I did 8 years at university, including 2 years living on campus, and can clearly recall the stress and pressure that went with university life. It was and still is very common for students to stay up very late to finish work or cram for exams – it is almost expected.
One time at uni I worked in the office all night – after I had been working all day – to finish a report due the next day. I worked until 2am then went to sleep on the office floor, to be woken by the cleaner at 4am. It was something I laughed about with friends, and it was even seen as tough and committed.
Looking back at this period of my life I realised that:
- The average University life has a negative impact on one’s body;
- The majority of students finish their degree stressed, exhausted and needing a break, a long holiday away, and often dreading thought of working full time;
- There’s no true vitality, strength, aliveness, alertness and an eagerness to join the workforce at the completion of a degree because of the drag it has been to get through uni – let alone the last few years of high school where students are also exhausted.
Personally it was a very rude shock to feel how much harder it was working after the life at university. You have to arrive on time, do a full day and not leave until the end of the day… and you have to do this 5 days a week. This is so unlike university where many people sleep in if they feel like it or leave when they are bored or tired, never having a schedule that is five full days. These days you can even watch your lecture online whilst you stay in bed… or not watch it at all but log on as if you have. This is so far removed from how work life is.
A CALL FOR CHANGE TO SUPPORT STUDENTS AND UNI LIFE
How can we support uni students to live in a way that leaves them energised, vital, fit, strong, healthy and ready for work? How can universities support students to already have nurturing and supportive rhythms in place rather than the self-destructive pattern of late nights, lots of coffee and high caffeine over-sugared ‘energy’ drinks… and at weekends parties with plenty of alcohol and drugs to look forward to, all to try and relax to escape the mundane week?
When I was lecturing at university a student sent me an email after having trouble submitting an assignment online: “I don’t trust technology so just to be safe I’m emailing you my assignment because my computer might give up after the all-nighter to finish this”. This was sent at about 2am. I had a flashback to myself on the office floor.
My response was something along the lines of: “Thank you for being conscientious about this and forwarding me another copy. I’m also aware that technology and computers aren’t the only things that don’t function well or that can give up after an all-nighter. Working throughout the night like this has a great impact on the body. I don’t encourage any student to ever work like this, with such pressure, as it has long-term consequences on your health, and for me your health is more important than one assignment. I would have preferred that you asked for an extension and did it in a way where you can take care of and look after yourself first, then maybe discuss with someone how you can improve your time management to not find yourself in such a situation again.”
Maybe if more lecturers can begin to speak like this, things will start to change.
But unfortunately at present, many of the university lecturers are the students of 10, 20 or 30 years ago who were living the same destructive lifestyles then and are still living them now, relying on plenty of caffeine and sugar to get their now exhausted, stressed or run-down bodies through their day. It’s still common for work to be run right up until the deadline, requiring teams of people to pull many ‘late nighters’ or even ‘all nighters’ to get a report or project completed.
OFFERING ANOTHER WAY
Working on a large group project with many academics early in my career I was challenged for not staying up late to complete something due in only a few days. The other academics were working until 11pm and midnight because we were all doing this work outside of our normal full-time jobs.
I shared with the team that I prefer to stop work by 7 or 8pm, to have time to let go of the day and prepare for a deeply restful and nurturing sleep by 9pm. I then wake up extra early to work on the project in the morning before my normal work day, as I’m more alert at this time of day than at 10pm at night.
Post this conversation I observed small changes in my colleagues, such as no activity on the documents or emails past 9 or 10pm. Though I say ‘small changes’, this level of self-care is monumental in supporting health and vitality long term, which then supports clarity and purpose.
If I had not spoken up about my caring rhythm my colleagues would have not experienced another way.
Towards the end of the project when one academic said they were going to have to pull an all-nighter to get their section done, another academic responded to the effect that the university was not paying for our health and that we should take care of ourselves first. I smiled joyfully when I heard this.
I have been inspired by Universal Medicine to live in such a self-caring way with my body, and to feel the impact of this. So bit-by-bit, maybe university life / work life and the stress, pressure and exhaustion that currently go hand in hand with this, may also change. This can start with just one person, who by choosing differently may inspire many.
By Dr Danielle Pirera BBiomedSci, BExSci (Hons), PhD (ExPhys)
Further Reading:
Developing self-care as part of health and well-being at work
Self-Care, Self-Love and Nurturing in University
987 Comments
Students are burnt out before they even start work, surely taking care of ourselves from day one is paramount with illness and disease escalating as it is, ”There’s no true vitality, strength, aliveness, alertness and an eagerness to join the workforce at the completion of a degree because of the drag it has been to get through uni – let alone the last few years of high school where students are also exhausted.’
Yes, I have heard this from students who have just finished Uni; and we wonder why we lack true health and well-being, ‘The majority of students finish their degree stressed, exhausted and needing a break, a long holiday away, and often dreading thought of working full time’.
A lecturer that cares more about you than the work being submitted – now this is rare. I remember during uni all that mattered was work first, and everything else second, including your own health and well-being – how does this set us up for a successful and amazing life?
Finding a true way of working that does not put stress on the body is something to be shared with others.
Great article, however the tone of your email to the student was actually quite belittling. Rather than sympathizing, you instead came from a position of authority and told the student, in not so many words, that “you know best.”Time management is very different from academic expectations, and just like yourself lying on the floor at 2am, that student did what they felt was correct. The expectations from students are increasing exponentially, but the minutes in the day are not. Although you meant well, that student deserves a follow up apology for the assumptions you made. What if a parent was ill, had died, etc – would you still have told them to manage their time better? You, as a lecturer, should take responsibility for the fact that they thought they needed to work until 2am rather than asking you for an extension.
Even if you meant well, the flash back is indicative that you were not talking to the student in that email but rather yourself. Perhaps writing that email was some type of closure for you. Either way, having been through that experience yourself, pointing the finger could have been replaced with sympathy. That student was asking for your help, not your judgement.
The systems do not take the person/student into consideration at all, their work load, expectations from the university, the parents and from the students themselves is enormous so it is no surprise that by the end of the training students are a complete write off. What also doesn’t help is the lack of nurturing of the body, eating not great food and partying hard so ‘burning the candle at both ends’ is a huge factor. Is it really working?
Danielle the wisdom you share from your experiences of life as a university student is much needed in our world today and would be a huge support if it were made available to all school leaver, who were contemplating enrolling in a university course.
University can definitely set us up for life in a detrimental way if we don’t approach it in a way that cares for ourselves. I remember when I finished uni I just crashed for around 4 weeks I was so tired, it was like an endurance test to the end. Imagine if at the start the university taught the basics of self care and how to properly manage all the pressures on you – perhaps more people would leave uni round, complete, whole, caring people – instead of coming out reshaped and exhausted.
I do think it’s important that we make our universities places where people are supported to learn and grow in harmony with their whole being and body and not negate that in any way. That to me would be coming back to true intelligence.
Yes, that makes great sense, and I guess we can bring it back even further to the education system and how we educate children from their early years.
Perhaps university can be used as a good excuse for avoiding being a part of the working world, and perhaps this is so because of what is on offer in the working world most of the time.
Great reflection Danielle, even if one person gets the reflection you are offering and starts to see care, this, they then reflect out to others and so on and so on the reflection and response continues.
Yes, by reflecting a different way of living, this may impulse another to live a similar way.
I have recently witnessed from closely what the final exam year at high school and finishing a university study does to young people’s bodies. The extend of their exhaustion was big and both of them put passing above their own health and well-being. We do something basically wrong that we don’t teach this to our children: your body comes always first.
University is needed to gain certain skills but it is not an institution that prepares us for life.
Staying up late to get work done is deceptive as we are not truly productive at that time; but we love the heroics and being able to boast about our exploits afterwards. Early mornings are somehow not newsworthy but boy, o boy, you can get a lot done at that time of day.
Interestingly I have seen people come from Uni and work in our business and want to go back – reminiscing about the ‘amazing days’ at uni simply because the responsibility and commitment is less. So there is such worth and value in supporting people from uni to work – and helping them to see that they can live responsibly at any point
Enter the power of reflection backed by our expression of the truth we know and feel. When our systems and ‘common’ practices fall short in supporting us to live and work in a way that honour our health and well-being, the way we live and speak up offers a great opportunity for other to feel that there is another way, that without imposition invites them to try for themselves. The power of reflection is the way we can offer true change, from the ‘grass roots’, through all our relationships
The all nighter pattern is one I know well. I can now see that whatever I produced in my all night study sessions was a product of drive and individuality that essentially got me nowhere and took a huge toll on my body. I catch myself using this drive energy often, even in the middle of the day and it’s just as damaging. When I am aware of the flow of life and work with purpose, not drive the quality of what I produce is completely different … the process is enjoyable and there are no pictures or outcomes about how what I’ve done needs to be or look.
Yes there is no one to blame about the way university is at the moment as we are all adding our piece to the situation, yet this also gives us a way forward to make change as when we are in the system and when we change it can be felt and seen.
‘The average University life has a negative impact on one’s body.’ When we send our kids off to university the focus is always on grades, achievement, temporal success but honestly how many of us educate our kids on the disregard they will encounter possibly in themselves or in others – the late nights many choose to get through, the booze, the sex, the drugs and how much pressure there is to conform and what happens when you choose not to? University is always presented as something to strive for and to achieve, but as we don’t educate on living quality at the end of the day what are we really achieving?
I just completed a Cert IV in a way I put my body and connection first before my results and outcomes. The work was simpler, it flowed, I had amazing support, I stayed focus and no time was wasted trying to memorize the work – my body holds more awareness and therefore more intelligence than the recall of knowledge I put into my mind.
A few years ago the UK government stated that it wanted 50% of young people to go to uni without looking at the purpose of this education and whether it was equipping young people for their future working lives. It feels like uni is a self created bubble that breeds many harmful habits and it is no wonder that so many struggle to find work and adjust to it after they graduate. Truly we need to look at what we are imposing on generations here and call for a radical re-evaluation.
Universities need more reflections like you Danielle showing that it is possible to function within a broken system and still take care of yourself.
In some ways it is surprising that University is so stressful. Actual teaching is only six months of the year in two three-months chunks and people can afford to wait until the last moment to finish reports and assignments. Yet it is clearly very stressful for many.
Me too, ‘I have been inspired by Universal Medicine to live in such a self-caring way with my body, and to feel the impact of this’, it feels very gorgeous to be so loving with ourselves.
Many young people end up after 3 years at university with a degree in self-abuse. They cram their heads with sufficient knowledge to be able to recall it to pass an exam but ignore the lessons being offered by their body as to the effect this is having. As a student of Universal Medicine you are offered a 1st class degree in living in a way that is harmonious for you and everyone else.
I have found university life quite bearable as an external student. The key point for me was to start working on things when they became available. Only once or twice did time then become tight but not overtly so.
It is also what we carry in our bodies of how we learnt, struggled with or not and how we felt about our experiences in school in our younger years that if left unchecked or not addressed is what we then bring with us into further studies as adults.
This article really raises some pretty big and fundamental questions about what is the actual purpose of a university education? And if this was to be truly examined, then would the whole culture of university life need to be addressed?
Danielle, it seems to be accepted that at university students put completing assignments above their health and well being. I am at present completing a college course, with a lot of coursework to finish before the deadline, and I have been appreciating how I have been staying in my natural rhythm of going to bed early and waking up early and that staying up late feels so awful nowadays that it is not an option for me. I have also noticed that I am not allowing myself to get stressed or overwhelmed and that I feel that I would rather finish the course feeling well and not having handed everything in, rather than being exhausted and having completed everything.
Now this is how university can be truly caring and ensuring that at no stage do we put our bodies under pressure and strain with poor care to get an assignment. We are so much more than that and we can learn to be in both university and work so that we are us, full and vital and not beaten down by our assignments or should I say choosing to live in a way which leads to this for this is the wider view how we live to support us and our bodies to do what is needed.
Taking care to listen when my body is tired has been key to restoring consistent vitality and well-being. No amount of financial recompense or recognition is a substitute or pay-off for our health.
That is true and this simple recipe can get us through most of life’s situations, including university study.
A great point you highlight here Danielle to listen to how our body works best, going to bed early to wake up refreshed to fit in extra work that needs to be completed feels part of a far more nurturing rhythm than disregarding and pushing the body through long nights when it is telling us it needs to rest and regenerate.
Yes and actually we all know and feel it when our body tells us it wants to rest and go to bed, but we override it with stimulants such as coffee and sugar. We are not connected enough to our body and live during the day in drive and push to be surprised that we end up with so many people with sleeping problems.