Arianna Huffington herself announced The Huffington Post’s Sleep Revolution College Tour
It’s “coming this spring to 50 campuses across the country, drawing on the latest science to raise awareness and spark a national conversation about the importance of sleep and the dangers of sleep deprivation.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-sleep-revolution-college-tour_b_9515194.html
Seems a bit commercial, but I’m sure insufficient sleep and/or poorly timed sleep (e.g., class time) is a real issue.
The invasion of electronic communication has had a massive impact on our society, including with regards to sleep, or the lack thereof, and then with regard to so many other things including attention, patience, willingness to make an effort, social skills, obesity, driving safety, personal safety, etc… Not sure what it will take for us to become cognizant and try to redesign its role in our lives but I don’t mind this sleep revolution attempt to address at least one facet of it all.
I think sleep deprivation is a big problem among students who are competitive and want higher grades and success.
Or at schools with notoriously rigorous workloads (Swat, Mudd, and UChicago, for example).
Sleep problems are often a symptom of and/or can exacerbate brewing mental health problems among people of this age group. Some serious mental health problems such a bipolar disorder and schizophrenia often emerge fully during the young adult ages with sleep problems (too much or too little) being a prominent factor.
Glad to see my son’s college on the list. I hope this will be a real help somehow.
The idea of a 40 hour work week applies to students as much as it does to adults. Perhaps even more so - I believe the current literature suggests that adolescents need more sleep than adults?
Though it seems that the general American culture is also slowly forgetting why the 40 hour work week was designed in the first place, so students aren’t alone.
The only reason why a student wouldn’t get enough sleep is because it’s their personal choice to go to sleep later. I have friends who go to sleep early in college (I personally don’t go to sleep later than midnight on a week day), and I have friends who go to sleep when I’m waking up. The students who are choosing to stay up until 4, 5, 6, even 7 in the morning aren’t choosing to stay up because they’ve got so much work that they can’t finish it.
I have friends at top colleges that are reputed as being extremely competitive (Yale, Duke, Cornell, Georgia Tech, to name a few) and I don’t think any of them have found it impossible to finish their homework without getting less than 6 hours of sleep. I have plenty of friends though that would rather watch Netflix until 5 AM or that procrastinate heavily and then sleep through their classes at 10:30 AM.
This seems like it’s going overboard in regards to helping college students. Falling asleep isn’t that hard – turn off your phone, don’t go on the computer, don’t drink caffeine right before you go to sleep, and exercise regularly. Some people legitimately have insomnia and can’t sleep, but I think this sleep epidemic is overblown. College is a ton of work and I think that there are some programs that are extremely rigorous, but it’s also up to the students to make sure they make healthy choices and choose to get enough sleep. If someone wants to prioritize socializing over sleep, that’s their prerogative.
People need to just teach kids that their health (mental, emotional, and physical) is more important than their social life or grades. I have so many friends who would rather socialize than get sleep which seems crazy to me. Maybe I underestimate how much work other students have or my program just isn’t as rigorous as I think it is.
Maybe college is different, but I have yet to meet a student who’s missed large amounts of sleep due to an excessive workload. I know students who sometimes pull all-nighters as a consequence of procrastination (and, full disclosure, I am one). Students who are working long hours to pay for college, caring for a sick family member, or otherwise burdened with time demands above and beyond a college workload may well lose sleep. The rest of us mostly need better study habits.
I think students at Georgetown, Berkeley, Stanford, and many of the other colleges on tour’s schedule know full well that sleep deprivation isn’t good for them, and I don’t know how much of a difference “pajamas, slippers, eye-masks, candles, dream journals, free Headspace memberships, free copies of The Sleep Revolution, white noise machines and, so students no longer feel they have to have their sleep-disrupting smartphones by their bed, real alarm clocks” will make. This does seem like a highly commercialized endeavor. But if Arianna Huffington wants to use her bully pulpit to promote better sleep habits in lieu of 24/7 Trump coverage and cat videos, I won’t quibble.
There is such a thing as a delayed sleep phase syndrome and it is difficult to address. Some students try to regulate their sleep but with so many distractors and pressures it is hard to keep up a regimen in college, and I’m pretty sure that those predisposed to this syndrome are going to find it even harder.
http://www.circadiansleepdisorders.org/docs/DSPS-QandA.php
Both my kids flip sleep schedules, my husband also demonstrated this, though it slowly got better in his thirties. I’ve come to realize it is not willful, but a challenge. They know it isn’t helpful to their studies.
Most people who stay up ridiculously late that I know are 1) playing video games, 2) already have sleep issues due to mental/physical health issues, 3) are working while attending school and don’t have enough time during the day to get homework done, or 4) are more or less addicted to caffeine (which can be combined/caused with any of the other 3.) I can usually get enough sleep, but I’m not working or taking as many classes as some people and I don’t play video games, so I’m incredibly lucky.
Huh it’s nice that they’re trying to do this, but I doubt they’ll make much of an impact. Most college students these days have very little respect for authority and, whatever facade they may put up, will still party/do whatever till late until the night whatever other people say. I guess this may be good moral support for those few faithful ones out there though.
Like many things, the affect of ongoing sleep deprivation or very erratic sleep patterns varies greatly from person to person. It can be another one of life’s slippery slopes, some make it to the top without any problems and others crash and burn. And like many issues that can affect health that people have the ability to control, knowledge about the benfits of healthy sleeping patterns and risks of poor sleep hygiene can’t hurt. It won’t matter for those who do not have sleep issues, but if it helps even a few who have problems then it might be worth the effort.
Did anyone notice the list of hashtags at the end of the article? Along with #sleeprevolution #firstthing #lastthing there’s one to list what’s on your nightstand. It seems to be a poor choice or typo that it says #onenightstand
Well I think it all just depends on level of time management skill. I’m in honors classes, college classes, have a job, play sports, and still have enough time for at least seven hours of sleep.
I pulled an all-nighter Sunday night and another one last night! And I’m old. When you’re an engineering consultant, the clients don’t care how little you sleep, as long as you get their project in on time.
Thanks @MaineLonghorn for brining reality into the picture. And you know more than anyone how much sleep could be related to mental health functioning. As a fellow Mainer and mental health professional, sometimes you have to do what you have to do to earn a living.
“4) are more or less addicted to caffeine”
After years and years of night owl trouble I finally figured out that having a Coke in the evening, say after 8pm, kept me awake late into the night. The indirect effects last more than a day because your sleep rhythm is screwed up. Caffeine is the worst offender but eating something late in the evening can have a similar effect. You simply can’t get to sleep and your mind is racing.