The transition from high school to college is a notoriously daunting experience for students entering, arguably, the most important years in their lives. Everything that a student has come to know about academics, for the most part, are to be radically challenged. Many different factors go into the change, and any particular one can be enough to overwhelm any given student into becoming an emotional wreck. Whether it be living on one's own for the first time, drastic schedule changes, or becoming socially involved, these responsibilities are just three examples, among the seeming hundreds. However, a perfect balance between these responsibilities is a major key in not allowing the stressors to take one captive.
Regis College’s number one health concern is stress. The problem has come to be, due to the fact that students come from home, where their parents provided them with guidance, to a situation where they are independent. They have personal responsibility and it may not be completely straightforward for some people. Everyone’s experience is different, but each student experiences stress in some way. The competition for grades, the high expectations, relationships, future career choices, and several other aspects found in the college environment, can lead to stress. Going to college requires changes in daily routine. This includes sleeping adjustments, eating habits, time-management skills, balancing of relationships and several other changes.
For many students, college is time to learn how to live on their own and party to their heart’s content. However, for others it is a stressful, but fulfilling experience in which they can expand their knowledge and experience in a number of fields and subjects. Many students learn a number of life skills during this startling and eventful time of their lives. Not surprisingly, a number of students attempt to balance a full time job, family, a social life, and getting a sufficient amount of sleep, all while maintaining a decent grade point average. Herein lies the problem. When a student splits their time between their job, education, family, sleep, and other important obligations, they end up not putting in one hundred percent of their
Transitioning from childhood to adulthood is a juggling act. This statement is especially true for any young adult that is also attending college during this time. Every single student feels the pressure of grades and the inherent self-induced pressure. Most students feel pressure from their parents or peers while experiencing pressures from the economy like having a job. And some may even feel their sports team or club is adding to their stress as well. These pressures weigh in everyday, simultaneously in these student’s lives.
Time is a powerful thing when it comes to the development of a student. Looking back to my freshman year, I can easily say that my wish to obtaining a college education has changed significantly. The idea of finally having freedom, getting to sleep in, and practically doing what I want without someone always looking over my shoulder is what I looked forward to. However, nobody told me about the sacrifices a college student makes on a daily. From learning to time manage and dealing with sleep deprivation, to the constant panic and anxiety that comes from the stress of being away from home, this is nothing like what I envisioned. Nevertheless, these struggles have only opened my eyes to what this world is really like. A college education is more than studying for exams and completing bookwork, it is a test of a student’s mental strength.
With an increased demand for skilled labors, many students nowadays find themselves needing to complete some form of higher education at college to ensure their success in the workplace and their future career goals. Although freshmen students often enter college with high expectations and ambitions, many eventually drop out of college. Why does that happen? In an ever-changing and more competitive environment, the demanding expectations on college students now soar at unprecedented heights, creating stressful and unpleasant experiences for many of them as they try to keep up with all the burdens inflicted upon them. In their writings, Dr. Christine B. Whelan, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Alan Schwartz, and Nisha Ramachandran explore and illustrate some of the stress-creating challenges that freshmen struggle with today. Even though many factors contribute to the huge list of problems for first-year students, many of the problems that create stress for college freshmen fall under the categories of academic factors, (what adverb to add) teachers, and personal-life conflicts.
Young adults experience a significant life transition when graduate from high school and enter college. During this transition, it may be the first time they are away from their friends and families. Additionally, it is a time where they have to learn how to live independently and become more self-sufficient. A common mindset in college is you have to receive exceptional grades as well as attain the best internship or work experience to succeed in life after college. This mindset causes a variety of academic, personal, work, and social pressure put upon college students. However, some individuals do not cope well with this type of pressure and feel overwhelmed. In some individuals, the overwhelming and anxious feeling does not go away and disrupts
College students face many difficulties and stressors in college, both academically and non-academically. Some of these challenges include, but are not limited to: financial, health and personal issues. The workload that students can receive from classes as well as the college environment may result in issues that are more health related, such as stress disorders, depression, and anxiety. These in turn may lead to other issues such as sleeping problems or sleeping disorders. Students may develop bad habits that can play a factor as well. Sleeping disorders not only affect a student’s ability to work and to interact in the college setting, but can also affect a student’s mental health.
Being a college students nowadays is tough, as well dealing with a great amount of stress then we need to in our lives. Everyday college students are taking a toll from stress that comes in various ways during college. It deals out a great amount of stress on their mental and physical body just to be successful in school. The amount of time we spent on workload has increased over time since the earlier years of college. Not being organized is another way why college students lives become stressful over the years. The problem of having stress occurring in college students is related to many things in life such as financial, time management, poor eating habits, and the amount of workload on them.
First of all, adjusting to academic challenges in the freshman year can create stress for students in a variety of ways. First-year students experience stress while trying to keep up with the new academic workloads in college, which are completely different and more challenging than the workloads in high school. To illustrate this, in Alan Schwartz’s article in the New York Times magazine entitled “More College Freshmen Report Having Felt Depressed,” he wrote about the results
Students’ state of mental and emotional health will contribute to the way that stress manifests and presents itself, once he or she enters college. “The emerging categories related to sleep and health problems could be a manifestation of a general increasing level of stress and psychopathology” (Murphy and Archer 26). There are a great number of studies, both past and on going, of stress and college students which have mainly focused on academics, personal relationships, finance and family status. A more in depth look has revealed that students with emotional disorders or those of poor health are even more ill equipped to
Life during college and after college can be very stressful. Teenagers are emerging into young adults while college graduates are preparing for the real world. These young grown-ups are now responsible of their own health, school life, and financial condition (Civitci & Civitci, 2015). During college, most students worry about maintaining a social life while keeping grade point average up. Along with those who graduate college, struggle to find stability.
This essay will show different sleep interventions that have been used among one of the most sleep deprived generations, college students. An intervention is a way to improve health and quality of life through prevention and treatment of disease and other physical and mental health conditions. 7 out of every 10 college students say that they get fewer than the suggested amount of sleep each night. While many students aren’t sleeping enough either, 68% of those student’s state that they have trouble falling asleep at night because of stress. Sleep plays a very important role in your physical and mental health, as well as your day to day life. Lack of sleep has many physical effects, such as kidney disease, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure. Mental effects such as depression, bipolar and anxiety disorders and ADHD quite frequently occur. College students live very busy and stressful lives. Such as handling one or two jobs, going through school itself, working out, living in noisy environments and maintaining a social life. With better time management, these students would be able to avoid potential life threatening diseases. There are many different interventions that have been used to benefit college students and their sleep, this essay will cover two interventions.
The impact of stress among college students may have a negative impact on the student’s psychological health. Research indicates that depression rates in college students have been increasingly rising over the years. In 2012, a study was conducted by the National Survey of Counseling Centers which resulted in 91% of the researchers found an increase in students with psychological needs. To resolve college students’ stressors, Surgeon General and additional research studies propose that students who are more active exhibit a decrease in stress, anxiety, and depression. In order to improve and retain a healthy lifestyle, physical activity
Aspects of Stress a) Selye (1936/50) studied the behaviour of rats under stress through electric shock, and on hospital patients and realised that they all reacted to stress in the same patterns. He called this pattern the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). He stated that it involved three stages: Alarm Reaction Stage: This involved the sympathetic branch of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) activating the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system, creating a fight or flight situation within the body. Resistance Stage: This kicks in when the alarm reaction stage is at a full. The parasympathetic nervous system looks for ways to use resources more cautiously.