5. Sleeping too much.

Sleeping too much may actually be a symptom of depression. At least one in five people suffer from depression at some point in their life. Depression and anxiety often go together as stress increases. Being away from home, having to make new friends, working hard in school, discovering intimate relationships, and worrying about grades are all stressful. Add financial instability, having to work a job, family situations, health problems, family history, and it becomes a set up for mood disorders.

4. Substances use and abuse. Alcohol.

Alcohol causes most people to feel sleepy. There is a paradoxical reaction in some people, and it causes them to be more rowdy. Even in those who fall asleep more easily, the sleep quality is not as good for a variety of reasons.

The withdrawal from the chemical effects often occur in the middle of the night. Withdrawal effects are the opposite of the initial effects. So that means your blood pressure increases, heart rate increases, and you're tossing and turning more, whether or not you realize it.

3. Substances use and abuse. Caffeine.

Teens and young adults like to push boundaries. They take risks. Some take bigger risks than others, and the types of risks vary. Alcohol is often abused, as is caffeine, by college students. Both decrease sleep quality. 8 hours of sleep many only be as restful as 6 hours after drinking alcohol or caffeine.

2. Owl habits.

Teens and young adults are well known for their ability to sleep in until noon. A significant portion of 15-25 year olds are known to sleep scientists as "owls." Their internal clocks are longer than 24 hours. That means, if they were kept in a dark room for weeks, they would awaken and sleep in cycles of 26 hours, for example.

1. All-nighters.

An occasional all-nighter is part of the college experience. It normally takes 3 days to recover from one. The first day after an all-nighter may actually be okay. Adrenaline is running high. The test or paper is done. It's time to celebrate! You might feel a little tired, but can usually stay awake all day long, especially with the help of caffeine and salty and sweet snacks.

Penn State University's Student Affairs department is working on a module to teach students about sleep. I've been asked to look over the module. I work part time as a physician seeing the students, so I see many of the problems related to sleep. I hope it helps students understand the importance of sleep and how to get it. The goal of sleeping well is to function well during the day and be happy!

I finally took the 5 minute tutorial on iMovie from the Apple website and figured out that you have to press the space bar to play back the movie. Once I figured that out, iMovie was intuitive. We took some footage and uploaded some movies to YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc4z4gVJlLw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKO8RAFi2xg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th1BdTCcezA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFjfy3DMu4I

And then I edited the movie Brittany made too.

Sheep is almost too big for our home-made light-box. He has to sit very still and try to smile!

The pictures are turning out well!

Sheep arrived in a big truck.

It took some time to unload Sheep.

Look for SleepPhones in the July-Sept issue of SkyMall page 65! It cost us a lot of money to be in there, so we're very nervous and excited about the prospects!