Gone are the days when college life was just about getting a good education and having the best years of your life. The average day of a typical University of South Carolina student consists of much more than just attending class and working hard to make A's in all your classes. Picture an average student's day at USC: wake up in time to shower, eat breakfast, and either walk at least thirty minutes to class or spend twenty minutes searching for a parking spot all before your 8:05 AM class, followed by a full day of classes and at least a couple hours of homework that get half heartedly completed after your part time job for paying off your student loans or your internship that is required for graduation. All the while your body is running on over priced and extremely unhealthy meals, you're scrambling to attend but more often than not missing important club or Greek life meetings and events ...  and God forbid you have a spare moment to make these years "the best years of our lives". At the end of the day you come home to either an old, rotten and run down house or even worse: the USC dorms, where you are no doubt getting colds every two weeks form all the mold growing on your ceiling and your RM is looking for ridiculous reasons to write you up and get you in trouble. Next imagine the life of an athlete at USC: wake up in time for 5:00 AM morning practice and hopefully have a few minutes to shower before a full day of classes followed by another sports practice and hours of homework. In my opinion, as well as many of my peers, University of South Carolina does not foster an environment that is supportive of the general wellness of its students. To solve this problem, I think that USC should begin to implement a long-term wellness campaign and I think that the first thing they do should be to push back the start of all classes to 9 AM.

Walking around campus, people are not smiling or happy to be at class. In addition, everyone shows up to class dressed in nothing but big tee shirts and comfortable shorts or pants because they are too tired to put in any effort. Just the other day I was talking to my friend and she said "it doesn't even feel like USC is here to get me ready for the real world, the University is not on my side it's just trying to make money". In a big school like University of South Carolina where there are thousands of students paying thousands of dollars to attend, each student should feel cared for and have trust that the University is looking out for their best interests. Unfortunately, a vast majority of the students who attend University of South Carolina feel just the opposite. This is why, in my opinion, USC should launch a campaign to all-around revamp campus wellness initiatives and resources. There are so many wellness related problems that need to be addressed here on campus, including terrible parking, unsafe and unhealthy dorm rooms and buildings with mean and out-to-get-you RM's, out of date classrooms and facilities, unhealthy and over priced food and meal plans, long walks or commutes to class, high costs of text books and tuition, to name just a few. Unfortunately, all of these problems would be very costly and, in some cases, labor intensive to fix. That is why I propose that the first course of action taken by the University of South Carolina in their campaign to support student wellness would be to push back the start of classes so that no class starts before 9:00 AM. Not only would this be a relatively financially conservative change to make to the University, it would also be somewhat of a grand gesture to show the students at USC that the students at USC are cared for and that all of the faculty and people in charge really do have our best interests at heart.

This proposal may seem arbitrary and out of nowhere, however Stanford University has set the precedent for 9:00 AM start of classes. I first learned about this when I visited my friend who attends Stanford University this past winter break. I asked her more about the policy and why she thought it was in place and she explained it to me by saying how much Stanford cares about the well being and health of each of it's students, and how it's not natural for us, still developing, collage age students to be waking up at the same time as the rest of the population does for work. Walking around campus I noticed other things that seemed to make life better, for example healthy choices in the dining halls, dorms rooms with big windows and easy-to-access maintenance staff, spacious parking lots, clean facilities and class rooms, as well as many more small details that make life easier. In addition, I also noticed a distinct positive attitude from all the students; people seemed to be smiling all the time as they walk or rode their bikes form class to class. While Stanford University is the only wellness-associated campus that I have witnessed firsthand, it isn't the only University that is putting wellness or sleep supportive campaigns into action. According to Tyler Kingkade in an online article on Huffington Post, universities including UCLA, University of Alaska, University of Alabama, and Georgetown University are making efforts to convey to the students how important it is to get enough sleep and are helping them incorporate more sleep into their lives. UCLA even added a "nap room" into their library to help students make it through those infamous college "all-nighters" and UCLA and many other of these schools have hosted numerous seminars and sessions for students that help educate them on the importance of a goodnight's sleep (Kingkade). The article goes on to discuss how, "while one-third percent of the general population isn't getting enough Z's, 60 percent of the college population gets insufficient sleep" (Kingkade). Facts like these prove why it is so important for college students to live in an environment where the importance of sleep is emphasized. The pace of society is getting quicker and quicker every year, but as the pace of life increases the importance of sleep isn't decreasing. College students need to be made aware of the importance of sleep because, as I mentioned above, 60% of us aren't getting enough sleep, which could lead to many negative repercussions. University of South Carolina needs to follow the initiative of Stanford University, as well as all of the other universities, that are working hard to abolish sleep deprivation and improve the general wellness of students. If we do not, many negative outcomes may result from USC's neglect to factor wellness into the college experience.

In college students especially, sleep is much more important than many people even realize. Many of us don't realize, but as young eighteen to twenty-two or twenty-three year olds, we are still developing and it is extremely important that we foster a healthy environment for the last few years of our brain and body development. There have been many studies conducted that show the importance of sleep to the college student's body in many different ways and that clearly highlight the pitfalls that college students face if they fail to make sleep a priority. One particularly striking study done by June J. Pilcher and Amy S. Walters who are with the Department of Psychology at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, highlighted the extent to which sleep deprived college students perform significantly worse on cognitive tasks than those who are not sleep deprived. In this study, two groups of students (one group deprived of sleep, the other not deprived of sleep) each performed two different cognitive tasks and following the tasks they filled out a survey critiquing their own performance on the tasks. The results showed, as expected, that the sleep deprived students performed significantly worse on the tasks. What surprised me was that the sleep deprived students reported in the survey that they had performed better than the students who were not sleep deprived (Plicher). This result really struck me because it shows how sleep deprived students are sometimes not even aware that they are not reaching their full potential and many unknowing students could be falling into the trap of not realizing they are not performing their best. Another study performed by Zeba Saeed, Hasan Zaniab, and Atif Maria for the Professional Medical Journal even more clearly highlighted and emphasized the importance of sleep in relation to performance on college tasks like exams performed another study. In this study, more than 300 students were compared against one another based only on their sleeping patterns and habits and their outcomes on midterm exams. Not surprisingly, the students with the healthiest sleeping habits also performed best on the midterm exams (Saeed). According to one of the aurthors of this study, "Professional colleges should advise and educate students in order to encourage them to acquire adequate sleep through appropriate sleeping patterns by which they may support their academic learning"(Saeed). This study particularly stood out to me because it emphasized how obvious and direct the correlation is between adequate sleep and academic performance. This simple study clearly and precisely backs up claims that college students who do not get enough sleep are automatically putting themselves at a disadvantage academically. In today's society, where college students are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for their college educations, college students should be encouraged and offered help to improve their habits in order to maximize their education. 

Unfortunately, academic success is not the only pitfall associated with sleep deprivation, especially in college age students. Sadly, there are many unwanted and unhealthy traits associated with poor sleeping habits or sleep deprivation, including but not limited to depression, obesity, anxiety, impaired memory, and much more. One of the less talked about but extremely important negative side effects of sleep deprivation is obesity. In a study performed by Bridget Melton, Jody Langdon, and Tyler McDaniel for the College Student Journal, the correlation between many physical and psychological traits based on sleeping habits was analyzed in great depth. The study itself was performed by taking a survey of more than 600 college students and asking a variety of questions including demographics, sleeping patterns, physical traits, as well as other wellness associated questions. The conclusion of this study clearly showed that the correlation between sleep deprivation and obesity is a growing problem, which demands much more research and attention in general (Melton). With obesity becoming a bigger and bigger epidemic in America every day, the correlation between sleep deprivation and obesity is one that we simply can't afford to ignore. While society as a whole is facing this issue worse than it has ever been before, it should be of the utmost importance to universities to work to fight this problem and avoid at all costs fostering an environment that leads to increased obesity. Obesity, however, is far from the only problem associated with negative sleep habits. A study performed by Henry Lao, Vivienne Tao, and Ansie Wu for the Australian Journal of Psychology analyzed the connection between positive behavioral traits and sleeping patterns of college students. This study was performed by comparing the results of a survey that was taken by over 350 college students that asked questions about their sleeping patterns and general wellness and comparing it to the behavioral traits and trends of these same 350 college students. Sure enough, the study concluded that students who put a high value on sleep and get adequate amounts of sleep were the same students who displayed the most positive behavioral traits in day-to-day life. Possibly even more interesting, this study showed the highest correlation of positive behavioral traits with the students who were very educated on the importance of sleep and who went out of their way to plan a sleep schedule that provided them with ample sleep. According to the author of this study "University-based health campaigns... should be effective for promoting their intention and practice of healthy sleep" (Lao). This study shows even more clearly why it is so important for Universities to educate their students on the importance of healthy sleeping patterns because it shows that if college students were more aware of the gravity of the effects of sleep deprivation and the positive outcomes that could come from enough sleep, they would be more inclined to change their habits in order to maximize their sleep time. In my opinion, Universities, especially University of South Carolina, should go the extra mile of implementing a 9AM class start time policy along with increasing sleep education. I believe this for multiple reasons, including the fact that South Carolina as a state is one of the top ten most obese states which means that our student body has more obese students than the average University might and it is imperative for USC to combat and try to prevent this problem as much as possible for the sake of the futures of its students. Additionally, as I mentioned above, most college students are swamped all day as it is and would not want to spend another chunk of their reading or watching a video about the importance of sleep (i.e. increasing sleep education would be lost on most of us), why not just use that time sleeping until 9AM anyway?

When considering the importance of adequate sleep for college age students, it is important to be fully aware of the fact that college is different from every other time of life in many different ways. These are simultaneously the first years of our "adult" lives and the last years of our lives as people who are not fully independent in society. The way that college life is set up is vastly different from the way that life at home is set up and also the way that independent adults lead their lives in the real world. One may argue that classes should not be pushed back to 9:00 AM because in the "real world", employers do not push back the start of the day until 9:00 AM just for the convenience and well being of their employees. While this statement is technically true, in my opinion it is an invalid argument against going this extra mile for the well being of college students for two reasons. The first, and most important reason, being that in no way is college life similar to life for the rest of the world. College life is vastly different from life in the outside world in more aspects that I can name. For example, the real world isn't set up in blocked classes throughout the day and into the night, in addition the real world doesn't require extensive amounts of homework every night and a living situation that is unique to the environment itself. In the real world, people are in the thick of life and working but in college, students are constantly scrambling to add things to their resume, make perfect grades, be involved in different things and all the while we are forced to walk at least ten or fifteen minutes to get a sub par meal to live off of and are force to live in loud, cramped dormitories where people are yelling until the crack of dawn. To argue that college students should not be allowed an extra hour of sleep because they are supposed to be getting prepared for the "real world" is simply ridiculous because in no other way does college prepare you for what life will be like in the real world. The second reason that this argument is inadequate is the fact that, like many college campuses, many employers are beginning to place higher emphasis on wellness as well. Employers are beginning to realize what kind of environment, hours, and other recourses need in order to perform their best and are beginning to cater to those needs more than ever. Ahead of the game companies like Google even have napping pods set up on company campuses. For these reasons, Universities should not be able to use the excuse that the real world doesn't wait until 9:00 AM or look out for the people's well being as an excuse to neglect their students and justify and belittle the occurrence of sleep deprivation.

Another argument that could be used against wellness campaigns, especially the aspect of giving students the opportunity to sleep later, is the option to drink coffee in the morning and use artificial substances to wake ourselves up in order to make it to class. People who use this argument are simply uneducated on the topic of sleep and do not realize that caffeine is under no circumstances an adequate substitute for sleep. In an article written by Mary Carskadon for the Brown University online newspaper, Carskadon criticizes a RedBull advertisement that claims that students can simply replace sleep with a RedBull. In one portion of the article, Carskadon refrences the many physical and psychological statistics and facts stating that it is scientifically and statistically proven that college age students are seriously lacking in sleep and that there are repercussion including depression, poor grades, alcohol abuse, and more (Carskadon). Students should not find it okay to substitute adequate sleep with energy drinks because sleep is something that the human body, especially still-developing college age bodies, can't survive without.

At the end of the day, it is clear that college students are struggling with the epidemic of sleep deprivation and the problem is only getting worse and worse. Especially here, at University of South Carolina, where students are walking long distances to class, living off of low quality meals, living in loud, cramped, dirty conditions, and on top of all that having to complete hours of school work and extra curricular activities just to keep up with the regular pace of life, the issue of the importance of sleep needs to be addressed before all of the negative side effects of sleep deprivation plague our entire student body. As mentioned in many of the articles and studies from above, the problems that are faced by students who are lacking in sleep include an extremely broad variety of side effects, including higher potential for obesity, alcohol abuse, depression, anxiety, poor performance academically, and negative behavioral traits. University of South Carolina has the ability to take steps towards a healthier environment for it's students and in my opinion for the reasons stated above, the best first step to take towards a total campus wellness overhaul campaign would be to push back the start of classes to 9:00 AM. Other, extremely prestigious universities have set the president for this change and now it is our turn to take action and join the league of schools that foster environments that benefit their students to the fullest.

