From school, work, and college applications to sports and activities, IHA students certainly have busy lives. But is the constant activity actually hurting us rather than shortening our to-do list? In an interview with CNN Health, Dr. Matthew Sleeth explains that the mindset of 24/7 most people are living in now, is the reason our days feel too short to accomplish everything we want to. How many times have you heard someone in the hall say, “I didn’t have time to finish my homework” or “I got no sleep, I was up all night finishing my essay.” This hectic lifestyle can lead to depression, exhaustion, and anxiety, some of which we are familiar with at IHA. In his book, “24/6: A Prescription for a Happier, Healthier Life,” Dr. Sleeth explains why a “stop day” can solve most of these problems.
Not too long
ago, life stopped on Sundays. Stores were closed and families had quiet days
together; 30 years ago, “stop days” were common. Now, life continues regardless of the day, and
Dr. Sleeth believes this is the root of our problems. In Bergen County, stores selling
non-essential items are closed, but everywhere else around us stores remain
open. Each year there is a debate over the blue laws, and every year people
vote to keep the malls closed on Sunday, but how long will this last and,
really, how effective are the blue laws? Supermarkets are still open, the
internet has made working from home over the weekend very easy, and students
have universally declared that Sunday is homework day. If Sunday is no longer
our “stop day,” what have we replaced it with? 
We have replaced
it with a 24/7 mindset, and a nation that has the highest rate of depression
and highest number of work hours, according to the World Health Organization. We
can think about it in terms of an IHA student. Monday through Friday we go to
school, do our homework, and go to practice. Saturday, we go to practice,
games, or rehearsal and then squeeze in time for friends. Sunday we do homework
after sleeping late. This is a vicious cycle that needs to be broken by a “stop
day.” This cycle, releases short-term and long-term hormones, meant to meet the
stresses of everyday life. These hormones constantly keep us in the “fight or
flight” mode and the continuous release of chemicals leads to depression and
anxiety. It’s as if you were given a
large amount of adrenaline, which once it wears off leaves you completely
exhausted. This is what we are doing to ourselves every day and the only way to
stop it is to take a break. A real break, not the hour we take to watch our
favorite show or the unavoidable nap we take once a week after school.
Dr. Sleeth
believes that by taking a “stop day,” or stopping work for a day, we can reduce
the amount of stress in everyday life and find that we really do have enough
time to finish everything we need to. Snow days will then no longer seem like a
God send and we can actually enjoy our breaks rather than just sleeping them
away. Do you think a “stop day” is realistic for an IHA student? How effective
do you think a “stop day” would be in terms of reducing stress and anxiety? Are
there other ways to reduce stress and anxiety in our life, or is the answer
really as simple as a taking a break?
To me, Sunday is a kind of "stop day". I sleep in and relax, doing things that I do not have much time to do during the week like go on a hike with my sister and dog or drive around and look at Christmas decorations.
ReplyDeleteHowever, this year has been so busy that I often must do tons of homework etc on Sundays. This loss of a stop day makes life monotonous, it seems that there is no break between one week and the next. So, I think it is possible for a stop day sometimes, but when you get really busy it is not possible. I think that a stop day is very important for stress relief and to avoid depression.
I think that every IHA girl not only needs, but deserves, a “stop day.” However, it is seemingly impossible to take one day to relax when teachers cram as much work as possible into our hectic schedules. Throughout Bergen County, countless people joke that IHA actually stands for “I Hardly Attend.” However, even when we aren’t in school, we still get assigned loads of homework. Even our days off are filled with assignments galore. While surprise snow days and random days off may act as somewhat of a “stop day” to sleep and relax, we go back to school behind on work, and the stress cycle continues. Therefore, the concept in this article is highly idealistic and not very realistic. Instead, we should adapt the idea of a “stop day” by devoting a certain period of time to simply stop and relax; if only for a couple minutes. For me, driving is my time version of “stop time.” I leave my phone in the backseat, blast music, roll the windows down, and simply enjoy time alone driving. I link this daily activity to relaxation because the society we live in does not allow us to stop for an extended period of time. However, while the demands of society are incredibly high, so are the demands for stress management. Therefore, I would encourage IHA girls to adopt the concept of “stop time” in order to improve health and reduce stress.
ReplyDeleteI do think its important for everyone to take a whole day to sleep, relax and enjoy a stress-free day. But, as an IHA girl it can be tough to spend an entire day not working at all. This "stop day" could work but whenever I try to spend an entire Sunday recouping I feel idle and like I am procrastinating. I think the stress of school follows us no matter what and if it isn't school stress its an another form of pressure from a coach, parent, or boss. The best advice I can give would be to finish as much work as possible, so there is nothing to worry about on that Sunday before school.
ReplyDeleteI do support relaxation and taking as much time as possible on the weekend or snow days to just sit around and "chill". This way your body can recoup and prepare for the busy week ahead. Maybe not an entire day is plausible, but at least a certain amount of time to watch TV, read a book or take a nap can really help us all stay healthy and calm.
For most of us at IHA "stop" probably isn't in our vocabulary. We are accustomed to taking advantage of every free moment; having spare time in your schedule is a bad time -- there's something you could and should be doing instead. As Jackie said, if we spend any moment idle, it automatically feels like procrastinating. Also, the pressure to have the most impressive college application is a constant presence from freshman year onward. Ultimately, most of us end up spreading ourselves too thin if we are not focused on a few goals we could really excel at. While a "stop day" might be the ideal solution, I don't think it would necessarily work for everyone (especially type-A personalities that some of us are). Instead, I think scheduling shorter "stop periods" throughout the day may work better for others; it combines the necessary rest with the super-organizational tendencies of some. That in between work, school, sports, and spending time with friends, scheduling a manicure or an hour to watch your favorite TV show will help you recoup and put your mind to rest. Even when I'm stressed, I'll take an hour to relax and watch TV or browse the internet, or even plan out the rest of my day. While the last activity may not seem like "stopping," for me it is, because it is a mindless activity that also helps me be productive later. As ideally it would be to have a "stop day" on Sundays, to focus on family, relaxation, and our faith, life cannot always be the ideal--but scheduling "stop periods" can be the best way for some to break the cycle of constant work and reduce anxiety.
ReplyDeleteI think the concept of having a "stop day" hits home with every IHA girl. Who can say they haven't taken a day off of school for mental health? We rejoice in our snow days and holidays but these are not regular occurrences. So we take these days off but end up behind for missing a day's worth of classes. Our busy 24/7 lives are vicious cycles with no end.
ReplyDeleteIn our hectic lifestyles, it is near impossible to dedicate one day out of every week to just relax and recoup, and like Jackie said, when we actually do make time for it, we end up feeling like we are wasting our time being unproductive. Like others have said, we need to give ourselves some time to just do nothing at least once a day. For me, when I get home from school, I always give myself an hour to either watch TV or read a book with no school work or interruptions whatsoever. This gives me a mental break before I have to get back into busy mode with a billion things to do before tomorrow. I definitely feel that this helps keep me sane in the midst of our busy bee world. So, it doesn't have to be a day, but I think we should all dedicate some bit of our time to doing nothing.
I feel that as much as we need a “stop day” it is almost impossible to attain. When we finally get a second to catch our breath, a new work load is piled on. For example, yesterday when we got to leave early, most people would think of it as a day to go back to sleep and watch some movies. But guess again, it was just enough time to catch up on homework and rush to get to work on time. Whenever we are given “a break” we need to use it to accomplish something else. I usually give myself Saturdays off from school but in place of that goes activities, family things and friends. Then Sunday comes and its catch up day to get all the homework, projects and studying done by Monday. There is never really a break. As Olivia said, the week gets pretty monotonous. I think that if we had a stop day to just relax and catch up with ourselves our stress and anxiety would definitely go down. But in the life of an IHA girl, I find it very unrealistic. We use our free time as an opportunity to do something else and add another thing to our agendas. While this is ambitious, I think we need to learn to incorporate a break into our schedules. I know whenever I have a break I feel like there is something that I should be doing and I feel like I’m just putting it off. From the comments above, I realize I am not the only one. Even during our breaks we have thousands of thoughts going through our head and we aren't really relaxing. What we really need is to learn is how to take a break and relax.
ReplyDeleteIn this day and age, it has become practically impossible to take an entire "stop day." Monday through Friday we're busy with homework, work, clubs, or sports. Friday and/or Saturday are friend days and Sundays are homework days. The issue then becomes, what is there that you can do without? Do less homework or spend less time on it? Then how will you get into college? Don't work? Then how will you make money to pay for gas or for clothes, etc.? Don't participate in clubs or sports? Then how will you stay involved and make your mark? Don't hang out with friends? Everything seems to be connected and perhaps the question should be not what we should take out of our schedules, but where we can add free time for ourselves to just take a break. Even when we are supposedly "taking a break," we're on Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, our phones, etc. When was the last time you took a break that involved stepping away from the TV or computer? Personally, I try to use the time to squeeze in runs where I can to release stress and to clear my head. Does spending your "break" on Facebook really make you feel more relaxed? In order to really have effective stop time, everyone needs to find out what relaxes them the best so that they can become the most relaxed that they can be in the shortest amount of time possible - fast and effective relaxation. That way, we can save our precious time, but still not go into overdrive. It really isn't practical to have an entire stop day, but stop time is definitely manageable. It is a common IHA saying that there is really no such thing as having a break. There's always work to do over breaks and as soon as we get back "it feels like we never left." That vicious cycle is known to push us to the max and needs to be broken.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree that a "stop" day, or at least a "stop" hour, is necessary in order to function - especially as an IHA girl. When we're going 24/7 all the time, eventually we'll burn out, and will be unable to function anymore - resulting in mental breakdowns and "health" days. If we all took one day out of the week to ourselves, I think we would all be more productive during the school week.
ReplyDeleteEven a solid hour each day of a mental break can reduce so much stress. When I give myself time to watch TV or just take a nap, I feel much less anxiety when crunch time hits for deadlines.
While the idea of a "stop day" sounds fantastic, I do not think that it is always a possibility for the average IHA girl. Yes it is true that we all need a break sometimes because it is not healthy to work non stop and be stressed out constantly. However, with the continuous amount of work we are responsible for, I feel as if taking a "stop day" sometimes has unintended effects of adding to stress. While you are relaxing, new work is being added. Also, it is hard to truly make the most of a stop day when there are so many things that need to be accomplished and there are so many things going through your head. The only way to get the full effect of a stop day would be to completely forget about all tasks at hand but can that truly ever happen? And is a "stop day" really worth it when the next day you have to make up for the lost time? I think that it is important to keep up with all obligations and to take necessary breaks but I do not think that either of these aspects should take up an entire day. It is important to keep a balance between work and rest each day. Therefore, an ideal Saturday would be doing homework in the morning into the afternoon and then hanging out with friends or family for the remainder of the day. This way your conscience is satisfied due to the work you accomplished and your body/mind receive the needed down time. Splitting your day up between relaxing and working is the perfect way to manage your time.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone else in acknowledging the lack of opportunity for a "stop" day, but I disagree with the idea that a "mental health" day taken off from IHA is beneficial. Sure I get to sleep in, and catch up on homework, but then I spend the rest of the week trying to make up all the work that I missed. And even day when I have absolutely nothing to do, I still have anxiety that I'm forgetting something monumentally important and I feel uncomfortable when I have nothing to do. I definitely think that a stop day would be advantageous in relieving stress if I allowed it to, but it would take a lot of practice just sitting still with nothing relevant to do. So what I've been trying to do since senior year started is maybe not take a whole day to just relax but a few hours. I catch up on TV shows, I go to the gym, I read a book. But then soon after that I am back to my busy schedule. It helps me avoid anxiety attacks but it may work more efficiently if the time periods were longer. I'll try it!
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that having a “stop day” would be great, I think it is almost impossible to have one. Even if I decide that I am going to take time off to lie around and watch T.V. without doing any homework, I find myself still thinking about everything that I have do and all the school work that I have to finish. Usually, after I finish a lot of homework or a big essay or project, I try to be lazy and do nothing in order to get a break. I agree with Julia that taking days off from IHA only makes things worse, so I usually try to wait until there is a break in my schoolwork before having a “stop day”, although this rarely happens. If we could have true “stop days”, I think they would be very beneficial.
ReplyDeleteI definitely feel that a "stop day" would be extremely effective in terms of reducing stress and anxiety and can help with overall relaxation and sustaining a positive outlook on life. Recently, I experienced a "stop day" myself, and I found it to be very beneficial. After IHA dismissed the students early this Monday, I spent the rest of the day relaxing at home. Because I didn't have any homework that I needed to complete, I spent the whole day watching movies, surfing the internet, and catching up on much needed sleep. After experiencing my "stop day", I felt a lot more happy and less stressed overall. I definitely feel that allotting time for a "stop day" each week just to take a break is enough to diminish the stress and anxiety in our lives.
ReplyDeleteWhile I definitely like the idea of a "stop day", I find that it would be difficult to implement a "stop day" each and every week of our lives due to the hectic schedule IHA girls usually face. Although it would be difficult, I do not think that it is impossible. I think that if we all spent some time organizing and changing around our schedules, such as getting our homework done Friday or Saturday afternoon instead of cramming it all in on Sunday or taking advantage of that Saturday without any sports games or play practices to just relax, experiencing a weekly "stop day" could be quite possible.
After reading everyone's comments I've realized the idea of a "stop day" definitely isn't for everyone, especially the ideal IHA girl; however, I think the concept actually works pretty well for me. I always devote Saturdays to "me" day, when I don't even look at my planner or check the IHA assignment page. I simply just do the things I enjoy doing without stressing myself out about the upcoming school week or about the work I have to make up last week. As a procrastinator I really have no problem with waiting until Sunday to take my backpack out of my trunk, but it really depends on your personality. I have some friends who have panic attacks when they have to spend all of Sunday doing homework, and they actually can't even properly function on Saturday because they're so bogged down by their to-do lists. To me, the amount of school work I do on Sunday is worth my time because I really do need a "stop day" on Saturdays, even if it means doing an extra twenty minutes of homework each weekday just so I can sleep in and enjoy myself on Saturday morning.
ReplyDeleteI believe a stop date would be very beneficial to everyone because it will give more time to relax and think about what you need to do for the upcoming week. Family time or personal time is alway important in order to work on yourself. Most of the time on Sunday's I relax and finish up homework and spend time with my family. Sunday should be a rest day to go to church and catch up on sleep before Monday comes along. Like Christina I am a huge procrastinator and wait until Sunday to do my homework. I try not to pack my day that day and use it as a "stop day" and do homework instead. Stressing is a huge issue with young kids weather it is with work, college or senior year as a whole. Sunday would be a nice to not do work and stores should close that day.
ReplyDeleteWhether it be a "stop day" or a "stop period" incorporated in our schedules, there is no doubt that everyone, especially at IHA, needs to take some sort of break. The fact that we refer to our lives as a busy "cycle" shows just how non-stop it really is. The work, stress, and pressure is constant. Even when we do have a break we dread the piles of work that await us when the break is over. As everyone has said, incorporating smaller breaks into our schedules throughout the week, rather than the slightly unrealistic whole day, can be very beneficial to our overall health. To avoid Monday through Friday being a stress cycle of its own, we should try to do things during the week that will get our minds off of our schoolwork and responsibilities. Our constantly busy lifestyles are counter-productive because we tire ourselves out and have less motivation to do our work well. I have always struggled to find the balance between work and relaxation time, but I have recently discovered how much better I feel when I take time out of my day to go for a walk, flip through a magazine, or anything else that takes my mind off of stress. It is so important that we slow down our schedules in order to be a happier and more productive society.
ReplyDeleteI agree that a "stop day" would be beneficial because it is unhealthy to work all day without time to relax. Our lives have become so busy and hectic that it seems impossible to find any time for myself. As much as I would love a break day, I don't think it is entirely realistic. Many times when I have a lot of things to do and I have to go to a family party all or someplace where I can not work, all I can think about is the homework that I have to do. I don't like to have things hanging over my head and I would rather get them done before and then take a break after. The concept of a break day is very helpful but I think often times it can lead to more stress. I think that it is very important to stop and take a break because as the article said it can lead to depression and many other serious diseases. As much as I would love a stop day once a week, it just does not seem realistic. I think that each individual person should leave at least an hour everyday to relax based on their schedule and what works best for them.
ReplyDeletePersonally, as much as we all desperately need a "stop day", I don't think it will ever happen. Hypothetically speaking, if IHA spontaneously decided to give us off one day in the near future and teachers gave us no homework, how many of us would actually do nothing that day? I think relaxing has a negative connotation to it in society today which causes us to become overwhelmingly active in our community. We think having something to do everyday is a good thing, even though it can be harmful.
ReplyDeleteI know I spread myself too thin. Late at night my mom will come into my room and beg me to go to sleep so I don't look like a walking zombie in the morning, but I know that if I go to sleep and do bad on a test or don't finish my homework I would be even more stressed the next day.
As many mentioned, I think the idea of a small amount of time set aside to rewind rather than a full day would be more realistic.