Last week I attended a Rose Cafe about a topic that is probably one of the largest issues that college students face, especially at Cornell. One fact that we were told during the Rose Cafe discussion was that college students should be getting 9 hours of sleep every night. I don’t think I know a single one of my friends that gets that much sleep every night, clearly demonstrating how much of an issue this is. One of the techniques that we learned to help deal with stress was making meditation part of our normal routine. I took two meditation classes during my freshmen year as my PE classes, and although at first I would be frustrated that this class took time out of my day, by the end of every class I was incredibly relaxed and glad that I went. I think it is incredibly helpful to meditate and it definitely helps in dealing with stress, but it is sometimes hard for me to justify taking 30 minutes out of my day to meditate when I could be finishing an assignment. We were also taught about having a pre-study routine which I thought was an interesting idea. If you can get into a habit of doing something right before you study, you will sub-consciously be in the mindset to study.

Last week’s Rose Cafe was incredibly relevant given that finals week is coming up and there is going to be an incredible amount of stress that every student faces on campus. Given the struggles that college students face regarding both stress and sleep, I am really glad that I went to the Rose Cafe last week to learn how to manage it.