Most college students who are sleep deprived don’t know it, said Dr. Maroun Tawk, the medical director of the sleep program at the OU Health Sciences Center.

Students often neglect to get the seven hours or eight hours of sleep their bodies need to function correctly and then don’t know why they’re having difficulties, Tawk said.

Culturally, the American lifestyle doesn’t provide much opportunity for sleep because of early mornings, late nights and family responsibilities, Tawk said. In a sleep-deprivation survey, 74 percent of respondents said they feel they don’t get enough sleep, according to sleepdeprivation.com.

“We’re too busy,” Tawk said.

There are two different kinds of sleep deprivation, acute and chronic. Acute sleep deprivation happens when you don’t sleep for a long period of time, such as two days to three days, Tawk said. Chronic sleep deprivation happens when you continually miss one hour to two hours of sleep per night.

Many people don’t realize they have a sleep deprivation problem when they’re losing only an hour or two of sleep per night, but the health effects are the same as acute sleep deprivation, Tawk said.

The immediate effect of sleep deprivation is exhaustion, which can hinder driving abilities and ability to pay attention in class or at work, he said. Long-term effects of sleep deprivation can include weight gain due to an increased appetite, anxiety, depression and increased alcohol consumption, Tawk said.

Tawk said sleep deprivation is seen across the board, but college students tend to think of sleep as an elective activity. Many college students don’t realize the effects it can have on their bodies, he said.

Architecture students frequently suffer the effects of sleep deprivation, especially right before major projects are due, Beth Pearcy, architecture sophomore said.

“The longest I’ve ever gone without sleep is 50 hours,” she said. “Sometimes it’s not so much that I’m going a whole week without sleep, but I’ll only sleep two to three hours a night.”

Many architecture students have sleeping bags next to their projects in the architecture building a week or so before it’s due, she said.

“Before a project is due, you work on it so much and there’s no real stopping point because you’re constantly trying out new ideas,” Pearcy said.

She said she had to sleep on the couch sometimes at the studio because she didn’t have time to drive back to her bed and come back to class.

“My freshman year, I would get really sick when I would stay up all night,” she said. “But now, I’ve kind of gotten used to it.”

Although the architecture program is demanding, Pearcy said it’s really about the choices she makes.

“Sometimes I think this is ridiculous, but I’ll choose to hang out with a friend for a couple of hours instead of working,” she said.

Tawk said young adults between the ages of 14 to 20 often miss out on sleep for social reasons.

“College students need to be informed,” he said. “You can compromise on going out and drinking, but you can’t compromise on your studies.”

Tawk said he sees many college students for problems with exhaustion. After a week of good night’s sleep, they’ll come in with good results.

“They’ll come in and say, ‘I’m a new man!’” he said. “Imagine that.”