Valley U.: Zen and the art of balancing sleep, studying and social life
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It's known as "triple death weekend" - the Thursday, Friday and Saturday of partying - that kicks off Greek Week at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
A long-standing tradition notorious among "Greeks," or fraternity and sorority members, "Greek Week" is a time meant for Greek bonding and socializing through various parties and social functions. It's also a time that last year coincided with two hefty homework assignments for UMass Lowell junior, Erik Dunn-Gaudet, of Northampton. Specifically, two 22-page papers, both due by the end of Greek Week.
Dunn-Gaudet, a double major in philosophy and sociology, with a minor in medieval studies, is on the pre-law track. A member of Delta Cappa Phi, one of the six fraternities (there are also five sororities) on the UMass Lowell campus, he says that while he knew he should have written his papers before the week's events, he ended up putting them off - all 44 pages - until the last two nights before they were due.
Dunn-Gaudet, who calls himself "the classic procrastinator," recalls: "I wrote for seven hours straight, slept for four, then wrote for another six." Although he managed to finish up both papers on deadline, he says grimly, "It was the worst experience of my life.'"
Dunn-Gaudet's dilemma, to choose between socializing or studying, or to try to cram both in, is a common one for college students. Finding a balance, between social life, studies and sleep, many a college student's three main priorities, can be a challenge. Valley U. surveyed nine area college students to find out how they manage to prioritize the three S's.
Overall, the college guys interviewed ranked social life as most important, studying as second and sleep as their last priority. Overall, the college women ranked studying as most important, with sleep and social life tied for second. However, overall for both groups it was a three-way tie between sleep, studying and social life, as most important because of a majority of factors.
Social life first
For Dunn-Gaudet, social life is priority number one, for which he says he is willing to suffer the consequences. College, he says, offers "a very unique social setting in our time period," as it is an opportune time for college students to both "# formulate ideas and bounce them off each other, and figure out what they want to do with their lives."
Sleep for Dunn-Gaudet comes second, and studies, he says, come last.
Tyler Martins, a senior at the UMass Amherst, majoring in political science with a minor in sociology, says social life is also his first priority.
"You're supposed to say that, obviously, studying is most important, but I don't think it is," says Martins with a grin.
"A lot of people are going to tell you that your grades are important, to get you a job or something, but really it's connections. I know a lot of people who # just graduated last year and they got jobs because they know people."
Martins says studying comes second, with sleep the last thing on his mind: "There is always time to sleep, you know, afternoons, mornings, nights, whatever."
UMass Amherst senior Patrick Drumm also lists social life as most important. But while Martins and Dunn-Gaudet say college is for connections, for Drumm, it's a time to explore a personal hobby: road-tripping with friends.
A management major, he ranks studying as second, with sleep last.
"I know this is the best time of my life to see the world, so I've just been taking road trips with all of my friends," says Drumm. The farthest South he says he's 'tripped is to Orlando, the farthest North, Montreal, and the furthest West, he says, is Chicago; his favorite place, he says, is Orlando, where he's visited Disney World five times.
Psychologist Jennifer Lexington, at the Center for Counseling and Psychological Health at UMass Amherst, calls socializing "a really complex construct."
In her everyday work with UMass students, Lexington says she sees a range of students: some who need to be around people sometimes, all the time, or a minimal amount.
A busy social life "really is healthy and appropriate," she says. It "helps us deal with difficulties, such as loss and break-ups." But, she noted, problems most commonly arise when students either begin to feel lonely and isolated, or on the other side of the spectrum, begin to socialize excessively, partying too much and neglecting sleep and schoolwork. Balance, Lexington says, "is the primary thing."
Studies matter most
Studying comes first for nursing major and psychology minor Rebecca Petros, a junior at UMass Amherst, with social life second, and sleep last.
"As a nursing major it's very competitive; we all try to stay on top of our game," says Petros. "We do a lot of studying; a lot of cramming."
Still, Petros says she sees the value of "keeping things in check" with a lively social life.
"You gotta have fun too, to balance it out," she says. Of course, Petros adds, it depends on the week. "If I have a test coming up, that whole week studying is the most important. # If I don't really have that much going on, social life is the most important, and if there's no parties, then sleep gets pretty important."
Similarly, Naomi Braude, of Northampton, a history major and junior at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, ranks studying first, but says sleep for her is second, and social life third. While Braude says sometimes she wishes she could spend more time socializing, studies are most important to her.
"There are definitely times when I don't have time for such an active social life, and that's OK," she says. "I consider my number one priority in college to do well academically."
Like Braude, Phina Addo, a third year doctoral student and nutrition major at UMass Amherst, says she puts studying first, then sleep, then social life.
"Studying: because that's what I'm here to do," says Addo. Sleep, she says, is important, too, because of the stresses of college. Social life, she says, is something to enjoy after her work is done.
"So much to do, so little time," concludes Addo.
Organization, or time management, according to Lexington, is "the number one problem" she sees students struggle with when they come to college.
"In college, you're left to your own devices," she says, and learning how to make a schedule is hard for everyone, but especially students who are typically on their own for the first time. "On the opposite side of studying is perfectionism," she adds, "people who are studying to the exclusion of social life, the exclusion of sleeping habits."
Again, she says, finding that balance is key.
Zzz's before A's or B's
For Minh Nguyen, a senior at UMass Dartmouth who is majoring in computer science, sleep comes before studying, with social life as a last priority. Even on the UMass Amherst campus, where he is spending the summer conducting a research project on computer information retrieval, he says this holds true.
"If you don't get enough sleep, you can't study, and you won't be productive," says Nguyen with a shrug of the shoulders. "Social life is also important, but you study now," he says, and have a social life later.
Brandon Griffeth, a junior and an accounting major from Atlanta, who attends Brigham Young University in Utah, also says his first priority is sleep, then studying, and then social life.
Working on the UMass Amherst campus this summer as a camp counselor for Especially for Youth, he says, "Getting a good night's sleep is really important to being able to have a healthy social life."
Griffeth also says he thinks sleep is crucial to "being able to study the correct amount and retain everything you study."
Jing Huang, a chemistry major and visiting student from China, attending UMass Amherst this fall, says she also puts sleep first, with social life second and studying third.
"Sleep is very important," says Huang. "If I don't get a very good sleep # everything sucks."
She laughs, adding that while studying takes up most of her time, social life is also important to her.
As "a foreign student," Huang says the more friends she has, the more help she can get with studying, and thus can finish her work earlier, freeing up time for socializing - and more sleep.
Katherine Walsh, a clinical social worker and therapist with a private practice in Northampton, as well as professor at Westfield State University, specializes in sleep and insomnia. From her work both teaching college students and counseling them, Walsh says she always sees them struggle with getting enough sleep - particularly freshmen.
"When you're going into new study demands and deadlines # it's often the case that work gets put off and there's a tendency to pull all-nighters; that can really cut into sleep time," she says.
Technology, she says, also has a big impact on students not catching enough z's.
"The 24/7 aspects of late-night texting and social networking and Facebook, that also goes on in addition inside a college dorm # can really reduce teen sleep time." She recommends shutting off electronics at least half an hour before getting ready to go to sleep.
Walsh also says that sleeping either too little or too much can "create a number of problems," from weight gain to impacting changes in mood, and can even result in long term health problems.
"A lot of people don't realize how important sleep is to preventing chronic health problems," says Walsh.
Also, she says, the circadian rhythms or "body clock" of teens are different than that of adults: thus college-aged students naturally want to go to sleep later at night and sleep in later in the morning.
Thus, she says, the adjustment to college can be difficult, fitting in enough sleep on a schedule of early classes and late-night studying.
Reinforcing balance
So how can college students balance their sleep, studies and social life, in a healthy way? All while navigating classes, extra-curricular activities, jobs, relationships, finances, family responsibilities, and the whole textbook series that it would take to list everything that goes on in a college student's life. Keep in mind the average student's goal: not to get stuck with 44 pages to write in two days.
Some 70 to 80 percent of the students who come by UMass Amherst's counseling center, Lexington says, bring up that they are struggling to balance these three aspects of college life.
"That is literally one of the most common presenting concerns," she says, although usually, she adds, "that's just a part of what's going on."
She recommends focusing on time management first. She says she often suggests that students sit down and write out a list, with an set of tasks that can be accomplished in a day. Getting in the habit of writing a daily list is great, she says, and if they can, students should also start making a long-term list, weekly or monthly, of what they have to get done. When writing these lists, she says, students should also pencil in social and sleep time.
"One thing people don't do a lot is allot time for social life and allot time for sleep," she says. "Having that be a conscious part of a daily structure and a daily routine," is important, she says.
Lexington also recommends, for students who feel they are struggling with anxiety or focus, to try, 8 to 10 minutes per day, deep breathing and learning to relax.
An audio-visual link on the UMass Amherst website (see related story at right) she says, is one of many resources students can look to, to learn these techniques.
Must ... sleep
Walsh reinforces how important getting sufficient sleep is for college students.
"Teens need up to nine hours of sleep," she says. "Their bodies are going through a lot of change; most people agree that a good seven hours of sleep a night is sufficient for adults."
Good quality sleep, or sleep that is uninterrupted, she says, is the most crucial: "where you get to actually experience what we call rapid eye movement, the state of sleeping is the highest quality, where dreaming occurs."
Exercise is also crucial, Walsh says.
Many students move from high school, where they played sports or had gym class, she says, to college, where those may not be options.
Yet she says, "Physical activity can really help with both stress management and sleep, and it has certainly shown to be."
Overall, Walsh says the important thing for college students to do is to "monitor oneself - if you're gaining weight, if you're feeling exhausted, if your grades are starting to suffer, and if your mood is being impacted, any of those four things - then it really does pay to re-evaluate and see about re-prioritizing and adding some healthy strategies in."
She adds, "If one doesn't have a good idea about how to do that, certain college counseling is very helpful."
Lexington, too, says she recommends students either talk to their advisor or make a trip to their college's counseling center if they are struggling to find balance.
"It can't hurt to come talk to somebody about it," she says. "It can be a really helpful resource just to come in."
Also, she says, most counseling centers offer a variety of resources that could be helpful.
For example, there are often time management workshops students can sign up for.
"I just encourage students to realize that it's so important to maintain a consistent routine," Lexington concludes.
"Balance is everything."
