Freshman women may have enough to lose sleep over already, but the use of cell phones and laptops before bedtime may be adding to the problem, according to the Running on Fumes campaign being conducted by a group of UA students.
Running on Fumes is a social marketing campaign that encourages freshman women to turn off all electronics before going to sleep.
Katherine Gelineau, campaign member and advertising major, said the campaign is targeted toward freshman women because turning off all electronics before going to sleep is a habit they can start now and carry throughout their college careers.
“Within hours of going to sleep, electronics can limit the amount of melatonin that the body produces,” she said.
Melatonin, a sleep inducing hormone, plays a critical role in falling asleep, Gelineau said.
Lee Lyons, campaign member and public relations major, said she and her fellow campaign members chose to target electronic usage because it is the most personal way to reach female college students.
“There are a lot of things that can reduce sleep deprivation, but stopping the usage of electronics before bedtime is probably the most effective way since we live in a world where our lives revolve around electronics,” Lyons said.
According to an article in the Journal of Adolescent Health, weight gain and deficiencies in the immune and cardiovascular systems are some of the health risks that accompany sleep deprivation.
The campaign members conducted a survey and discovered that most freshman women don’t realize the impact that insufficient sleep can have, said Laura Ying, campaign member and public relations major.
“Creating good sleep habits early in life is really crucial to maintaining a healthy lifestyle,” she said.
According to an article about electronics and sleep disturbance from psychologytoday.com, internet surfing and playing video games will eventually put the brain and the body in a state of stress due to the high levels of visual and cognitive stimulation, which is caused by the unnatural light emitted from those devices.
Since learning about the possible consequences of bad sleeping habits, Ying now puts her phone on the other side of her bedroom before she goes to bed and Lyons puts her phone in her bathroom.
Gelineau said she turns her cell phone off before she goes to bed on the weekends. However, she doesn’t turn her cell phone off during the week because she also uses her phone as an alarm to wake up for class in the morning.
“I’m still trying to figure out a place to put my phone that would also allow me to hear my alarm when it goes off in the morning,” she said.
The Running on Fumes campaign also features a Twitter account, @RunningonFumes, which allows individuals to contact campaign members as well as have access to articles and information about sleep deprivation and how to prevent it.
In addition, campaign members will be putting up posters inside Ridgecrest South, the Tutwiler residence hall and select sorority houses. Each poster will have a different message on it and will feature a QR code that will direct the user to the campaign’s Twitter handle.
The campaign, which kicked off Tuesday, was started as a part of Tom Meade’s Mass Communication 495 class and will run until April 12.
