Health Behavior Proposal
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Health Behavior: Sleep Hygiene
Sleep hygiene refers to several activities and behaviors expected to facilitate sleep and
its quantity and quality. Such behaviors include avoiding stimulants such as caffeine in the
evening, keeping a calendar of sleeping time, making the bedroom environment suitable for
sleeping, and reducing stress to enable the body to relax before sleeping. It is important to
note that sleep hygiene is critical in ensuring that people can get the restorative sleep
necessary for the body and the brain to function properly. When these practices are not
followed, people may develop poor quality and quantity of sleep, followed by several adverse
effects such as poor thinking and concentration, mood swings, and the development of
diseases. These effects devastate populations that require strict mental concentration and
endurance, such as college students.
The reasons for poor sleep hygiene are very rampant among college students as a
result of different academic and social demands. Lack of proper sleep is another factor
attributed to late-night studying, social activities, and flexibility in class timetables among
this group. Therefore, a good number of students lack sleep consistently, thus impacting their
performance and health. Research has revealed that about 70% of college students suffer
from sleep deprivation, which, in turn, causes reduced mental performance, mood swings,
and reduced motivation (Bair, 2018). Sleep hygiene in this population is therefore paramount
since lack of proper sleep affects the student’s daily academic productivity and might also
lead to long-term health complications like cardiovascular diseases and mental complications.
Rationalization of Sleep Hygiene as a Factor of Health Behaviour of Concern to College
Students
This paper selects sleep hygiene as the health behavior of interest among college
students because of the short-term and long-term effects of this behavior on health,