I think I’m turning into a vampire.

Aside from my classes (well, some of them), I’ve spent most of my daylight hours for the past few days asleep and the night hours awake. At this point, when I go to get my car outside of the Bat Cave at night, I half expect to see Sara Michelle Gellar from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” jump out of a corner, stake in hand.

I think most of the Collegian staff is also turning into the living dead. There are no windows in the Collegian office and thus hours, even days could pass and we wouldn’t know the difference. It was a rough weekend for most of the staff, and everyone’s sleep schedule has been thrown out of whack.

I like to sleep. I think most people would agree that sleep is a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), which conducts research on sleep related issues, has found that over the past few years Americans are getting less and less sleep. It has become a national epidemic; one-quarter, or 47 million adults in the U.S., do not get the minimum eight hours of sleep needed to function properly. People who reported being sleepy during the day were more likely to describe themselves as “dissatisfied with life” and “angry.” They are also more pessimistic, anxious and stressed. Sleep deprivation can also lead to long-term problems such as obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure.

College campuses are a wonderland of sleepy headed people. Only 35% of people between the ages of 18-29 get over eight hours of sleep. It seems to be a general consensus among most researchers that college students are sleep deprived because of the stressful environment. This is caused by a variety of factors such as academics, jobs, too much partying and time mismanagement. It was also found that people in our age group sleep less during the week and more on the weekends than older adults.

I’ve definitely seen and participated in some interesting displays of sleep deprivation while in college. Tuesday night I went to see “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” with my friends, Mike and Johnny. Mike had slept a total of 9 hours since last Friday and was a little crazy. First, his driving was scarier than usual. And then he couldn’t enter the confirmation code correctly for us to pick up our Internet-bought movie tickets.

At the end of the movie, Mike, a Harry Potter purist, began to complain about essential parts of the book that were left out of the movie during the credits. In my drowsiness I began to counter argue his claims because the length of the movie was already two hours and forty minutes.

Then our conversation got pretty heated. Soon, the first Harry Potter movie got involved.

“That was a clutch scene, they shouldn’t have cut it out!”

“What, of course it had to go there was no time for it, it was just extra stuff that other scenes already covered!”

We began to raise our voices a little. The people around us began to get up and leave. At some point we realized we were being a bit over the top.

Our age group is also more likely to use stimulants such as caffeinated drinks and over the counter drugs to stay awake. The NSF’s website (www.sleepfoundation.com) actually has a caffeine calculator which can calculate the amount of caffeine you consume in a day. Apparently, 250 milligrams of caffeine each day, which is a few cups of coffee, is a healthy amount.

Aside from losing sleep from the upcoming pre-Thanksgiving exams, another serious problem is driving while being tired. The NSF met this week with researchers, federal agencies, corporations and organizations in a national summit to specifically address the issue of drowsy driving. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has estimated that at least 100,000 police-reported crashes are the direct result of driver fatigue each year, resulting in more than 1,550 deaths, 71,000 injuries and $12.5 billion in costs.

So when you drive home for Thanksgiving break, make sure you get enough sleep before hitting the road. If you need caffeine consume only 250 milligrams. Don’t fight with friends during the credits of movies, it’s a little scary. Sleep during the nighttime, or you may turn into a vampire. Buffy will be waiting to get you too. On that note, it’s probably time for this columnist to go to sleep.

Jamie Loo is a Collegian Vampire (Columnist).