Education Resource Center officials dispelled many myths concerning sleep and a routine schedule of nutrition, exercise and sleep Wednesday, and said college students need to pay attention to their sleeping schedules.
At a workshop titled “Avoiding the All-nighter,” ERC assitant director Gin Schaffer said two major reasons why students are not getting enough sleep include distractions that can keep people awake, such as iPods, computers and TVs. The other issue, she said, was students become involved in too many activities.
The ERC series began because of an overwhelming need for advice on sleep that could not be specifically addressed in the stress and anxiety management workshop, Schaffer said.
Schaffer said in 2008, the average amount of sleep for an adult is 6.6 hours per night, but amongst those ranging from 18 to 24 years old, the self-reported average is 4.6 hours.
“This number comes from those who live in the residence halls, again, who have distractions, distractions, distractions,” she said. “Of course, the main issue here is that there is a lack of sleep. Change of habit and change of lifestyle. Change can sometimes cause those sleep issues.”
Schaffer said she offers one-on-one counseling for students to analyze why they cannot sleep or relax before going to bed. She asked attendees a series of questions about whether students sleep and wake up at a consistent time throughout the week, and about their eating habits and nap patterns.
“Students come from living in the same schedule every day and having their lives monitored by their parents, and then they come to college and all of a sudden they have an 8 a.m. class on Monday and an 11 a.m. class on Tuesday,” she said. “Boom, schedule off. So this is the killer for the undergraduate population.”
Schaffer recommended students get enough restorative sleep so they will be less irritable.
She suggested students find what they need to do in order to get sleep and then do it.
“It was once thought that you could actually catch up sleep, but no, you really can’t,” she said. “You’re really impacting your own health if you aren’t able to get the right sleep.”
Students said they gained a lot of insight after attending the event.
College of Communication graduate student Jillian Foley said she attended the event because she struggles with falling asleep.
“I think it is mainly stress-related in that I think constantly about what I have to do next and what I have to do tomorrow,” she said. “The most interesting thing that I learned was the power nap statistic. That power naps are really supposed to be restorative and that they should be really short.”
School of Management graduate student Ahmed Rehan said he came to the workshop because he has problems sleeping when stressed.
“I either sleep too much or I sleep too little,” he said. “Sometimes I find that someone is not paying attention or closing their eyes in class, so I assume that they didn’t have enough sleep.”
College of Arts and Sciences freshman Nitin Bhardwaj said he wants to find a way to sleep better but also get his work done.
“My biggest thing is procrastination, which tends to lead to being up all night though, I’ve never successfully been up for 24 hours straight,” Bhardwaj said. “Oversleeping and under sleeping don’t really help. I want to find a balance.”
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