey suffered from significant sleep problems. Depression, anxiety, drug use caused sleep difficulties.

-39.4% reported that the significant sleep symptoms lasted longer than a month.
-The most common causes were depression and anxiety.
-Delayed Sleep phase disorder was found in 24.9% of students and parasomnias were reported by 12.4%.
-There was no gender difference in sleep problems.
-There was not a significant difference in sleep problems between different courses.
-54% Maori reported sleep problems
-49.1% pacific island students reported sleep problems
-39.1% NZ European reported sleep problems
-35.8% Asian students reported sleep problems

-Pacific Island students had a higher chance of depression due to sleep symptoms compared to the other ethnicities.

-The causes of the sleep symptoms were mostly common across all ethnicities.

-The rate of insomnia was 8.8% in the University study population, which is higher than desired.

-Study is useful to healthcare services (Student health services, primary healthcare, mental health planners) to aid clinicians in NZ to appreciate the sleep related problems that affect young adults.




Solutions

-Rather than attend GPs or health services for individual treatment, it would be sufficient to focus on what are the triggers for stress in University life which lead to sleep problems.

-There is a commonality among all universities whether NZ or international that students have sleep problems among other mental problems.
-Mood disorders, substance use, circadian rhythm disorders contribute to the factors of sleep deprivation.
-Being aware/ being able to diagnose these symptoms would enable students to be able to be treated and therefore impact the quality of their lives.


Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder (DSPD)

-DSPD is common in young adults, causing difficulties of falling asleep at night and difficulty waking up in the morning.

-Sleep disorders such as parasomnias and restless leg syndrome are often symptoms of /present with sleepiness or fatigue during the day.

-Sleep related breathing disorders (e.g. obstructive sleep apnoea) is becoming more common in young adults as well as older adults causing increased rates of obesity.
-Comorbid medical conditions such as chronic pain significantly increase the risk of sleep symptoms.


-Up to 40% of young adults with sleep symptoms are reported to have coexisting depression and/or anxiety disorder as well as substance use. Unhealthy consumption of alcohol can also cause sleep symptoms especially in the young age groups.

-High psychological distress has been reported in uni students with one of the issues being sleep and burning out quickly.
-Evidence states that people with significant psychological distress while being a student will continue to have higher distress levels in their professional careers.
-High levels of stress also lead to consequences in academic performance, ability, professionalism and physical health.




Reference:

Samaranayake,B., C., Arroll, B., Fernando, T., A., (2014). The New Zealand Medical Journal: Journal of the New Zealand Medical Association, 127(1339), 13–21.



Pretty good for finding research on NZ stats:

http://natlib.govt.nz/records/35091555?search%5Bpath%5D=items&search%5Btext%5D=sleep+in+young+adults