MbShea@PWP@English@UMCP

Abstract:
College students, many times fraught with stress, tend to neglect the importance of regular, holistic self-care. The pre-health environment can be especially cutthroat, and STEM students looking to apply for graduate programs, medical or otherwise, are overwhelmed with maintenance of grades, extracurriculars, and volunteer or leadership experiences. Ironically, many of these people so invested in the health of others sacrifice their own health – which is an especially pressing problem with young people, whose brains are still growing. Brain development and growth continue past adolescent and teen years, into early adulthood, and lack of sleep, neglecting proper exercise, and chronic stress can severely inhibit brain growth. My piece will synthesize two approaches to college student health – regulating sleep habits, and mindfulness practice – both of which are methods I have used personally, and have seen great success with. Using peer-reviewed literature and a “self-help guide” format, I aim to convince my peers that investing time, effort, and willpower in one’s own health is worthy, and will ultimately benefit success and contentedness. Studies from sleep specialists at the University of Michigan School of Medicine, a media culture specialist at Texas A&M, and neuroscientists from a Canadian Neuroimaging lab were used to provide sufficient evidence of the cognitive, emotional, and physical effects of self-care – and lack of it. This guide is meant to be an easy reference for strung-out pre-medical students.

WC = 227

Reader’s Profile: I imagine a reader who posits that they will “live like this” for a couple of years – i.e. being destructive to their body, lacking sleep, etc. – and then will begin better health practices once they are a physician (or PA, or Nurse, etc. etc.)

Reader’s Response: Interesting. This guide is surprisingly well put-together, and I feel a real connection to the author. She’s been through what I have been through, and somehow she still is able to practice self-care! A lot of times I feel pretty miserable, but I still don’t understand how I can manage all of my studying, extracurriculars, and now – being healthy. I think if I try to gradually sleep a bit more – maybe 7 hours for a week, then 8 hours for another week – I could reap the benefits of feeling more clear throughout the day. It was also interesting what she said about caffeine – the research is pretty convincing, and I recognize that having too much caffeine in one day can really hurt my sleep. Maybe she could include extra resources for websites, guided meditation apps, and more so I can really start doing this stuff…

L, ambitious and important! I cam concerned about the range, to fit 7-10 pages, at the end of semester. Email me and visit, to narrow the scope?

Also, need the logos of numbers: size of population; estimates of stressed numbers, by say, anxiety disorders as a proxy for stress?

ABT statement?

In any cases, use of APA citation important for most campus document, to build the case; you might switch to some referral link citation, well curated, for the instructions portion.