What is public health? Students in the UGA Health & Wellness class are here to help you find out! They have strategically identified examples in the Athens community that they feel represent public health in action. This blog is dedicated to explaining, understanding, and discussing what their interpretations of public health, as well as their reactions to learning about topics of health and wellness.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Reflection: Sleep


Learning about sleep and what an important role it plays in your health was very interesting to me. I am pretty busy most of the time and have never made sleep a priority. I knew that it probably wasn’t the best decision, but I never knew all of the real effects it had on my body and how detrimental it could be to my health overall. We learned that lack of sleep effects memory retention, cognitive functioning and is associated with serious chronic diseases like obesity and heart disease. I am a nutrition major and so I eat pretty well and exercise regularly, but this is an aspect that I did not even know could be so detrimental to my health. Sleep is a really important public health topic because it literally effects everyone. I think it should be especially promoted and discussed among college students since we are highly likely to be at risk for sleep deprivation. Knowing the seriousness of the consequences of sleep debt and deprivation may cause others to reconsider the way they prioritize sleep. Consequently, it could help in decreasing some of the health issues, both mental and physical, that people suffer from. I would like to learn more about what diseases have the highest correlation with sleep deprivation and look at some of the studies that have been done depicting this. 

Catherine Rueppel

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