2008 Woodie Awards
Jill wants to get into bed, encourages other to do so
Jill Reddish
Issue date: 11/9/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
Today, I nearly fell asleep at the wheel of my car.
Before you panic and start ranting about how irresponsible that was and how people could die, blah blah blah, I was parked. I was completely alert and awake while driving, but once I parked, the idea of gathering my things, getting out, walking somewhere and generally continuing with my day was just a little too daunting to handle, and so I stole a few extra minutes of shut eye slumped across my steering wheel.
To me, this is a sign of exhaustion. College students in general can all relate to those random moments when it all catches up to you and your brain shuts down. Suddenly, the interesting point you were making in class just became as unintelligible as Proust, and your eyes can't stay open, let alone focus.
Hopefully, we can make it to a place where we can safely collapse for a few minutes (the couch in the Smith Music Lounge comes to mind) so that we do not actually fall asleep while driving and do not actually harm anybody. But the bigger issue is not actually where we are when we need to collapse, but the very fact that we need to collapse. It is indicative of a bigger problem - college students are deprived of sleep.
Not just sleep, but rest. Not just rest, but leisure time. Time for our brains to unwind and relax enough to actually absorb and store away all the information that we spend so many hours cramming into our brains.
Last week, there was an article on MSNBC about a principal in New England who was trying to change the system. He mandated yoga classes for seniors, encouraged students to make time for free time and required all teachers to schedule homework-free weekends. However, he was disappointed to discover that students were using those free weekends to catch up on work from other classes.
This sounds familiar. This past Tuesday, I had finished my usual Tuesday work early, but instead of having a free afternoon to laze around in my underwear, I had to get my computer fixed, go to a music practice session, do my laundry, and feel guilty about not working on those big projects that are looming over my head - just not looming close enough to actually begin. So even when we have free time, we rarely do nothing with it.
Some people would say this is because we're Trinity students - we work hard, and we play hard.
But I'm starting to think this is bigger than Trinity, or just college students in general. There's something wrong with a society when a high school principal has to fight students to get them to relax half an hour everyday.
So maybe, even though Health Services makes a lot of noise about getting enough sleep in October, we still need to make sleeping and relaxing a high priority, because if I was getting enough sleep, I wouldn't be worrying about people walking by my car thinking I'd had a heart attack because I couldn't keep my eyes open any more.
Or staring at the funny red blotch on my forehead that happened to be the same width as my steering wheel.
Before you panic and start ranting about how irresponsible that was and how people could die, blah blah blah, I was parked. I was completely alert and awake while driving, but once I parked, the idea of gathering my things, getting out, walking somewhere and generally continuing with my day was just a little too daunting to handle, and so I stole a few extra minutes of shut eye slumped across my steering wheel.
To me, this is a sign of exhaustion. College students in general can all relate to those random moments when it all catches up to you and your brain shuts down. Suddenly, the interesting point you were making in class just became as unintelligible as Proust, and your eyes can't stay open, let alone focus.
Hopefully, we can make it to a place where we can safely collapse for a few minutes (the couch in the Smith Music Lounge comes to mind) so that we do not actually fall asleep while driving and do not actually harm anybody. But the bigger issue is not actually where we are when we need to collapse, but the very fact that we need to collapse. It is indicative of a bigger problem - college students are deprived of sleep.
Not just sleep, but rest. Not just rest, but leisure time. Time for our brains to unwind and relax enough to actually absorb and store away all the information that we spend so many hours cramming into our brains.
Last week, there was an article on MSNBC about a principal in New England who was trying to change the system. He mandated yoga classes for seniors, encouraged students to make time for free time and required all teachers to schedule homework-free weekends. However, he was disappointed to discover that students were using those free weekends to catch up on work from other classes.
This sounds familiar. This past Tuesday, I had finished my usual Tuesday work early, but instead of having a free afternoon to laze around in my underwear, I had to get my computer fixed, go to a music practice session, do my laundry, and feel guilty about not working on those big projects that are looming over my head - just not looming close enough to actually begin. So even when we have free time, we rarely do nothing with it.
Some people would say this is because we're Trinity students - we work hard, and we play hard.
But I'm starting to think this is bigger than Trinity, or just college students in general. There's something wrong with a society when a high school principal has to fight students to get them to relax half an hour everyday.
So maybe, even though Health Services makes a lot of noise about getting enough sleep in October, we still need to make sleeping and relaxing a high priority, because if I was getting enough sleep, I wouldn't be worrying about people walking by my car thinking I'd had a heart attack because I couldn't keep my eyes open any more.
Or staring at the funny red blotch on my forehead that happened to be the same width as my steering wheel.
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