March is known for marking the beginning of spring and St. Patrick's Day. However, Americans also use the month to celebrate National Sleep Awareness Month.
The National Sleep Foundation, or NSF, explicitly marks National Sleep Awareness Week for 2021 during the dates of March 14-20. The NSF celebrates this week with the intention of educating the public on the importance of sleep health.
March 14 marks Daylight Savings Time, which is the practice of moving our clocks ahead an hour. During this week, Americans struggle to adjust to the time change due to losing an hour of their regular schedule.
One aspect of sleep awareness is analyzing how a change of environment can affect our sleep habits. Looking back over the span of a year and comparing everything from March 2020 to now, much of our environment has changed. A global pandemic began and is still going on. Students transitioned to online classes and adults adjusted to working from home.
For many Americans, the change in environment wasn't necessarily a change to a foreign environment. Instead, it was a narrowing of day-to-day scenery. Working from home and taking online classes condenses a need for travel and incredibly increases time spent in one environment.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, there is a word for pandemic related-sleeplessness: "coronasomina." Coronasomina can be triggered by stress due to the pandemic and a disruption of our daily schedules.
Numerous factors could negatively impact the quality of sleep and keep people up at night. Carl Blalock, a freshman studying journalism, provides a student perspective on outside factors affecting rest.
"Anxiety is a big problem when sleeping for me,” Blalock said in an email. “Sometimes the littlest things that happen during the day will keep me up at night, especially in a new situation like college. There have been a few nights when it's a struggle to have a good night's sleep because I would wake up having a panic attack in the middle of the night. That's been lessened now but had not been happening before the pandemic.”
Ainsley Sawyer, a freshman studying biology, agrees outside factors affect her quality of sleep.
"One hundred percent yes, and I think that's the same with everyone,” Sawyer said in a message. “Everything in the world is weird right now, and sometimes it's hard to deal with it. So far, though, the school hasn't kept me up, just other things."
Bad sleeping habits have a domino effect. Poor quality of sleep leads to an irregular sleep schedule. An irregular sleep schedule then leads to an unhealthy lifestyle and poor health overall.
The Cleveland Clinic found in a study inconsistent sleep schedules led to an increased risk of numerous health problems, including obesity and high blood pressure.
Emily Deminico, a freshman studying communication sciences and disorders, reflected on how her sleeping habits have changed over the past year.
"I think my sleeping habits have changed since the start of the pandemic,” Deminico said in a message. “I used to be very organized and had to have a schedule in day-to-day life. I would go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. Now, a year into the pandemic and almost two semesters into my first year of college, my schedule could not be more disorganized. I wake up at the same time every day (between 7:30-8), but I go to bed at different times every night. Some nights I'll go to bed at four if I'm out and some nights, I'll go to bed at 12. It depends on the day."
With school being conducted mainly online, it can be easy for OU students to complete assignments or attend class from the comfort of their beds.
This habit negatively affects academic performance and makes it more of a challenge to sleep at night. Cleveland Clinic recommends removing electronic devices from the bedroom altogether. It is essential to have a distinct separation of workspace and a space for relaxation. For Deminico, finding the distinction has proven to be a challenge.
"With school being online, I usually do my work in my bed,” Deminico said in a message. “This is such a bad habit and I never let myself do this in high school. But now I feel like the only places I can go to do work are my bed and my desk, and I usually choose my bed."
