MELISSA O'NEAL/Arizona Daily Wildcat Fabian Valle, a Mexican-American studies graduate student, spends his Friday night studying at Coffee xChange and can't go to bed until the early hours of Saturday morning. Valle doesn't get much sleep because he is preparing for his MCAT exam.

At 3 a.m., when most students are sound asleep, Joe Corcoran readies for another night that will leave him with two hours of sleep, if he's lucky.

A victim of insomnia since high school, Corcoran, a biochemistry sophomore, said he has watched the sun rise too many times.

"The reason I don't sleep is because I can't stop thinking," said Corcoran.

Corcoran is one of the estimated 30 percent of UA students who experience moderate to severe insomnia, according to Dr. Richard Bootzin, a psychology professor and director of the UA Insomnia Clinic.

"College students lead an irregular schedule that causes sleep deprivation," Bootzin said. He added that late night activities and early classes are a bad combination that often results in insufficient sleep for many students.

"If a student doesn't go to bed until 2 or 3 a.m., then they are pushing themselves into a schedule without sleep, which can be potentially dangerous."

How to Avoid insomnia Budget your time so you can get eight hours of sleep per night. Do not read or do homework in bed. Don't pull all-nighters. Plan ahead. Make sure your room is light in the morning and dark in the evening. Find activities that help you wind down. Still no sleep? See a doctor or visit the UA Insomnia Clinic.

Only 38 percent of Americans report getting the recommended eight hours of sleep per night, and 58 percent report symptoms of insomnia more than once a week, according to the 2002 National Sleep Foundation's Sleep in America Poll.

Students experience many side effects from not sleeping, such as being more accident-prone, irritable, vulnerable to illness, and unable to stay awake in class, Bootzin said.

For Corcoran, going to bed after 2 or 3 a.m. is not unusual. He said he has become used to functioning daily on only two hours of sleep and trying to catch up on the weekends.

In search of relief, Corcoran went to his family doctor and was prescribed a sleeping pill to induce sleep.

"They work fine on the weekends, but during the week, when I don't finish my homework until after midnight, it's like pulling out my fingernails to wake up for class in the morning," he said.

Corcoran opts to listen to music or play computer games in an attempt to wind down, rather than experience the "grogginess of another level" that his prescription sleeping pills cause.

Other students live a sleepless life by choice.

"I just don't sleep, and it's voluntarily," said Katy Dieters, a political science senior, who averages four or less hours of sleep a night during the week.

However, Dieters has not always been a night owl. As a freshman she was always the first one to go to bed on the weekends, but her friends enacted a "training program" to condition her to stay out later.

"They would keep me out an hour later each weekend until it was like 5 a.m.," Dieters said, adding that since then she has cut her sleep time in half.

Now Dieters goes to school full-time, works, and maintains a demanding social life, and she said she sleeps only when it's absolutely necessary.

"Most of my friends get off work pretty late, so I'm always up late with them," she said.

Dieters said her lack of sleep does not interfere with her daily life; however, when she has a test or a big project to work on she often finds it impossible to go to sleep early.

Many students experience episodes of stress-related insomnia due to final exams or occasional heavy workloads, Bootzin said.

Corcoran said his sleep disorder is much more intense when he has a final exam.

"I can never go to bed early, so I always end up studying late · but it's so hard because that late at night everything is so distorted for me, and nothing makes sense," Corcoran said.

Ehsan Mozayan, a political science junior, has already begun studying for the medical school admission test (MCT) this spring, since he knows he will be exhausted during the week of the test.

"I need seven hours of sleep when I'm last-minute studying, so I'm trying to get a head start," he said.

"I do most of my productive work at night, so I've been up pretty late going over the test material," Mozayan added. He hopes getting enough sleep during the week of the test will reduce his anxiety.

For any student who has experienced insomnia, whether chronic or episodic, Bootzin recommended a few changes that can increase the amount of sleep one gets.

Avoiding doing homework, watching T.V. or reading in bed will help a student's body recognize the bedroom as a place for sleep, and effectively help one fall asleep when in bed, Bootzin said.

In addition, having a room that is dark at night and light in the morning will help the body naturally know when to sleep and when to wake up, he added.

However, when plagued by insomnia due to test anxiety or stress, Bootzin recommends getting out of bed and going into another room to think.

For students who cannot treat their own insomnia and find that it interferes with their everyday life, Campus Health offers psychological services and referrals to the Insomnia Clinic.

The clinic, which is sponsored by UMC's Sleep Disorders Center, offers sleep-evaluation services and develops individual treatment plans.