Harvard students being taught the benefits of a good night’s sleep
NEW YORK All Harvard undergraduates are this year taking part in a pioneering course on sleep before they arrive on campus, in a bid to combat the growing culture of pulling caffeine-fuelled all-nighters.
Prof. Charles Czeisler, a sleep expert at Harvard Medical School, designed the course, which he believes is the first of its kind in the United States.
Despite being academically gifted, he found students at the world’s No. 1 university are often clueless when it comes to the very basics about how to look after themselves.
Czeisler was inspired to start the course after giving a talk on the impact sleep deprivation had on learning.
“At the end of it one girl came up to me and said, ‘Why am I only being told this now, in my senior year?’ She said no one had ever told her about the importance of sleep — which surprised me,” he said.
The course, rolled out for the first time this year, explains to students how good sleep habits help academic and athletic performance, as well as improve general well-being.
Prof. Paul Barreira, a Harvard psychiatry professor and executive director of the university’s health services, said it was decided to introduce the course amid growing concerns about the impact of sleep deprivation on learning.
“A few years ago we carried out a study by putting monitors on students’ wrists,” he said. “We found they were seriously sleep deprived during the week, and attempting to catch up at weekends — which wasn’t a good way of behaving.”
The course, which Czeisler said takes around an hour to complete, involves a series of interactive tasks. In one section there is an image of a dorm room, where students click on coffee cups, curtains, trainers and books to be told about the effects of caffeine and light, how athletic performance is impacted by sleep deficiency, and the importance of bedtime routines.
In another section, participants are told how long-term sleep deprivation can increase risks of heart attacks, stroke, depression and cancer.
“We know it won’t change students’ behaviour instantly,” said Czeisler. “But we believe they have a right to know — just as you have a right to know the health effects of choosing to smoke cigarettes.”
The culture of pride in “pulling an all-nighter” still existed, he said, adding that technology and everincreasing pressure on students meant sleep deprivation was a growing problem.
Ensuring you have enough sleep, of a good quality, should be a student’s “secret weapon” to combat stress, exhaustion and anxiety, he said — even to avoid putting on weight, as sleep deprivation puts the brain into starvation mode.