Physical and mental health should always be our top priority. This is something that we have heard time and time again as college students, so much so that it seems redundant and unnecessary to even say it.
But whether we’d like to admit it, students constantly ignore this and choose to spend late hours in the library and early mornings in class instead of taking care of themselves. These habits typically form in high school, carry over into college and remain an immature way of looking at diligence. With midterms coming up, stress heightens, and as time runs out, the first thing to cut from our schedules is sleep. This may seem like the best idea at the time, but it's not what is best in the long run.
In college, it seems that the more unhealthy you are, the more work you appear to be getting done. Students will complain or sometimes brag about how little sleep they get or the hours they spend in the library studying. They talk about forgetting to eat lunch or only ever eating Biscuitville because they had so much work.
When we hear about students working past 4 a.m., it’s easy to believe that this reflects a high priority on school. However, this belief is creating a culture of students who simply aren't healthy and causing us to believe that that is something worth celebrating.
Hard work and excelling in school is definitely something to be proud of, but working hard and being healthy are not mutually exclusive.
We equate our unhealthy behaviors with dedication. Consequently, we compare going to sleep at a decent hour or taking a day off of classes to focus on mental health to laziness or lack of ambition. Neither assumptions are true and we must change this mindset in order to create a culture of healthier students.
It is important to recognize that staying up until 4 a.m. doing homework and studying isn’t the only way to get work done. In reality, it’s probably the least productive way.
According to the Center for Disease Control, college students should be getting 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night. For most of us, that sounds like a ridiculous goal, but it is possible and it will make you more productive in the long run. Lack of sleep can cause students to have trouble concentrating, taking tests and participating in class.
“There’s a reason why we use sleep deprivation as a form of torture,” said Jennifer Brigman, a counselor with Counseling Services. She goes on to echo the CDC’s warning, saying that when your brain goes without sleep, one of its core physiological needs, you can become disoriented.
“Sleep is a part of what our body actually requires — it’s not a suggestion,” said Brigman. “There is this idea that when we are experiencing anxiety...then we are planning for it and we will be better prepared. So, if I have a test at 8 a.m. and I stay up all night, then I have crammed as much into my brain as possible and therefore I am going to be the most prepared. All of this is a misnomer. It’s not really true.”
In reality, if students took the time to get enough sleep, eat well and take care of their bodies, then their brains would function better, allowing them to work effectively instead of having to pull all-nighters. This kind of fatigue can weaken the immune system, making a student more susceptible to illness, which will then cause more stress. It is a cycle that can be broken if students don't put themselves in that position in the first place.
It is easy to complain about a certain aspect of college culture, but not as easy to change it. To start, students can work to encourage each other to take better care of themselves. We must stop the habit of seeing unhealthy behaviors as a consequence of working hard. It is possible to be healthy and still thrive at Elon, we just have to make it a priority.