Physical and Mental Health
Feeling unwell — physically or mentally — can hurt your academic performance by making it hard to go to class, pay attention, study, and get your assignments done. So try to do whatever you can to maintain your well-being — including eating right, staying active, and getting enough sleep — and you’ll be way ahead of the game. Let’s explore strategies for staying healthy and feeling good.
Eat Right
Have you ever come home after a stressful day and gobbled up a pint of ice cream or a giant bag of potato chips — only to realize that you felt just as stressed, and maybe a bit ill, once all the goodies were gone? Guess what: What and how much you eat has a big impact on your health (in the short and long term), your energy level, and even your mood.
That said, always eating healthy isn’t easy in college. If you’re juggling family responsibilities, a job, and coursework, you’re probably on the go from morning until night. Finding time to prepare nutritious meals may seem impossible. And if you live on campus, you may have access to dining halls and food trucks that offer an array of fast foods with high amounts of fat, salt, and sugar.
Let’s consider some ideas for navigating these environments and discuss the consequences of eating too much — or too little.
ACTIVITY: As a homework assignment, ask students to write down the calories, fat, sodium, and sugar in three of the foods they commonly eat. If the numbers are high, ask them to write down three healthier foods they could substitute. If the foods they eat are already healthy, have students write down three other healthy foods they’d be willing to try.
Learn about Healthy Eating. When you make healthy dietary choices, you give your body the sustenance and energy it needs for you to function effectively at school. To learn about healthy eating, visit the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s MyPlate program at www.choosemyplate.gov. An updated version of the food pyramid, MyPlate offers guidelines on issues such as what proportions of the different food groups should be included in every meal and how to eat healthy on a budget. There’s even MyPlate On Campus, which spotlights strategies students can use to adopt a healthy lifestyle.
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In addition to MyPlate, take advantage of other information sources to learn about healthy eating. For instance, read the nutrition facts on foods you buy. On campus, ask dining services for information about the calories, fat, sodium, and sugar in the meal choices. The more information you have, the better choices you can make about which foods to pick and which to skip.
Master Healthy-Eating Tactics. The following strategies may seem obvious, but they deliver a powerful, healthy-eating punch.
Start your day with a light, nutritious breakfast, such as fruit and yogurt, instead of calorie-laden breads and meats. This kind of breakfast energizes you, kick-starts your metabolism, and helps you concentrate.
Keep healthy snacks in handy places, such as your backpack, car, and refrigerator or pantry at home.
Eat more fruits and vegetables. If you change from fewer than three servings a day to more than five servings, you can cut your risk of heart disease by 17 percent!3
Stay away from processed foods and beverages. They have a lot of preservatives, sugar, and fat.
Avoid supersized meals. Instead, take a smaller plate and say “no” when someone offers a larger portion. These easy steps will reduce your calorie intake.4
Carry a water bottle with you, and keep drinking and refilling it. You’ll stay hydrated — essential for feeling well both physically and mentally.
ACTIVITY: Bring a few popular snack foods to class (such as a can of soda, a bag of chips, a bag of candy). Ask the class to compare the nutritional information in these snacks to the recommendations made by MyPlate.
ACTIVITY: Ask students to record everything they eat over the course of one day (or even one week). Often we have no idea what we’re eating. As a class, discuss the results. Were there any surprises?
ACTIVITY: Have each member of the class bring in an easy, healthy recipe to share with the rest of the class. Create a “cookbook” of these recipes.
FURTHER READING: For more information and resources on eating disorders, visit the National Eating Disorders Association’s Web site at Nationaleatingdisorders.org.
Get Help for Eating Disorders. People often use healthy eating strategies as part of a plan to lose weight or maintain a certain weight. Managing your weight can be a good thing if you do so in a balanced, careful way. But if weight loss becomes your main focus in life and you start to engage in dangerous eating behaviors, you risk serious health problems. Severely restricting food intake and having an irrational fear of gaining weight are symptoms of anorexia nervosa. Engaging in binge eating followed by intentional purging (vomiting), obsessively overexercising, and abusing diuretics are symptoms of bulimia nervosa. These disorders can make you seriously ill — and even kill you.5 If you show symptoms of these disorders, or you know someone who does, support is available: seek help now at your campus’s health and counseling centers.
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Stay Active
Get more exercise! We’ve all heard this before, and there’s a good reason why: Exercise helps build muscle strength and improves cardiovascular fitness. It’s also a great way to manage the stress of being a college student.6
Every week, try to get at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise.7 If you have difficulty following an exercise routine or if you hate gyms, build an exercise schedule that works for you. For instance, break the 150 minutes into 30 minutes of exercise, five days a week. Or do a 45-minute workout two days a week and squeeze in several 10- to 15-minute walks to get the additional hour.
You can also take advantage of everyday tasks and events to get more exercise.
If you have a car, park some distance away from class, your job, or the grocery store, and walk to your destination.
Take stairs instead of elevators.
During study breaks, take a walk around the library or do jumping jacks in your room.
Sign up for a fitness class at the recreation center.
Ask a friend to work out with you. Having company can keep you motivated.
Join an intramural sports team.
CONNECT
TO MY CLASSES
Have you set up a sleep schedule that supports your course schedule? For example, do you go to bed earlier the night before your early-morning classes? Write down the ideal sleep schedule for your current classes. Compare this to your current sleep schedule. What’s one change you can make to better align these schedules?
Don’t Skimp on the Z’s
Do you often stay up until 1:00 a.m. playing video games, scrolling through your Facebook news feed, or texting friends? Do you frequently stay up late studying or doing laundry after putting your kids to bed? Getting enough sleep affects our ability to function each day;9 when we’re overtired, dealing with stress is much more difficult. If you usually get less than seven to eight hours of good-quality sleep each night, you’re probably exhausted. To get enough Z’s and feel your best each day, try these strategies.
Avoid late-night cramming. Organize your time so that you can get a full night’s sleep before exams and can finish assignments on time.
Stay away from caffeinated or energy drinks in the late afternoon or evening.
Get enough exercise, particularly earlier in the day.
Don’t nap during the day; napping only makes it harder to fall asleep once you’re in bed for the night.
Establish a regular sleep schedule — then stick with it.
If you have trouble falling asleep, try relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, tensing and releasing muscles throughout your body, or envisioning peaceful scenes.
FOR DISCUSSION: Invite students to share ways they fit exercise into their daily schedules. Have a scribe write the suggestions on the board. Show the class free workout routines from Web sites such as workoutlabs.com.
FURTHER READING: For more on sleep and stress, visit huffingtonpost.com and read Tyler Kingkade’s 2014 article “Sleepy College Students Are Worried about Their Stress Levels.”
FURTHER READING: Read the article “Wired and Tired” in Psychology Today to learn more about how screen time on our computers, phones, and tablets may be affecting our sleep.
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HEALTHY BEHAVIOR IS GOOD FOR YOUR GRADES
spotlight onresearch
Do you get eight hours of good-quality slumber every night? Are you an “early to bed, early to rise” person? Do you have breakfast every day? If your answer to these questions is “no,” then your health — and your academic performance — could be suffering, according to findings from a study of almost two hundred first-year college students. The researchers asked the students about their health-related behaviors during the first semester of college and then obtained their grade point average at the end of the term. When the researchers analyzed the data, they identified several significant relationships between health behaviors and grades. Higher grades were associated with
| Behavior | Impact on GPA |
|---|---|
| Sleeping well during the week and on the weekend | + (positive) |
| Eating breakfast | + (positive) |
| Catching up on sleep during the weekend | – (negative) |
Going to bed earlier and getting up earlier during the week and on the weekend
Regularly eating breakfast
The researchers also discovered that the students who slept more on the weekends than they did during the week had lower grades. This finding suggests that using weekends to catch up on missed sleep is no substitute for being well rested all week long.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Getting enough sleep and eating breakfast every day are linked to better grades in college.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
Question 12.1
1. How are your sleeping and eating habits affecting your academic performance?
Question 12.2
2. What is one change you could make right now to improve your sleeping habits?
Question 12.3
3. What is one change you could make right now to improve your eating habits?
M. T. Trockel, M. D. Barnes, and D. L. Egget, “Health-Related Variables and Academic Performance among First-Year College Students: Implications for Sleep and Other Behaviors,” Journal of American College Health 49 (2000): 125–31.
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Take Care of Your Mental Health
Taking care of your mental health is just as important as nurturing your physical health. If you’re feeling down or worried, just going to class or reading a textbook chapter might seem as impossible as climbing Mount Everest. Depression, anxiety, eating disorders, substance abuse, and other mental-health issues are all too common among college students.10 The good news, however, is that you can get better if you experience these challenges and there are people who can help.
In this section we look at anxiety and depression, two of the most common mental-health problems affecting college students.
Anxiety. If you experience excessive worry, dread, or fear, you may have anxiety. For some people anxiety is a general, all-encompassing sensation. For others it’s more specific; for instance, they might feel anxious in social settings or while taking tests. Anxiety can also express itself as panic attacks, during which your heart starts racing in your chest for no apparent reason, you can’t catch your breath, and you feel as though you’re having a heart attack. If you suffer from anxiety that’s far beyond everyday worry, reach out for help. The counseling center, an adviser, a clergy member, or another person you trust can connect you with the resources you need, on or off campus.
CONNECT
TO MY RESOURCES
Many campuses have mental-health services, such as counseling centers, that can help students manage a wide range of challenges. Even if your school doesn’t have a fully staffed counseling center, it can still refer you to the appropriate health care professionals. Find out what mental-health services are available on campus, and record their contact information.
FOR DISCUSSION: Give a face to anxiety and depression. Describe what either one of these could look like in, for example, a roommate or family member. Reflect on how everyone experiences challenges from time to time and how to know when it may be time to seek outside help.
Depression. Depression is common among college students, particularly since adjusting to college can result in feelings of loneliness, loss of previous friendships, or discomfort in being in a new environment. Left untreated, depression can affect your appetite, causing you to lose or gain weight; keep you awake at night or make it hard to get out of bed in the morning; and leave you feeling listless, with little interest in activities you used to enjoy.
Depression can range from very mild (feeling down a couple of days a month) to severe (feeling suicidal). If you experience symptoms of depression that last for more than two weeks or that make it hard for you to get through the day, or if you have experienced depression in the past and experience its symptoms again — including thoughts of hurting yourself — get help immediately. To manage feelings of depression, reach out to others who can help you: a therapist, clergy, friends, family. You don’t have to go it alone.
FOR DISCUSSION: If appropriate and available, provide fliers from your campus counseling center to each student. Students are often too embarrassed to ask for the information.
WRITING PROMPT: Ask students to write about their assumptions about drugs and alcohol in college. Next, ask students to evaluate these assumptions. Do they seem accurate? What resources can provide facts on this subject? How might these assumptions affect their behavior? How can they be sure to make healthy decisions in this area?
WRITING PROMPT: Have students respond to the following: We’ve all heard a hundred reasons why we shouldn’t abuse drugs and alcohol, but what reasons are important to you? Briefly outline the three most important reasons for you, personally, not to abuse alcohol and drugs. Reflect on these reasons the next time you’re in a situation where things may get out of control.
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Don’t Abuse Alcohol and Drugs
Alcohol and drug abuse are serious health problems on many college campuses. Why do students use drugs and alcohol? Some do so because they think it will help them manage stress. Others think that it’s an expected part of being a college student and that “everyone’s doing it.” (Actually, many college students overestimate the amount of binge drinking that goes on at their school, so the assumption that “everyone’s doing it” is wrong.11)
At worst, abusing alcohol and drugs can lead to addiction and cause health problems (such as liver damage) and death from overdose. At best, it costs you money you could spend on other, more useful things. The healthy choice? Avoid illegal substances altogether; if you choose to use legal substances, adopt an “everything in moderation” mind-set. In addition, follow these rules to protect your physical safety — as well as your reputation.
When you go out with friends, designate a responsible member of the group to stay sober and make sure that everyone gets home safely at the end of the night.
Remember why you’re in college and your goals for the future. You’ll be less likely to let your partying get out of hand.
Don’t post photos online of yourself drinking or taking drugs. Potential employers may find them — and pass you over for a job.
If your use of alcohol or drugs prevents you from attending or doing well in your classes, if you feel that you can’t control it, or if important people in your life express concerns about it, you may have an addiction problem. Seek out confidential help at the counseling center.
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voices of experience: student
STAYING HEALTHY AND
COPING WITH STRESS
| NAME: | Mathew Schneider |
| SCHOOL: | University of Texas at Arlington |
| MAJOR: | Biology |
| CAREER GOAL: | Physician Assistant |
“Exercise has made a world of difference to me this semester.”
In my second year of college, I was struggling to balance my schoolwork, family life, and work. I also felt alone at school — I’m forty-three years old and almost retired from the military, so I felt different from this young crowd I now call my classmates. This was stressful. When I’m stressed, I find it difficult to accomplish things, I feel irritable, and I lose my appetite. Sleep becomes a huge issue for me; at night I’ll just toss and turn and get rings under my eyes from not sleeping.
This semester, I was determined to change my sleep habits. In my Human Physiology class, I learned that sedentary activities, such as just going to class and studying, reduce energy levels and metabolism rates. When I found this out, I developed a goal of living healthier. This is an ongoing battle, but I’ve found that exercise helps me sleep better. It has also built up my energy level and helped me cut back from a pot of coffee a day to two cups (never after 6:00 p.m.). I’ve gone from restless sleep, which gave me no energy for the day, to quality sleep after exercise, which helped me feel fully functional and energized. Exercise has made a world of difference to me this semester.
In order to get control of my stress, it has also helped to get support. My wife has been supportive when I feel stressed out. When my stress is school-related, my classmates, study groups, and student organizations have been the most comforting. I created a support group where I made friends and improved my grades. This tool helps me handle even my hardest and most stressful classes. I’m well known in the biology department as the study-group king, and I’ve found that so many others have been helped by this group as well.
YOUR TURN: To what degree do you identify with Mathew’s experiences with exercise and with getting support for managing stress? For example, what role does exercise play in your life as a college student? Whom do you turn to for moral support when you’re feeling overwhelmed?