As I sit down in the lecture hall waiting for calculus class to begin, I overhear two girls talking behind me.
“Have you finished the homework for calculus yet?”
“Not yet… I haven’t even finished the first question…”
“Ugh, me either. Guess I’ll be breaking out the 5-Hour Energy tonight.”
“Yeah, I need an A in this class. We’ll be fine, sleep is for the weak.”
At MIT, conversations like this are commonplace. I find it astounding that at one of the finest institutions of higher education in the world, home to some of the most brilliant students I have ever encountered, sleep is regarded as optional. We are a school of science and technology. Here, facts and logic reign supreme. Yet despite the overwhelming evidence pointing toward the necessity of healthy sleep, students are hitting the sack for far less time than is considered healthy for a typical 18-22 year old.
As a student attending a technological institute,
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Last year, I joined a working group with MIT’s MindHandHeart initiative focused on wellness. The working group is comprised of 15 MIT staff members and me working together to dramatically shift the sleep culture of MIT. This year, I stepped into the role of Undergraduate Co-Chair of the working group. In the fall, we published a 23-page document outlining the barriers keeping MIT students from experiencing a lifestyle of healthy sleep, as well as recommendations for faculty, staff, and peers to help encourage and empower students to prioritize healthy sleep habits. We are currently planning a Sleep Initiative to be launched in the spring of 2017 with the focus of raising awareness of the importance of healthy sleep. We’re planning to involve giveaways of sleep tools such as sleep masks and ear plugs to support students on their journey to healthy sleep. I believe that with technology and awareness, we can convince not only MIT, but college students around the nation, that sleep is for the
In the article Teachers,Students and Sleep, author Dave Stuart address the effects of different qualities of sleep have on students. Stuart covers the causes for poor sleep and the consequences this can have. The author repeatedly references the work of Harvard graduate Maria Konnikova, along with Shawn Stevenson who has a bachelor's degree, thus they appear to be reliable sources. Stuart cover the negative effects of artificial light close to sleep, and the many positive effects of regularity in other activities on the sleep cycle. Dave Stuart makes his readers reevaluate how important sleep is.
In order to be a successful student at USMAPS and beyond, a cadet candidate must employ a proper sleep schedule. While the mechanisms of sleep are only partially clear and primarily left to scientific speculation, everyone can agree that the vitality of sleep and circadian rhythms is indisputable. That said, while I go through the academic year, I have developed a plan to maintain my sleep habits and ensure that proper sleep will benefit me throughout my academic endeavors.
In Frank Bruni’s editorial, “Today’s Exhausted Superkids,” he talks about the lack of sleep present in many high school and college students. He attributes this loss in sleep to a variety of factors; although he seems to place the blame mainly on education. He blames the stress of getting good grades on the widespread lack of sleep. Throughout his article, Bruni used many studies and other writings to support his points.
Imagine: a world where a biological necessity is not seen as a priority, and adolescent’s educations are suffering. This is how schools’ think about sleep.What all human beings need to survive is being put on the back burner by most schools in America- sleep(11a). It has been proven through the process of scientific research that sleep is necessary on the same level as food or activity. Unfortunately, sleep deprivation is a chronic health problem that many youths suffer from today. Teens are naturally predisposed to go to sleep around 11 pm, but are forced to wake up around 6:15, not allowing any time for adequate sleep (“Backgrounder: Later school start Times” 1). Irregular sleep patterns during teenage years can cause long-term
Today’s Exhausted Superkids is Frank Bruni’s response to the book “Overloaded and Unprepared.” His response portrays many people of the younger generation whom do not get enough sleep. In his response Bruni states, “But many teenagers today are so hyped and stressed out that they are getting only a fraction of the rest they need.” Bruni suggests smartphones and tablets are part of the cause of keeping kids and teens up in the middle of the night. However, he also mentions these are not the only factors as to why students do not get enough sleep. Hard work is another culprit. Many students work hard to achieve their high grades and do better on their tests. They strive to be the best and be a part of as many extracurricular activities as possible. Some students use stimulants, such as adderall, to become the high achievers they strive to be. Frank Bruni made good points about teens being overworked, but I disagree with his idea that many students do not get enough sleep due to pressure and expectations because most of them choose to do other things rather than sleeping.
To conclude, we can see how not only does more sleep make us prepared and more focused for the school day, but how it also affects our positive sleeping patterns, our ability to learn, and the amount of stress that our bodies receive. We see how many liable resources were used to conclude that sleep truly is one of the most important factors in a student's everyday life and supports the idea that school should begin later for the most positive results. Starting school later will truly minimize bad sleep patterns and habits, increase the amount of learning and lastly, put less stress on our minds and
One of the many arising problems of America’s students is they are becoming sleep deprived. The busy daily schedules of children and teens are not allowing them to get enough sleep. “Less sleep is unhealthy especially with the new research that as teenagers move through teenage years, they need increasing amounts of sleep. Nine hours per night is the necessary amount to avoid behaviors associated with sleep deprivation” (Final Report Summary, 2001). Among other things, sleep deprivation is causing students to sleep during class instead of being awake and aware. When the students are sleeping in class, they are not retaining information being taught to them. Researchers have now proven that
Almost every day high school students are waking up around six o’clock in the morning to get ready for school, some even earlier than that. Nearly every morning students are waking up without adequate sleep. If sleep is one of the most essential needs of the body in order to grow and develop, shouldn’t we be more aware of how much it affects students everyday performance? The ways in which students are affected by sleep-deprivation is precisely why school needs to start later.
Specific Purpose: Sleep and college students usually don’t tend to get along very well. Sleep and college life often bump heads due to stress, coursework and social activities. This speech will give the students useful information about dangers of not getting enough sleep and also hints on how to get a better nights sleep.
Specific Purpose: My audience will understand the importance of sleep, the effects a lack of sleep can have on a person’s body, and ways to improve the quality of sleep.
Long before the sun rises or the moon sets, the morning rituals of high school students across the United States are well underway. Long before the streetlights have turned off, students are walking and driving along the roads to reach their education centers. Long before the bell for second block has rung, many of these same students find themselves dozing off in class. Why are they unable to focus? Are they aware that falling asleep in class is rude? How are so many students this tired? These are all valid questions that teachers and parents alike often ponder to themselves. The answer to these questions, however, lies with one simple word: sleep. It has become
Students who usually stay up late and get little sleep do not think of the consequences for the next day. Frequently, a majority of these students arrive at class only to fall the next day only to fall asleep after the professor starts the lecture. The poor behavior problem usually leads to low attendance rates and poor grades among sleep deprived students (Johnson). For first time freshmen, sleep deprivation has been known to cause a variety of issues that can lead to grave harm. Sleep deprivation can cause slow reaction time as well as headaches and nightmares more frequently. The mind will fall asleep if it cannot get enough sleep causing it to not function properly. Some side effects insomnia are feeling fatigue, depressed or a feeling of the body being completely drained (Haynes). One of these issues
Are you tired and having trouble paying attention in class? Focusing on tasks at hand? Or just completely being overall unproductive? The average college student is deprived at least two full hours asleep each night according to “College Tidbits” a website designed to promote healthy lifestyles and productivity in daily college life. These results were pooled from multiple surveys done over hundreds of campuses throughout the United States. Today, I hope to persuade you to fight the statistics and get those extra two hours of sleep. Do what it takes to get the full seven to nine hours that is suggested by the Mayo Clinic. I will discuss two problems. Why college students are not
Readers figure out how the sleep market reacts to the developing interest for more sleep with new advances. Like competitors, supermodels, CEOs, and others reclaiming the value of sleep, readers find the best approach to tackle their own sleep crisis requires reevaluating needs and values. The Sleep Revolution means to persuade readers regarding the need to reclaim sleep, not just on the grounds that it is beneficial and more productive in our cognizant existences, additionally in light of the fact that sleep permits us to associate with a more profound world, in which the things that we commonly characterize ourselves by, for example, work, connections, trust and fears fall away to make space for crisp, reinvigorated points of view. When we focus on these internal universes and their messages, we can convey the insight picked up while sleeping into our waking lives. By feeding and renewing ourselves with sleep, we can accomplish more in the day. Re-finding and reestablishing their relationship with sleep, readers will be roused to join the sleep revolution. The vast majority doesn’t get enough rest. We are a general public that takes on too much work, a country where individuals remain up throughout the night to study, work, or have some good times. In any case, abandoning sufficient sleep conveys with it both short and long-term consequences.
Have you ever been tired? So tired that you can’t seem to function? People, places, they all just turn into blurs and meaningless shapes? If you have then you have experienced an all too common scenario for the everyday student. Go ahead and ask any average high school student how they are feeling, you are bound to get the response, “I’m tired.” When asked why, you will usually be greeted with some variant of the following three responses: work, homework, or school. These three tasks can not only be major annoyances, but can also cause serious health issues in the form of one of the most dangerous problems on this planet, insufficient sleep. Needless to say, there are students who go to bed feeling tired. There are many around the world, nestling into their beds at this very moment; anxious to see what their made up version of reality has in store for them, waiting to see the gumdrops and sugarplum fairies, the dragons they must slay to save their damsel in distress, the many wonders that one can only experience through the sleeping consciousness. However, in the waking world, we must focus on those who awaken feeling just as tired, as if their gumdrops were just out of reach, stolen away before they could claim their kiss, cheated out of their wonders. We must focus on these people, for they lack the ability to focus themselves.