A campus media campaign at the University of Arizona–Tucson was effective in raising sleep as a health issue and in getting students to sleep better and longer.Credit: University of Arizona
Sleep often suffers in a student’s freshman year, but a new study finds that young college students may think their sleep quality is better than it is. The study also demonstrates that a low-cost campus wide media campaign can help some students sleep better and suggests that discussing sleep problems may be a gateway for college health providers to address more sensitive problems.
When Kathryn Orzech attended the College of William and Mary in Virginia, she participated in drama and choir. Rehearsals that would have ended at 10 p.m. in high school now went much later. Social opportunities around the dorm — card games, trips to late-night snack hangout spots — beckoned but without parents around to wield the cudgel of a curfew.
For a long list of reasons, college freshmen are often sub-par sleepers. A new study by Orzech, now a postdoctoral fellow in sleep research at Brown University, and student health officials at the University of Arizona, illuminates some of the factors undermining sleep. The research published in the current issue of the Journal of American College Health also indicates that college students think their sleep is better than it is and that a campus wide media intervention costing less than $2,500 was able to help nearly 10 percent of students find ways to sleep better. Curious? Continue reading
Source: Brown University
