Blog 18

Thursday night, my roommate tragically procrastinated and wanted to carve out her pumpkin so she volunteered me to help since I'm the more artistic one of us. We stayed up till two in the morning pulling out pumpkin guts before I finally said "that's it, I'm done." I woke up the next morning at 6:45 so I could shower and get ready for my 8am class. Later that day, Friday night, was the Boo Bash and after it ended, I went out with some friends to eat at ihop. Bad choice. Today (Saturday), I had to judge speech and debate starting at 7:30. Caffeine has become a staple in order for me to survive today and the same will probably go for tomorrow as well.

Sleeping

Sleeping peacefully seems to be a thing of the past recently... The girls across the hall always seem to know right when I'm trying to fall asleep. Because they are so loud at night, I often wake up, turn over and try to go back to sleep. Maybe I can convince them to be quieter tonight?

Paper Topic-- College, Sleep and Stress.

Being a college student who is often under tremendous amounts of stress, caused me to become more interested in studying the effects college and stress has on sleep. Not only my sleep, but the others around me as well. Because I am already taking a class on sleep, I am constantly aware of how much sleep I receive at night, and whether my circadian rhythm is at a high or low. But I want to study more on how stress and college effects those other students who are not as blessed with certain access to understanding their sleep, like I am. I believe if everyone had the same opportunities that I do, maybe they would receive better sleep, suffer less stress, and enjoy their college experience more then they would have initially.


Works Cited:

Doane, Leah D., Jenna L. Gress-Smith, and Reagan S. Breitenstein. "Multi-Method Assessments Of
   Sleep Over The Transition To College And The Associations With Depression And Anxiety
   Symptoms." Journal Of Youth And Adolescence 44.2 (2015): 389-404. PsycINFO. Web. 27 Oct.
   2015.

Lee, Shih-Yu, et al. "Stress And Sleep Disturbances In Female College Students." American Journal
   Of Health Behavior 37.6 (2013): 851-858 8p. CINAHL Complete. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

The Wonderful World of Sleep

Sleep. I've noticed that mostly every time the sun rises, I wake up at that moment or moments later. I know this could be easily linked to the fact that Melatonin leaves/reduces in the presence of light... but I found it interesting that it also happens even whenever I drape my windows with a dark piece of fabric. I tested it this weekend, but sadly my tracker needed a replacement battery, again. So I wasn't able to collect data from that nights sleep.

When Dreams Are the Enemy

In the article "When Dreams Are the Enemy" by Russell Lockhart, (which you can read here.) Lockhart describes the soldiers thoughts of sleep during and after combat by compiling evidence from various articles and interviews to create a small paragraph that draws the readers in. This small paragraph explains the views of sleep. Sleep is not so much the enemy, but rather dreams and reoccurring nightmares triggered by the extremely stressful situations that the soldiers have personally experienced. The author goes on to explain that we essentially are "robbing ourselves of sleep and dreams" which are causing many side effects physically and emotionally. If only everyone had background knowledge on sleep, the world could possibly be a better place.


Lockhart, Russell Arthur. "When Dreams Are the Enemy." (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 20 Oct. 2015

Manhole 69

As I read "Manhole 69" by J.G. Ballard, I was reminded of the first week of class and how we were asked if we would trade in our sleep and under what conditions. At the beginning of school I had agreed that if the option was available I would surrender my need for sleep as long as I could keep my ability to sleep. Today, I would like to rescind what I said back then. "Manhole 69" changed my mind on how I view the effects of that choice. I think the author had a point when he wrote "Maybe you need eight hours off a day just to get over the shock of being yourself."

Saturday's Sleep: Stress or Sick Zzz's ? (Blog 12)

    This has been one heck of a week. I'm guessing my body needed more sleep this week than what I was allowing it to receive, which may be why I got sick just before this weekend. As you can see by my sleep chart, I spent a good portion of my day asleep. While sleeping, I spent most of my time in deep sleep and didn't wake up as often as I usually do. This was probably the best sleep I've received all semester. It was just what I needed to push past what little sickness I had left.

What I've Learned... (blog 11)

     I'd love to type out all the things I've learned in class, but I also go blank when my computer is in front of me. I can honestly say I've learned so many different things about sleep. Holli and I know the struggle of being in University Life class together and fighting the urge to pull out notes from class to correct those who say they "feel much more energized with less sleep." As Holli said today "No. I will show you statistics about sleep." I personally want to pull out notes and then begin giving a lecture on sleep and fill the room with jargon like "sleep debt, REM, circadian rhythms, dips, light sleep and deep sleep" and so much more. If only they could all take an Honors class over sleep, they would see their lack of sleep is really not benefiting them at all. That's the biggest thing fighting against college students, is our lack of access to the truthful information about sleep for those around our ages. Most college students believe as long as they receive roughly 8 hours of sleep each night, they are okay, simply because its considered the national average.