As Carleton’s campus looks forward to finals and the end of the academic year, sleep is on everyone’s minds. Trying to juggle an academic career, a social life, work, health and all of the other commitments we have while maintaining a good and regular sleep schedule can be a tall order. Sometimes, it seems like pushing off sleep is the only way to get everything done, and it’s hard to build and maintain new and healthy sleep habits.
The Office of Health Promotion (OHP) is seeking to address this issue with their sleep coaching service. Students are encouraged to keep track of their sleep habits for a week before meeting with a OHP trained “Sleep Coach” who helps them set goals and learn how to maintain one of the most important parts of their health.
During my own appointment, I spoke with Lila Paschall `28, a current sophomore and recently declared psychology major, about her experience as a student sleep coach. For her, the experience has been positive. This is her first year working at the office, but she told me about the benefits she was already starting to see in her own life.
“I definitely think about [sleep] more. I am still human like everyone else, so I am still working on it, but doing this work has definitely made me more aware of the scientific aspects of sleep,” she said.
Paschall also talked about how her experiences as a coach have led to her valuing the relationship that all students have with sleep. Her favorite part has been “getting to connect one-on-one with so many different students about something that we all struggle with — sleep.”
The OHP trains student coaches over the course of several days, instructing them in a wide range of topics from the science of sleep to tips for communicating with peers who are seeking help. At the beginning of each year, new coaches read books and watch videos on sleep psychology, and learn how to create a “sleep sanctuary.” The reading list includes books like “Why We Sleep” by Mathew Walker and “The Sleep Solution” by W. Christopher Winter.
In addition to the science of sleep, the coaches also build interpersonal skills to help them support their fellow students. Anna Teggatz ’26, described some of the social aspects training covers.
“We learn strategies to promote adequate and quality sleep, use open-ended questions to help a student understand their own goals around their health and wellbeing habits, and set goals to support changes in health and wellbeing habits,” she said.
So, what is it that sleep actually affects? According to Teggatz, pretty much everything. “Sleep helps regulate your hormones, mood and metabolism, among many other bodily systems,” explained Teggatz. “There is also a strong relationship between immune system health and sleep, and a good night’s rest helps your body fight off infections and illnesses. Sleep also helps the formation of long-term memories, which is especially relevant to college students and their learning.”
It turns out that muscling through days with little to no sleep just isn’t a good idea. It can be tempting to cut off sleep to study or do homework, but this can actually have the opposite effect than intended. One study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which Anna showed me, found that “lower average nightly sleep early in the academic term predicted lower end-of-term GPA, an effect that held even when controlling for factors known to predict end-of-term GPA.”
It’s not just your grades that suffer, either. Teggatz mentioned that a long-term pattern of sleep deprivation increases risk for long-term health problems, including heart disease, hypertension and diabetes. Sleep is essential, which is why the OHP offers the coaching service as a part of their student health programing.
An individual session of the coaching service can last anywhere from under 20 minutes to over 45, depending on the number of concerns discussed. “During the appointment, the coach and student will discuss what sleep issues they’re struggling with, goals they have for their sleep and create an actionable plan to improve their sleep,” Teggatz said.
That actionable plan can range from anything from scheduling out time better to sleep or smaller steps. When I met with her, Paschall had one suggestion for avoiding screens before bed: “If you print out readings for class beforehand, you are able to do your homework at night without the negative effects of blue light.”
Coaching isn’t just for people who are having severe problems. According to Paschall, it can be a great resource for “anyone who feels like they don’t get enough sleep. You don’t have to be deeply struggling to sign up or even learn more about it. Sleep is so important to everybody, so I think it could benefit almost anyone to come in and evaluate their sleep hygiene and set goals.”
Sleep is an incredibly important part of our lives, especially as students, and the coaches want to share that students don’t have to work through it all alone. When I asked how people can learn more, Teggatz said, “folks can sign up with the google forms that get sent out in campus announcements, or visit the OHP website.”