If you type, “why am I” into Google, the first suggestion that comes up is, “why am I so tired?”. The next is, “why am I tired all the time?”, and the third, “why am I always tired”. It’s pretty obvious that the world, or at least the world of Google users, is struggling to get enough sleep. As college students, the issue of being constantly tired is not something new to us. Every day, students stay up late studying, participating in sports, or just hanging out with friends, and then spend the next day sludging around campus like a zombie. Even on the off chance that college students do get a good night sleep, we still always seem to be unexplainably tired the next day. Huffington Post editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington wants to do something to change this.
Recently, Huffington announced the release of her new book, “The Sleep Revolution”, as well as a nation-wide book tour that targets college students. This book, and the coinciding tour, are focused on encouraging people to improve their relationship with sleep. This book not only gives tips on how to sleep better, such as powering down technology a half hour before bed or listening to relaxing music, but also urges people to change the way they think about sleep.
Often, college students hear about the “pick two” scenario. “Sleep, social life, good grades: you can only have two!”. And often, sleep is the first one to go. However, Huffington encourages us to stop looking at sleep as the enemy to success, and start looking at it as a tool. The more sleep you get, the more productive you are. The more productive you are, the more successful you will be! It may feel great to stay up late and get a project done, but it surely doesn’t feel great to sleep through your alarm, be late to class, and drudge around useless and tired the next day.
Along with Huffington’s book and tour, (which is coming to some nearby colleges such as Brandeis, BC, and Harvard), Huffington Post has been releasing some great (free!) informational articles about sleep, what it can do for you, and how to use it to your advantage. Check out the HuffingtonPost.com to learn more! (But make sure you turn off your laptop a half hour before you to to bed).