33: Stress Management and Sleep Hygiene

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Hello, everyone. I am back. You may have noticed that I was away for a few weeks, and that's because of a number of different things that have come up for me both personally and professionally. Also some of these things have affected my time and my stress levels. That's why today I am going to be talking about stress reduction, and sleep hygiene. So I'll give you a little bit of an update on what's been going on with me. Some of you may know, I am pregnant. I am- by the time that you listen to this recording, I'll be 28 weeks pregnant, which is the start of the third trimester. That's technically seven months pregnant. And the past couple of weeks, actually, this month, I've been experiencing more discomfort. I also recently moved homes. That caused- you know that it took a toll on my body because as much as I tried not to do too much, I'm not the type of person that likes to just sit around and rest. I'm not a fan of not being active. I like to move around a lot, and with the move, it was just so easy to to do too much. Whether it was unpacking, organizing, moving boxes, you name it. I actually ended up hurting myself. I hurt my back. I threw out my back, and so I couldn't move for a couple of days. Thankfully, I'm doing much better. I'm still dealing with some hip pain, some pelvic, girdle pain, and just overall kind of pregnancy discomfort. I also have a chronic illness, and it has been flaring up every now and then. Then, in addition to the pregnancy and the move, with summer, and with my son being out of school, I co-developed or put together a social justice curriculum for kids. It's a six week curriculum intended for kids ages four to ten. And of course, there's no point in just putting it together. We need to put it into practice, implement it. So I've been involved in those meetings for the curriculum with nine other moms and and their kids. We've been meeting twice a week. So I've got my full time job with McNair, I've got my social justice curriculum, I've been dealing with the move, and then trying to manage my pregnancy, my physical my mental health, my chronic illness.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

All of that just played a role in my taking a short break from the podcast. And my reason for today, emphasizing stress management and sleep. Before I get started, I want to say that this presentation is actually one that was presented, or that that we offer to our McNair Scholars as part of their summer research program. They have workshops that they get every week, and this is not a workshop that I facilitated. It's actually a workshop that they made mental health peers on campus facilitated. On campus, we have a CAPSC- a Counseling and Psychological Services Center, and they have mental health peers. So they are undergraduates who have been trained with CAPSC professionals to facilitate these types of workshops that will help the student body. This was one of them.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Alright, so stress. First of all, how do we define stress? A lot of us when we think about stress, we think about how we feel it in our bodies, and where we feel stressed. Some some people feel stress on their head. They get tension headaches, migraines. Some people feel it on their back. They start to get back pain, or feel really tense. Some people get it in their tummy. They get stomach aches, and just just overall discomfort. I'm one of those. Some people feel it in different ways, like in their heart, they start to feel their heart racing or heart palpitations. But stress is actually the experience of tension or pressure that's caused by a life event. And stress is not necessarily a good or bad thing. I mean, we tend to associate it as a negative thing, but some stress can be productive and can help us get things done.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Now, what causes stress for college students in particular, or for individuals who are in that age range of college students- 20- 25, or that age range? What might cause stress in college students? Well, there are both, like I mentioned, positive and negative events that can influence your stress levels. Some of the negative events are your schoolwork. If you have a full time or part time job, your work pressures. You may be dealing with some conflict with your relationships, whether that is family relationships, friendships, intimate relationships. There may be conflict there. You may be dealing with some financial problems. That's a huge one right now, especially with the pandemic. A lot of us have been affected financially, and so financial stress is really common right now. Some folks are dealing with personal illness or health issues that are stressing them out. Then of course, there's also family illness and death and the stress and the grief that's involved in dealing with long term illness and death. Those are two very difficult things, and it's completely understandable to feel an incredible amount of stress when something like that happens.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Now, in terms of positive events, what may be stressing you out? Maybe you're starting a new relationship. Again, it doesn't have to be romantic. It could be platonic, but new relationships tend to stress people out. Maybe it's a new job or an internship. A lot of transitions tend to stress us out, even if they're good transitions. Planning a party or a celebration. I don't think a lot of us are planning parties right now. But in general, you know, if you're planning an even- even I get stressed out planning virtual events. We're planning a virtual symposium for our scholars, and there's a little bit of stress with making sure that the technology is okay, and that everything goes smoothly. There's also another positive event that could stress you out are holidays, spending the holidays with family. I mean, that can be both good and bad. But sometimes being with family, even though it's a good thing, can stress us out, or planning for the holidays can stress us out. Also going on vacation, believe it or not, can be a positive stressor. Because even though it's something you're looking forward to, there's still a lot of planning involved and still a change in your environments that can still produce stress.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Now, with regard to the college student population, over 50% of students report that they have more than average or are experiencing a tremendous level of stress, and that they've been dealing with that within the past 12 months. Among the top stressors are academic career as one of them, intimate relationships and family as number two, and then finances as as number three in terms of some of the most common stressors. Also 60% of students worry about having enough money to pay for school, and 50% of students are worried about simply paying their monthly expenses. So as you can tell it's a big part of the population. This information is from the American College Health Association. It'ss part of the National College Health Assessment from 2013. There's also the 60% of students worried about money, 50% of students worried about paying their monthly expenses- that's from the National Student Financial Wellness study in 2015. These are numbers, 2015 and 2013, from a few years ago. Now keep in mind with the pandemic, and everything that has happened in the last year to us, these numbers may have skyrocketed. I'm sure they have at the very least increased. A lot of us are stressed. A lot of us are worried about money, a lot of us are worried about paying our bills. We're worried about our academics, about our families, about our relationships, and so on.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Again, just, to emphasize- I was about to say just to stress this- just to emphasize that stress is not always a bad thing. Stress can help move us into action. It helps us respond and manage challenges. So there's an optimal amount of stress that you want to experience, where it allows you to be active and get things done. Then there's a not so optimal amount of stress where it starts to induce anxiety, panic, anger, violence. You just feel overloaded. That's what we're trying to avoid, and that's where the stress management skills are useful. Stress can be problematic if it's too high, if you have too many demands, if you don't have enough resources to help you manage those or meet those demands. Also if you have high level stressors that are coming too frequently. So why was I feeling stressed? Why did I feel the need to pause my podcast episodes, at least for a couple of weeks? Because everything, it felt like it was coming at me at once. I was like, okay, I'm running summer programs. I've got two summer programs. I've got a full time job. I've got my health. I've got my pregnancy. I've got the move. I've got the summer curriculum, like all of a sudden, I am responsible for so many things. Something's gotta give. That was one of them. So too many stressors, at the same time, that can become problematic. All right.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

If you are experiencing stress, high levels of stress, over time, it's going to affect your memory. It's going to affect your attention. Your thinking capacity is going to suffer. It will also affect your immune system. Your immune system will be less effective, and I can vouch for that. Trust me, midterms and finals are the times that our students are the sickest. That's when, especially in the fall, that's when folks start to get the flu, and cold and it's just not good. Then it's not just getting sick, but also stress will make you more likely to stay sick for a longer period of time. So instead of being sick for a day or two, you may be sick for a week or two. Then it also may mean you may get sick more often. So not just you get sick, it's not just that you stay sick longer, but you may frequently be getting sick.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Alright, so going back to what I mentioned earlier, how do you know you're stressed? I know sometimes it's not that obvious. I've had doctors tell me, oh, you know, your chronic stomach issues are probably stress induced. You should do something about managing your stress and tell them what are you talking about? But I don't feel stressed. I'm not feeling this very obvious tension in my body, but somehow, my body is reacting in a way that istelling me that I'm stressed. But it's not in the most obvious way. So here are some physical and psychological symptoms. The physical symptoms are, it could be headaches, muscle tension, chest pain, fatigue, stomach aches, sleep problems, even a change in your sex drive. Then when it comes to psychological symptoms, it can affect you by having you feel anxious, sad or depressed, irritable or angry. Maybe you're feeling restless. Maybe you're feeling a lack of motivation. You're struggling to concentrate. You can't slow down your thoughts. If any of these rings true for you, and they probably do because trust me, every student I've checked in with since the pandemic got started, has experienced either high levels of anxiety, sadness, or lack of motivation and struggling to concentrate. That means your body is stressed, your body is reacting to- it's a natural reaction to all of the extreme changes that we've been dealing with. Changes in our lifestyle, changes in the way that we work.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Then what do you do to cope with these symptoms that are related to stress, with the physical and psychological symptoms? The first thing is you want to be able to identify them. Because, clearly, in the past, I've been told that I'm stressed, and I've struggled to identify my symptoms. Maybe it's because I tend to be kind of an introverted and just kind of naturally anxious person, so it's hard for me to distinguish between when I'm experiencing normal levels of anxiety and when they're starting to get too high. So first, you want to be able to identify them. And then once you identify that you are stressed and how your body is reacting physically or psychologically to it, identify some coping strategies. There are healthy and unhealthy coping strategies, or less healthy coping strategies. Some of the less healthy ones include being sedentary. Maybe you're just kind of hanging out on the couch, watching TV, playing video games. It's not the worst thing, but it's not the most beneficial way of coping with your stress. Another one that's common- drinking and smoking, doing drugs, retail therapy, shopping too much. Oer eating, binge eating or emotional eating, eating too much, can also be a not so healthy coping mechanism. Just keep an eye out on those and try to limit them if you've noticed that's become a bad habit for you.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Then with regard to more positive coping strategies, one thing- I know that I do this a lot. Hopefully you all have someone you can do this with is talking to a friend or a family member, a therapist, or counselor. Talking to a trusted individual definitely helps. Doing some physical activity. Physical fitness is a natural antidepressant, and going out in nature or doing something active will make you feel better. Even if you don't feel like doing it initially, it will make you feel better. I have to remind myself this because I am not the most active person either, but definitely going on extra walks throughout the week has helped me. For you, it may be taking a bike ride, or I don't know, doing some yoga, or some lifting weights. Whatever it is that gets your body moving, will help. There's also other soothing activities you can try out, like drinking tea, taking a bath, reading, listening to some music. Whatever is soothing for you- listening to a podcast- try to incorporate those. Stretching, yoga, meditation- meditation is actually becoming bigger in terms of- I keep hearing more and more of my students are trying out meditation and are noticing that it's helping them with their stress levels. Then of course, you can also turn to spirituality if that's something that works for you. You know, having faith can be helpful. Having something to turn to, having a daily practice. Whether it's prayer, or a gratitude practice, something that allows you to be in tune with your spirituality, that can also be helpful. Those are some things to try out.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Here are some more coping tools to manage your stress. Make sure you incorporate breaks in your daily schedule. Take breaks when you start to feel overwhelmed. Get your body moving. Do something soothing. Try a relaxation technique. Talk to a friend, family member, therapist, etc. Make sure you also make time to eat. I know this sounds silly, but sometimes when we get really stressed, we may forget to eat. And then reboot your sleep routine. Take a look at- what does your sleep routine look like right now? Are you getting enough sleep? If not, what can you do to make sure you get enough sleep?

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Now let's transition to talking about sleep. Believe it or not, most of us require seven to nine hours of sleep at night, and I know that a lot of college students don't get enough sleep. They're not getting seven to nine hours. In fact, it looks like 60% of the population is not getting enough sleep. When you don't get enough sleep, that too affects your immune system. And if you're sleep deprived, that can be really unhealthy because it can mimic the effects of alcohol on your body and on your performance. That's not just your day to day performance, but it can affect your academics. For first year students, poor sleep can predict dropping out of courses. Unfortunately, it can have a severe impact on your academics. So you got to be mindful of your sleep.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

How do you do that? Well, I recommend that you set a sleep schedule, and that you try to adjust or modify your environment, your bedroom, so that you're ready to sleep. What can you do to kind of tell your body that it's time to sleep? Whether that's having some sort of aromatherapy spray that you know that you spray on your pillow, or having some sort of routine. Whatever it is that you can do to make your bedroom ready for sleep, that will help. Having a routine of slowing down- just like you have a morning routine, you want to have a bedtime routine. Turn off your electronics. I know this is hard, because a lot of us are on our phones all day and all night. But that's been proven. I know I refuse to have a TV in our bedroom. It's been a topic of discussion multiple times between my husband and I, because of course, he would love to have a TV. So our compromise is that when he really wants to watch something in bed, he's allowed to bring out the projector. It's on a case by case basis, and it's not regularly. It's on special nights, movie nights. But in general, I don't allow the TV in my room and I try to limit the amount of time on my phone when I'm getting ready for bed. Another thing to do is to cut off your caffeine. If you drink coffee, like I do sometimes, you want to make sure that you stop drinking it at a reasonable hour so that it doesn't affect your nighttime routine, and it doesn't affect your ability to stay asleep or go to sleep.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

You can try taking naps. I guess it depends on the individual. For some people naps are great. For other people, naps can interrupt their sleep and for other people like me, they can't nap. I've tried to nap and it just doesn't work for me. I don't go to sleep. The few times I have napped, I've napped for too long and then woken up groggy. So try it out, see if it works for you. Try to resist or limit your all nighters- all night study sessions, all night working sessions. It's just not healthy, even if it means going to sleep early and waking up early. That's what I used to do as an undergrad. I wasn't very good at doing the all nighters, and I noticed that my work wasn't very good anyway. I would write something and then the next day, I'd read it and it just was terrible. What I would do instead is I'd go to bed really early and wake up really early. So go to bed at nine or ten, and I'd wake up at 4am to finish whatever it is that I needed to finish. So try to limit the resist all nighters. Try to limit your alcohol, also similar to caffeine, you want to limit that before bedtime.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

All right, what else can you do to help you with your sleep and help you with your stress? One thing is to just- I know it sounds simple, but write things down. Sometimes at night, that's when I start to have racing thoughts and all the things that are stressing me out start to come to my mind and I start to think about all these things that I'm worried about that I think I'm gonna forget for the next day. So if you write things down, if you make a list, if you set your goals for the next day or for the week, it can help lessen your anxiety and your stress. It can help you with reducing the mind clutter, everything that's going on in your mind, because that tends to kind of affect you the most at night when you're trying to sleep. The other thing, just to remind you is to please try to stop glorifying busyness. You don't have to be working all the time. You don't have to be busy all the time. You want to make sure you set healthy boundaries in terms of what you are able to do. As someone with a chronic illness, as someone who has suffered from mental health issues, I am very considerate of my time, and I know what my body is and isn't capable of. I tend to, when I schedule things, I try not to over commit myself. I try to schedule breaks. I try to what's the word? Overestimate how long something's going to take, because that's the worst feeling when I run out of time and realize that I still need to finish a project. So figure that out. Try not to feel guilty for being less, seemingly less busy than your peers.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Now I also want to remind you that it's okay if you're feeling more stressed than usual at this time. With COVID-19, we've been experiencing so many changes, so many transitions. I mean, things aren't going back to what we considered normal. This is our new normal. There's still a lot of uncertainty, and that can cause stress. There's still a lot of isolation, which also influences and affects your stress. So kind of be compassionate with yourself. It's going to take time for you to figure out how to manage your stress, and you're going to constantly have to modify what you're doing and keep figuring out how to manage your stress as the stressors change, as your environment and circumstances change.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Those are the things that I wanted to focus on today, mostly just helping you identify what stress means for you, how it impacts your own physical and psychological health, and what tools, what strategies you can implement every day to manage your stress, which includes kind of figuring out your sleep routine, how much you sleep, and how to improve your sleep. I hope that you're able to implement some of these things, and that it helps you out. If you're like me, and you're dealing with a lot of changes, a lot of transitions, just a lot of things coming your way, it's understandable to feel stressed. You just gotta take things one step at a time, one day at a time, one hour at a time, sometimes even one moment, one breath at a time. All right, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me and hopefully I will see you next week, or talk to you next week. I am contemplating switching to doing episodes on a biweekly basis, just to give me a little bit more of a breathing room. I still have a lot going on with figuring out my maternity leave and just other things that are coming up, the start of another school year, etc. But I'm thinking about it. I may have another episode next week, but if not, you'll definitely have another episode two weeks from now. So if all else fails, I'll be in touch in two weeks. Have a good day.