Sleep, Eat & Exercise
Course description
A majority of college students fall short of meeting the recommendations for physical activity, nutrition, and sleep (National College Health Assessment, Spring 2018). Sleep, Eat & Exercise gives students permission to spend some time taking care of their bodies, encourages them to set personally relevant and reasonable behavioral goals, and helps them understand how doing so supports their physical health, mental health, academic success, and overall wellbeing.
COURSE THEMES
- Understanding health & wellness
- Making behavior changes
- Time management
- Nutrition
- Physical activity and exercise
- Sleep
What is healthy, anyway? Health information is all around us, but it can be hard to decipher fact from fiction. Students are encouraged to be critical consumers and to view health from a holistic perspective that promotes overall wellbeing.
- Defining the six dimensions of wellbeing
- Understanding internal and external factors affecting health, with emphasis on lifestyle choices
- Encouraging healthy body image and self-compassion
- Identifying credible sources of health information
Behavior change can be challenging. Students not only learn about the change process and strategies for creating effective, long‐lasting change, but also have the opportunity to apply their learning through experiential assignments that build their self‐awareness and self‐efficacy.
- Understanding the Stages of Change
- Assessing personal behaviors and readiness to change
- Effective goal‐setting
- Tips for overcoming common barriers
- Relapse prevention
A commonly cited barrier to getting adequate sleep, eating healthfully, and exercising is perceived lack of time, and many students struggle to manage their time effectively.
- Clarifying values and priorities
- Tips for effective time management
- Understanding procrastination and strategies for addressing it
- Mindfulness
Students learn about the function of key nutrients and how good nutrition fuels our bodies and affects our health.
- Healthy eating patterns and recommendations
- Cultivating a healthy relationship with food
- Mindful eating
- Tips for making healthy food choices
Students are encouraged to move more by trying new things to find activities they enjoy and doing things they already do in more active ways.
- Benefits of physical activity and risks associated with a sedentary lifestyle
- Physical activity recommendations
- Components of physical fitness
- Principles of exercise training
Sleep matters! It’s not indispensable. Students learn about what happens during sleep and its impact on many dimensions of wellness.
- Sleep recommendations
- Factors that affect sleep and strategies for getting good sleep
- Short– and long–term outcomes of poor sleep
- Common signs of a sleep disorder
The main strength was how the topics in this course all tie together and directly affect your life.
The course was a very helpful way for me to get motivated to make some positive changes in my life.
Even though this course is coming to an end, my motivation to continue to live a healthier lifestyle will continue on.
I have a better understanding of the necessity of effective sleep. This is the first semester I did not pull an all–nighter. My improved sleeping pattern allowed me to concentrate better in classes.
I feel like the course provided me with many ways to be overall happier and healthier.
I am more conscious of my body and how to appreciate it based on this course.
Among Fall 2018 enrolled students in Sleep, Eat & Exercise at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities who completed their course evaluation, 98% self‐reported increases in awareness of campus services/resources and others’ perspectives related to course topics. In addition, not only did they report increased confidence in applying the information and skills learned in the course, but also actual changes in their behaviors. The degree of change—somewhat, moderately, or very—slightly differed for each of these items.
