Can UMD’s Sleep Crisis Be Solved with The Sleep Revolution

Sleep.

We all need it to survive and focus whether we are a college student or the CEO of a major corporation. Sleep is what Arianna Huffington, the co-founder and editor in chief of The HuffingtonPost, considers “the great unifier” among humans.

Many of us have admitted to being exhausted all the time. This campus has a culture of staying up late into the night. Our “Work Hard, Play Hard” attitudes and “You can sleep when you’re dead” mentalities can affect our health productivity, relationships and even our own happiness.

Have we really stopped to think about what too little sleep can do to our bodies? Drowsy driving for one is just as perilous as drunk driving.  Exhaustion can lead to extra stress, a shortage of productivity creativity, memory loss, and depression, just to name a few .

Our campus, our society, is in what Huffington would call a “sleep crisis,” with just 40 percent of Americans getting the recommended seven hours of sleep a night.  

But Huffington, one of most recognizable names in the media industry is here to change that, with her new book, “The Sleep Revolution- Transforming Your Life One Night at a Time.”  

She explores the history of sleep to the role of dreams in our lives and the consequences of sleep depravation as well as the new technologies and tips we can use to achieve a better night’s sleep.  Huffington ultimately stresses how our dismissal as sleep as a waste of time compromises all aspects of our lives.   It is time to stop this behavior and see sleep as a priority to achieving success.  

Huffington created the following Sleep Manifesto to emphasize positive sleeping behaviors that may be easier for some to follow than others.

“If I don’t get enough sleep, I get really bad migraines,” said junior communications major Julia Adelman. “ I always try to make sure I get a minimum of seven or eight hours of sleep a night. I know I’m not going to have a good day unless I get enough sleep.“

The fitness tracking company Jawbone released a survey April 20 of the most sleep-deprived campuses with Maryland reporting in at number 65.  Women on this campus clock in just shy of seven hours of sleep a night during the week. 

Students at University of Maryland tend to supplement their sleep schedules with midday naps such as sophomore finance major Therese Nkeng, who will stay up late to finish her work.  “I like napping, but sometimes it affects me going to sleep at a normal time, because when it comes time to sleep, I’m not tired.”

For senior English and business management major Mary Beth Garhart, schoolwork and her social life take priority over sleeping. “It definitely affects how much I contribute in class and how good my notes are,” she said.  

While Garhart does strive for seven hours a night, it doesn’t always happen.  It sometimes takes her over an hour to fall asleep, her mind active, as she thinks about what she has to do the following day.

Senior marketing major Alyssa Hochberg prioritizes her friends over her sleep. “We all have such different schedules that the only time we’re all together is late at night, even though I still have to wake up early.

To emphasize how important sleep really is, The Huffington Post went on tour to college campuses across the country to talk about the “Sleep Revolution” with a sleep fair to give students tangible tools and products to learn better sleep habits and make small but transformational changes in their lives.  While the tour might not be visiting this campus, be sure to check out her 12 Tips For a Better Night’s Sleep. Maybe you will find some valuable advice to achieve a better night of sleep.

Rest easy fellow Terps.  It’s time to spark a campus-wide conversation about the importance of sleep and the dangers of sleep deprivation, which is at the heart of so many stress-related mental health issues in college.

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