Journal Entry #5

Journal Entry #5

Theory of Planned Behavior

There is an issue I have as a college student involving stress. I am sure I am not the only one facing this dilemma, but nevertheless, I think it deserves talking about. A few times each week, and recently every day this week, I have been getting home in the evening, trying to do homework for a few hours, and around 11 pm, will spontaneously become incredibly tired. It does not matter what type of homework I am doing; whether reading assigned texts or typing up an essay on my laptop, if I just lean my head against the wall or the back of the chair I am working on, I will fall asleep within moments. 

One can see where the serious problem lies. Another inconvenience that adds to this issue is that I for some reason have the incapability to wake up any earlier than about an hour before I usually awake on weekdays. So I am finding it hard to figure out – do I do my homework at night, constantly drifting off or do I kid myself into believing that I can wake up early and then freak out when I only have one hour of work time before my first class?

Now I realize that any adults older than me are probably thinking, “Wow, she needs to learn the benefits of a good night’s sleep”. These people are probably thinking, if she got enough sleep in the first place, she would not be constantly having problems falling asleep while doing work.

This is not necessarily true. I do know many benefits of a good night’s sleep. I am aware that with daily adequate sleep, one is more focused and engaged during the day, I know that it promotes a healthy immune system, and that on the long-term, adequate sleep allows you to live longer. Believe me, I do think that a daily good night’s sleep is healthy and a worthwhile idea for everyone to invest their efforts into.

My friends also believe that I should get enough sleep every night. They know that after running on about five hours of sleep each night for a few days in a row, I start to get worn down and a little stir crazy. The worst times are when I have not gotten more than six hours of sleep for quite a long time and then one night I only manage to sleep for about four hours. When everything is a little bit too funny the next evening, my close friends know that I have not been sleeping well. On those nights they do their best to get me to go to bed earlier, but this is definitely not a permanent remedy. The next night, it will be back to the same hassle, stumbling my way through the day after only sleeping from 1:30 – 7 AM.

This situation can be linked to Ajzen’s “Theory of Planned Behavior” (1988). His theory, built off of the “Theory of Reasoned Action” (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975), explores the ways in which people process whether or not to perform certain behaviors. Before coming up with an intention for a certain behavior, a person unconsciously factors in three things: their own attitude towards that behavior, the subjective norms of that behavior (or what others think you should do), and the amount of control you believe you have over a certain behavior.

In my case, I have a positive attitude towards getting a good night’s sleep. I think it is a good idea, and I would love to start having them more often. My friends also believe that getting a good night’s sleep is good for me. I do not act as crazy when I sleep well, and I do not have to take as much time processing what they just said. I, however, do not feel that I have much control over my situation. I cannot control for how much homework I receive from my teachers. After some consideration, I realized that I could probably utilize my time more effectively during the day in order to put more of it towards homework.  That is a nice idea, but in the end, I do not feel that I have the proper time management skills necessary to do homework in the daytime as efficiently as I would like. In consequence, the whole equation suffers; my perceived amount of control is very low, and as a result my positive attitude and others’ positive attitudes are negated. Therefore I try to stay up late doing assignments and constantly lose sleep for it.

Unfortunately, the only time that I do feel completely at ease and am able to get a good night’s sleep more than once a month is over the breaks that occur between semesters, when I am away from all the stress at college. Even if I stay up late at home, I sleep peacefully. Nothing is being held over my head. There usually are not deadlines for anything that I know I will have to work towards the following morning. I think it would be interesting to see if my perspective on this situation changes when I get a job in the “real world” or if I will continue to maintain the belief that a good night’s sleep is an unattainable option for me while not on vacation.