As the winter months approach and feelings of loneliness tend to increase, some Calgary university students struggle to find free time between course assignments and heavy workloads.
A 2018 study found that young adults in post-secondary education suffer from high rates of anxiety, depression, stress, difficulties sleeping and compromised cognition.
Arius Carifelle, a third-year University of Calgary student enrolled in environmental science, dedicates 50 hours a week to school alone.
Due to his busy schedule, he doesn’t have the time to work.
“It feels like I always need to be doing something with school,” said Carifelle.
As is the case for many other students, Carifelle’s stress carries over to bedtime, affecting his sleep.
“I’m like, ‘oh I got so many things I need to get done,’” said Carifelle. “So it kind of placed me in the mind of ‘I need to keep working.’”
Lyndon Nickel, a first-year bachelor of English student at Mount Royal University, also struggles to find free time for himself and struggles to socialize with friends because of heavy course loads and his job.
Nickel wants to transfer into psychology next year, so he must maintain a minimum GPA of 3.5. This has led him to spend most of his time on campus, four days a week, taking five courses.
He has also added a part-time job at Kinjo to his schedule, working shifts ranging from 5 to 8 hours.
Nickel says he feels stressed out and has no free time to unwind and take care of himself unless he sacrifices sleep.
“I’ll stay up doing homework till when I should be going to bed, and then I’ll be like ‘well I still need time to wind down,’” said Nickel.
Students are not the only ones suffering from a lack of sleep. A 2014 study found that 71 per cent of students reported getting less than 8 hours of sleep a night due to late nights or early mornings spent on school assignments or paid work.
It’s not just the lack of sleep. Students are also missing out on another essential element of a healthy lifestyle: socializing.
“Social support obtained from social connections results in better physical and mental health, and more prosperous well-being,” argued François Lauzier-Jobin, a social worker and professor, and Félix Guay-Dufour, an organizational psychologist, in a recent opinion piece in University Affairs.
To help students make social connections, universities are increasingly offering community-building activities and encouraging students to join clubs.
Jasmine Bajwa, an Edmonton-based psychologist, offers three tips to help students overcome stress:
- List all your stressors. Ask yourself if you could reduce or modify them in some way.
- Identify what capacity and resources you have and what might be lacking. For example, if you realize you lack study skills, it could direct you to attend a workshop.
- Assess your response to your stressors. Notice your behaviours as well as what might be happening in your body. For example, if you notice a lot of tension in your body, you might want to create a plan to approach it.
Dealing with stress at university is not easy.
Nickel suggests staying on top of your priorities and keeping in mind what matters to you to make the future less chaotic.
“Don’t sacrifice too much to the point that you’re miserable,” said Nickel. “But you’re going to have to sacrifice some things.”