Posts filed under 'health'
It’s hard to balance your health with a busy college lifestyle, but if you’ve ever tried to study for a midterm with a cold, you probably know that the value of your health increases as your life gets busier!
My few experiences with being very sick in college prompted posts about what to do if you get sick, as well as what to do if your roommate is sick. But what can you do to be healthier overall?
RNCentral just posted a great article that might help you out there. It’s called 101 Health and Wellness Tips for College Students, and has some really great ideas about how to make healthy eating and exercise part of your daily routine, as well as tips about illness, mental and sexual health, and even some suggestions about staying healthy while you study abroad.
Here are my favorite 5 of their 101 tips (with my annotations!):
1. Make it convenient to eat right. It’s hard to eat right when all you have stashed around for emergency hunger pangs are Doritos and chocolate. I noticed that bringing home extra fruit from the caf or even just buying healthier cereal to snack on made a big difference for me!
2. Walk to class. I personally think this is the easiest way to incorporate exercise into a busy lifestyle-in fact, I noticed that I gained a lot of weight when I started my desk job, and the only difference was that I wasn’t walking to class!
3. Understand that lack of sleep can have a big impact. It took me a while to figure this out, so learn it early! Lack of sleep not only means trouble paying attention in class or accidental naps during study time, it also really affects you emotionally . Lack of sleep can aggravate depression or homesickness, plus it tends to make you irritable–so get the sleep you need!
4. Don’t do anything you’re not comfortable with. RNCentral put this under the “sexual health” category, but really this advice applies to a lot of different college situations. If at any time you find yourself uncomfortable–with a topic being discussed in class, in a situation with a roomie/significant other/teacher/professor, or even just at a party–don’t allow other people’s opinions to pressure you. This is really hard, but also really important!!!
5. Put limits on work hours. Set a schedule for work–and really stick to it–but don’t forget to give your mind a break. I usually worked on homework/studying until 8pm (unless I had midterms and finals) and then finished up for the night. Figure out when your mind is most active, and set your work time within those hours. When you start to wear out, know when to take a break!
Check out RNCentral for the rest of the 101 tips.
photo: Blackberry strawberry cherry owen-wahl fruit by robert owen-wahl
May 15th, 2008
Nothing puts a strain on your relationship with your roommate like a continuous hacking cough disrupting precious hours of sleep time. Here’s what you should do if your roommate gets sick.
What to Do for Your Roommate
Chances are your first response to a sick roommate is more focused on you than on him or her. Let’s face it—its human nature to want to make sure you don’t get sick. I’ll get to that in a minute. Now, if you want to keep having a good year with your roommate (and have an easier time when you get sick later on) try to show a little consideration:
- Ask if You Can Help. You don’t have to do their laundry or anything, but it can really help if you offer to do something little like pick up some Tylenol, drop off a homework assignment, or snag an extra sandwich when you hit the dining hall. Remember, you get what you give.
- Let Your Roomie Rest. Trust me on this—if your roommate doesn’t get all the rest he/she needs, that horrible nose-blowing at 3 a.m. is going to last a lot longer. If your sick roomie is trying to sleep, keep your headphones on, turn the TV off, and meet your friends somewhere else.
What to Do for You (or How to Keep the Sick Away)
- Make Your Requests. Okay, so you’ve been the ideal roommate—bringing sandwiches, keeping the noise down, even buying some more tissues with your own money—now you get to ask your roommate for something in return. Whatever it is that’s driving you nuts—the cough, the lack of hand-over-mouth when sneezing—now you can ask your roommate (CASUALY and KINDLY) to do something about it. Cough drops can work wonders!
- Keep an Eye on Your Hands. Your hands are probably one of the best places to pick up germs. Keep them away from your face—eyes, mouth, and nose especially—to lower your chance of letting those germs in. It’s also really important to wash your hands, with soap, often, and especially before you eat or after you touch anything you share (computer, TV remote, etc).
- Strengthen Your Immune System. There are a lot of ways to keep your immune system strong, like getting lots of rest (no all-nighters right now!) and eating healthy foods (try to cut back on junk food). A lot of people also feel that vitamin C (found in citrus fruits like oranges, or in the vitamin section at the store) can make a big difference. Also, be sure you stay hydrated (and remember that alcohol dehydrates you).
Okay… good luck!
photo: hunter of dreams by filipes
February 7th, 2008
School and work can put a tremendous amount of pressure on you, so it’s no wonder so many college students have a hard time falling asleep. I know that I have always had an especially hard time getting to sleep before a exam or when I have a new, difficult responsibility at work. Luckily, I have found tricks that help me relax enough to fall asleep (that don’t involve counting sheep!).
Get Ready to Relax. If you want to get a good night’s sleep, you have to prepare both your mind and your body. Put on something comfy—nothing too tight or otherwise uncomfortable—and turn your lighting lower. Fluorescent or other white colored lights will hurt your eyes and keep you too alert, so use a lamp that has a warmer colored light (it should be a glowing light, like from colored Christmas lights, not a glaring light). Also, turn off your computer screen and the TV. If you are sensitive to sounds, you might want to have some white noise—I usually turn a fan on before I sleep to help me tune out the sounds of the street outside. Then climb in bed and get comfortable—arrange your pillow, make sure your blanket is warm enough, etc.
All set? Okay, now try one (or all) of these relaxation exercises:
- Tense and Relax. This is a great thing to do if your body feels tense. Starting with your toes, slowly tense every muscle in your body one by one, and hold the tension. Tense your toes, feet, legs, and all the way up your body–every single muscle including all the ones in your face! When your body is completely tensed, start at your toes again and release the muscle tension in every muscle one by one, like a wave moving from your feet to the top of your head. As you relax, try to focus on each muscle, and let it fully sink down against your bed. Breathe deeply as you relax.
- Read a book. Pretty simple, right? Make sure you have low, glowing lighting, and choose a calming book—no thrillers! Focus in on what you’re reading (don’t allow your brain to wander off into worries about test scores and due dates) and when your eyelids start to feel heavy, turn out the lights and let yourself relax into sleep.
- Paint the Room Black. Not literally—this is a relaxation technique for when your mind feels very busy. First, close your eyes and imagine yourself in your bedroom. It should be a room you know very well so you might want to try your room at home if you’re not used to your dorm room. Now start to visualize making the room darker—in your mind, turn off the lights one by one, lower the shades or close the curtains. Your room should look dusky now. Now, imagine slowly painting the room a calming, safe-feeling black. Paint the walls, the floor, the furniture, clocks, photos—everything. Really focus your mind on this and don’t let it wander to anything else. When everything is painted your visualization of the room should just be a pitch black, and your mind should be blank.
If all else fails, I’ve also found that focusing your mind on deep breathing can help you release tension and sink into sleep. For more in depth information, you might want to check out this article on how to fall asleep from How Stuff Works, and Lifehack.org has a good one about power napping to catch up on the Zzzz’s you might miss tossing and turning.
Don’t miss my next post!
Good luck falling asleep, and don’t forget to share your own tips and tricks with other readers by leaving a comment or sending me an email!
Photo by Georgios Wollbrecht
November 8th, 2007
Photo by evah
A few months into college, I got sick. All I wanted was to have my mom bring me toast and juice. Instead, I had a roommate annoyed by my coughing, pretty hard classes, approaching midterms, and a teeny tiny college budget. Sound familiar? Here are a few things you can do to help get back on your feet faster:
Listen to your Body. If you feel tired, take a nap (or at least lay down and rest). If you’re hungry, don’t put off eating. Your body knows what it needs—so listen to it!
Get More Sleep. Chances are, if you’re in college, you aren’t getting enough sleep. That seems to be how it works. If you’re sick, you need to sleep more so your body has time to recover.
Drink Lots of Fluids. Fluids hydrate your body, which helps to keep it healthy. Be sure you are drinking nourishing liquids like chicken soup, and 100% fruit juice, and stay away from dehydrating beverages like alcohols and sodas.
Treat Your Symptoms. If you decide to pick up some medicine, make sure you take something that will treat what you have. Read small print on the back of the box to see what symptoms the medicine treats, and be sure it is safe for you to use. Law student and blogger Brett McKay has some great non-medicinal ways to “Kill a Cold Without Killing Your Budget” and WebMD has some more suggestions about treating a cold.
Know When to See a Professional. If resting and taking good care of yourself doesn’t cure you, you might need to go see a doctor. WebMD recommends you seek professional help if you have a persistent fever or coughing, have trouble keeping food down, have chest pain, have headaches or congestion that won’t go away, have painful swallowing, or find it difficult to breathe.
Wondering what to do if your roommate is sick? Check out this post for help: My Roommate is Sick, Now What?
November 1st, 2007
With midterms and final exams rearing their very ugly heads, you’re probably finding that
study time is increasingly important. Too bad you have a job, clubs, a roommate, friends, family, dorm-room sleep hours (read: 3am bedtime), a cafeteria diet, and a bunch of classes wearing you down. Once you start reading that text book, suddenly a nice nap seems like a much better idea.
Read on to find out how to keep yourself awake, even if you’re studying in the wee hours of the morning:
- Drink a Lot of Water
Remember this from my tips on how to stay awake in class? Well, water is even better for staying up when you’re studying. Dehydration can make you sleepy, so keeping your body hydrated will stave off those symptoms. If you are really sleepy, drink a lot of water to make sure you stay up—if you have to get up to go to the bathroom, it will definitely keep you awake! (Weird, but it works!)
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- Take Breaks
Your brain needs to rest if you want to study hard for a long time AND do well on your test. Schedule out your time so you can take a break—I would study for 45 minutes, break for 15, and so forth. Set the alarm on your cell phone so you don’t forget (or if you’re afraid you’ll fall asleep). Watch a TV show, talk to a friend, read a book, or listen to some music—but nothing school related at all!
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- Exercise
Exercise can be a great way to wake yourself up—take a short walk, dance to some music on your iPod, or head over to the gym for a little while. Taking a shower after a workout can wake you up even more.
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- Don’t Study Somewhere Comfortable
Don’t curl up on the common room couch or lean against some pillows in bed and expect to make it through 50 pages of text—getting comfortable is a sure fire way to sleep through your study time. Go somewhere with good, strong lighting, a non-squishy chair, and a table or desk. Sit up while you study, and change positions now and then.
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- Eat a Snack
Get your blood sugar up by eating a healthy snack (junk food will just give you a burst of energy but then you’ll crash). Apples are a good food to help you keep your blood sugar stable so you can stay awake (a lot of people say they will wake you up better than caffeine!)
Remember, I also shared some ideas to help you stay awake in class, so if you’re really sleepy, you might want to try those, too! Good luck!
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How do you stay awake during study time or worse–all-nighters? Any other study tips you couldn’t do without?
October 29th, 2007
My first quarter of college I didn’t know how to stay awake in class. I took an early morning psychology course with three girls I’d met in the dorms. Just before class, we rolled out of bed, stumbled to the lecture hall class with our eyes barely open, and settled into a row of squishy seats in the lecture hall. Then 3 out of 4 of us would fall asleep—whoever stayed awake would take notes.
Obviously, I did not get an A in that class–I was catching Z’s instead. So, how can YOU stay awake in class?
As a college student, I can almost guarantee that you need more sleep, so you should start there. You probably don’t want to go to bed earlier, but you should. Give yourself an extra hour every night, and see if that helps. You might need more. Even a nap can help!
If you live in the dorms, making the above changes still probably won’t get you to sleep enough. So just in case, here are some things that worked well for me when I wanted to stay awake through a lecture:
Take notes by hand
When you take notes on a laptop, you tend to be much less focused, because typing is much more automatic. You also finish faster and sometimes drift off (or start IMing people). Taking notes by hand is slower, so it makes you focus on keeping up with the lecture.
Eat healthy snacks
Eating a snack—especially carbs and proteins—can help energize you. I liked taking a bag of healthy cereal like Cheerios to my very early or very late classes. I would eat the cereal one piece at a time—the carbs plus the act of making myself take one at a time really helped me stay awake. If you need a burst of energy, try eating fruit like sliced apples or grapes instead of a candy bar. Junk food, obviously, is not a good option.
Drink water
Dehydration can really wipe you out, so bring a water bottle to class with you. Neither soda nor alcohol (which is very dehydrating) is a good substitute for water to keep your body hydrated.
Get interested in the lecture
A lot of your interest in a lecture is effected by your attitude. If you go in thinking it’s going to be boring, you’ll probably be bored. Even if you’re taking a required class, try to get interested in the lecture each day; it will help you stay alert. Try to learn at least three things you didn’t know, and tell someone about them after class. It might sound kind of lame, but it will help you stay awake and learn.
Good luck! And also, remember to check out my tips about how to stay awake & alert while studying (without coffee!).
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September 24th, 2007
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