Over the past few days, I’ve become the most unproductive, groggy, exhausted human being. This is no doubt a result of my erratic sleeping patterns. My sleep schedule has consisted of going to bed no earlier than 3 a.m., waking up no later than 2 p.m. and taking obscenely long naps throughout the day when the exhaustion becomes too much to handle.

This isn’t something we students are unfamiliar with — during the school year, it basically becomes the norm. Days chock-full of classes, meetings, job obligations and extracurriculars leave the wee hours of the night as the only time to do homework, party or continue procrastinating. Our to-do lists are so cluttered that sleep is typically the last item on the list. No one disputes the necessity of sleep, but many of us downplay its importance — some of us believe it’s something we can be successful without. Even if you run consistently on four to five hours of sleep and manage to get the grades and have a social life, you’re definitely not as healthy as you could be.

In an April 2013 National Institute of Health newsletter, sleep expert Michael Twery explains that sleep regulates the immune system, growth hormones, appetite, cardiovascular health and blood pressure. Lack of sleep has also been linked to higher risks of heart disease, obesity and depression, according to the newsletter.

The environment at UC Berkeley inevitably leads us to believe that sleep and academic success are mutually exclusive. While I’m clearly no paragon of sleeping — there have been countless occasions when I’ve gotten out of bed in the morning only looking forward to the nap I’d take a few long and miserable hours later — it’s important to re-evaluate the way we sleep in the context of our daily lives and commitments, regardless of how difficult change may be.

The first step to getting a good night’s rest — finding out how much sleep is actually necessary. That amount of sleep actually varies from person to person, and what makes some people feel rested and refreshed may be completely different for others. On average, according to UC Berkeley’s own Tang Center, adults should sleep seven to eight hours per night to feel alert and free of fatigue.

But this fact doesn’t help much — simply knowing how much sleep you need doesn’t mean you’ll get it. So how do you fix your sleep schedule? It means going to bed before 3 a.m. in order to get more hours in. It means establishing a schedule and sticking to it — yes, even on weekends — which is something just as important as the quantity of sleep. Waking up at 8 a.m. one day, snoozing until noon the next and sleeping in all day during the weekend disrupts the body’s natural rhythms and makes you feel awful. By getting quality sleep consistently, you can prevent stress and psychological strain, according to a Clayton Sleep Institute study.

This same sleep quantity and consistency should also be supplemented with regular exercise and maintenance of a well-rounded diet free of stimulants late in the day to maximize the quality of sleep each night.

What happens when we hit the mid-afternoon wall and just can’t function? Well, that’s when our buddy, the nap, comes into play. Napping shouldn’t replace a good night’s sleep, but if done right, it can seriously improve concentration and focus. The Harvard School of Public Health concluded that the likelihood of developing heart disease is 40 percent less in people who nap regularly. The benefits are so potent that UC Davis health professionals have begun to encourage their students to accompany a full night’s sleep with 20- to 30-minute naps to improve productivity and boost academic success. But the key here is to not overdo it — a nap longer than 30 minutes might backfire, making you feel more tired and sluggish than you originally were.

So if you’re sick of constantly feeling fatigued and lethargic, try this experiment: Go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day just for a week and notice how you feel. Our commitments and obligations are hopefully a little less intense now than they are during the school year, so use the next month to gear up for the school year by stocking up on sleep.

Our generation has done a great job of giving sleep less priority than everything else, but its importance is on par with developing healthy eating habits, exercising and maintaining proper hygiene and psychological health — all things we vehemently try to pursue. But without the energy and and restorative benefits of sleep, we’re mistaken in thinking that health and general wellness are attainable.

If we truly want to take control of our health, we have to start prioritizing sleep, even if that means getting a little less done. Our post-college lives aren’t going to get much easier. The next four years aren’t the peak of our responsibilities and commitments, but they may very well be the peak of our youth. We need to establish proper routines and sleep habits now, because our bodies won’t be able to withstand college-style sleep patterns forever. The earlier we start, the healthier we’ll be in the long run.

Shahin Firouzbakht writes a Thursday column on health issues affecting student life.
Contact Shahin Firouzbakht at sfirouzbakht@dailycal.org.

The post You snooze, you gain? appeared first on The Daily Californian.

A friend of mine recently talked to me about an experience he had after smoking marijuana — after getting high enough, he objectively looked at himself in a mirror and saw his face, his body and his total being. Because he wasn’t imposing his own subjective self-perception on his body, it was as if he was seeing himself for the first time from the perspective of a stranger. He then started to worry how that stranger might unfairly judge him on the basis of his appearance with no knowledge of his personality. He said this feeling made him feel strange, almost sad.

I didn’t think anything of it at first. But strip the story down to its core and forget that it was drug-induced, and there is something to gain from it. There are people who struggle with these same thoughts every second of every day and who go to unfortunate lengths to meet societal standards of beauty, body and appearance. And most commonly, they must live with the effects of self-criticism and and debilitating eating disorders.

We meet different kinds of people and have such varied experiences at a fast pace at UC Berkeley that it’s almost inevitable that the way we perceive ourselves comes into question at one point or another during our four years here. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as that self-exploration can lead to inner peace. But when self-criticism becomes so deep that it points us in a completely different and much darker direction, there is a real cause for worry. Intense self-criticism results in negative body image, which stems from a dissatisfaction with physical appearance but sustains the dark emotions that come along with those perceptions.

Left untreated, these feelings can fester and build up to an overwhelming urge to dramatically alter physical appearance. One manifestation of this is eating disorders, which cripple 25 percent of college students who try to control their weight through behaviors similar to bulimia nervosa, according to a Renfrew Center evaluation. Eating disorders aren’t the sole indicators of body image issues — 91 percent of college students have used dieting as a means of weight control. Why have we made it so difficult for people struggling with their body image to reach out and get support for the effects of constant societal and internal pressures?

Appearance has dramatically taken precedence over health, and with that shift comes negative body perception. Body Peace, a UC Berkeley student organization dedicated to promoting positive body image, provides tips to prevent appearance from being the primary motivator for physical change. Become aware of what your body and mind can do every single day. Start thinking about what you can achieve with the time and energy you would have used to spend focusing on self-perceived imperfections. Challenge yourself to think of 10 positive things about yourself that are completely unrelated to your appearance. Then keep adding to the list until you can accept yourself.

If you at least try to strive for wellness, things will fall into place. Dieting or exercising more often, for example, shouldn’t be done with the intention of being able to fit into new shorts or looking less “fat” but rather with the intention of becoming healthier. When we lose sight of what actually matters — our well-being — we start to focus only on the societal factors that try to influence us to change ourselves, and that has disastrous consequences.

Harsh external stimuli in the form of media and pop culture have persuaded us to accept flawed notions of gender, sex and relationships that end up getting projected onto our real lives and enhance negative body image. We need to stifle the influence of TV, movies and advertisements that slowly brainwashes us into accepting stereotypes — that the most attractive women are perfect, thin and of a certain skin tone, or that men need to be muscular to convey dominance. Instead of accepting these unrealistic and one-size-fits-all definitions of beauty and character, we need to develop our own notions of beauty by shutting out external noise and focusing on realistic expectations for ourselves that will actually make us happy.

There’s one overarching solution at the root of positive body image — being comfortable with your body and with yourself. Appearance doesn’t dictate your value and self-worth, and that value is worth finding and cherishing. As long as you’re comfortable with your body regardless of its appearance, you’ll maintain a sense of self-worth and be healthy — mentally, socially and physically — no matter what you do.

The accepting atmosphere here at UC Berkeley is conducive to shattering the barriers that block you from being comfortable with yourself. John Lennon says it best: “We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create.”

Shahin Firouzbakht writes a Thursday column on health issues affecting student life.
Contact Shahin Firouzbakht at sfirouzbakht@dailycal.org.

The post Loving you appeared first on The Daily Californian.

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of masturbation is the classic “American Pie”-esque movie scene in which a high-schooler furiously strokes away, wide-eyed in front of a computer screen, beside a trash can filled to the brim with sticky, crinkled tissues, only to be disturbed mid-ejaculation by his mother — a nightmare situation if I’ve ever seen one.

The idea of self-love has had an incredibly powerful taboo associated with it for far too long. It’s been labeled as shameful “self-abuse” and inappropriate — just a lustful way to release pent-up, well, lust. But our generation has made great strides in breaking down the taboo with masturbation. Ask any teenage guy whether he “wanks it” or “beats the meat,” and you’d be hard-pressed to find a negative response.

You can probably see the direction this is going, and I want to reassure you that I’m not trying to sensationalize masturbation. You might think that this kind of thing only belongs in the Sex on Tuesday column, but there’s a lot more that can be said about masturbation’s effects on our bodies and the social stigma surrounding it.

The UC Berkeley campus, with its strong support for sexual exploration, is contributing to the destigmatization of masturbation and the widespread acceptance of self-love. Whether it’s the person in the penis costume walking around on Upper Sproul Plaza sponsored by the Sexual Health Education Program or a presentation given by Good Vibrations — a Bay Area-based sex toy shop — in one of the residence halls, our campus is encouraging its students to turn cultural taboos into cultural norms.

And because people are beginning to create an actual dialogue around masturbation — separate from the jokes you can hear in any college dorm that seem to never get old — without cringing , we’re actually able to seriously discuss the concrete benefits of the act. Actual scientists, not horny teenagers, are studying the benefits of ejaculation through masturbation. A 2008 Fox News article raved about all the good masturbation could bring. Fox News, of all places. Imagine that.

The most obvious advantage of masturbation is that it’s a natural mood booster. During an orgasm, the largest natural release of dopamine and oxytocin occurs, which relaxes muscles and reduces stress.

An Australian study concluded that the more men ejaculate in their twenties, the less likely they are to develop prostate cancer later in life. Of the men in the study, those who ejaculated more than five times per week were “one-third less likely to develop prostate cancer,” which is the second-highest cause of cancer death among men, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It also increases cortisol levels, which can actually strengthen the immune system when released in proper amounts.

So men who masturbate are in great shape. Fantastic! But what about the women? As much as I’d like to consider our generation to be super progressive and liberal, the idea of “female masturbation” — which unfortunately has to be distinguished from “male” masturbation as a completely separate and less accepted form of sexual pleasure — is still a rock-solid taboo. Women who do masturbate are, as per the social stigma, considered promiscuous and excessively lusty, exhibiting no self-control, while their male counterparts are given a societal pass to fap at will.

But the health benefits for women are just as potent. Along with mood enhancement, female ejaculation has been shown to lower the risk of cervical and urinary tract infections by flushing out harmful bacteria and allowing beneficial bacteria to proliferate.

So why do women still feel guilty after this glorious act? Studies show that by age 20, 95 percent of men reach an orgasm through masturbation, compared to only 60 percent of women. The gender gap is indicative of the societal strain that women take with them into the privacy of their bedrooms, and it’s this societal strain that is depriving them of the opportunity to explore their bodies. There’s no reason to feel guilty after buying that first dildo, vibrator, velvet thrust kit, anal plug or lube shooter. In fact, this natural process should impart excitement, enthusiasm and eagerness.

Regardless of gender, the glory of self-pleasure extends beyond the realm of physical health. In my last column, I wrote about the impact that relationships have on our lives, our minds and our personal health, and this is no different. Regardless of your gender, you know your body better than anyone else, and exploring what you like and the limits of what you can do can drastically improve the nature of your romantic relationship.

Whatever your motivation may be, don’t let any preconceived notion perpetuated by societal ignorance prevent you from exploring your body. The days when masturbation was considered wrong and morally devoid have cum and gone. Today, it’s time to take matters into your own hands.

Shahin Firouzbakht writes a Thursday column on health issues affecting student life.
Contact Shahin Firouzbakht at sfirouzbakht@dailycal.org.

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When my older sister — now a proud Cal alumna — was persuading me to apply and eventually send in my SIR to UC Berkeley two years ago, she constantly gave me the same rundown of all the valuable things I’d learn over the course of my four years. She spoke less about the educational value of Berkeley and emphasized the personal lessons that she thought were important for me to experience. But being a naive high school senior, I didn’t really care about “learning about myself” or “learning about people.” These “life lessons” didn’t interest me at all.

Long story short, I decided on UC Berkeley, though I was still dismissing my need for personal development. I gave no thought to the idea of using relationships as a tool to change or grow as a person, and I underestimated the impact they could have on one’s mind.

Fast forward to move-in day and the first night of college in my Unit 3 lounge. I had just finished a grueling day of “floor hopping” and had become a little more familiar with the faces that I would be seeing every day during the upcoming year. It was now time to settle down in the lounge with the floormates whom I knew absolutely nothing about.

I liked it — everyone was warm and friendly. I swear it must have looked like a picture straight from one of the admissions packets they send to prospective students. This was the honeymoon phase, I suppose.

But the novelty wore off steadily and unsurprisingly. Toward the middle of the year, after being in such close contact with so many new faces in an intimate environment like Berkeley, I grew complacent. I was satisfied with the relationships I had made, yet I had mixed feelings about myself.

I was sure I had a handle on all of my relationships, but I had a nagging feeling I couldn’t figure out who I wanted to be. Through my interactions and relationships, I noticed a growing disparity between the kind of person I thought myself to be and how people actually perceived me. It was debilitating to put so much thought into my interactions with friends and new people that it didn’t seem worth the effort. Socially and mentally, I felt drained and less satisfied with myself. It even impeded my ability to focus on anything else — school, family, fun.

My homesickness flared, bringing with it memories of old friends and the ease of relationships rooted in childhood. So I wrongly forced myself to engage less with those around me for fear of feeling even more sorry for myself, but I found myself feeling worse — almost feeling like I had given up.

Around the same time, I tried to reach out to a resident who stayed in his room for long hours, who had persuaded himself that he wouldn’t succeed in social environments. As the building’s health worker, I did what I was taught — I approached him to provide support and to explain to him the impact of social health on his emotionally stability and physical wellness. I neglected to tell him that his inner growth would depend on it because I hadn’t yet realized that myself. But with or without my help, he eventually reached out and found his fears and reservations to be unwarranted.

I was hypocritically giving the same advice and guidance that I myself ignored, and seeing his improvement, I felt motivated and energized to engage, to continue cultivating relationships and to peel back the layers of my own personality to reach the core of who I actually am and how I fit.

I regret nothing about the past year, because my experiences gave me the opportunity to truly understand what the purpose of college is. And it’s far from my conception of college as a high school senior. It’s not about the grades or compiling a standout resume. It’s about self-discovery — the kind of thing you can only achieve through personal relationships. It’s incredibly important, albeit extremely vague. But that’s the point — everyone is different. Everyone experiences it differently, at different times and for different reasons, so identifying and labeling self-discovery and giving it a definition with clear boundaries is impossible. It’s what you make it. Or rather, it’s what makes you.

So commit to fostering as many great relationships as possible — it’s the fundamental purpose of humans: Everything we do is for and because of each other. Every single relationship you develop, from the fleeting ones to the overwhelmingly powerful ones, can provide you with something valuable — a lesson about yourself. We’re social creatures by nature, so our wellness and our biology truly depend on our social interactions. The self-expression, the psychological support and the euphoria that can only be garnered through strong, positive relationships are crucial for success in life.

Step out of your comfort zone. Even if it means just striking up a conversation with someone you wouldn’t normally talk to or sitting next to someone you don’t know during lecture, you’ll learn something about others and something about yourself. We’re only here for a short period of time, so take advantage of this rare opportunity to explore an amazing city, amazing people and yourself for these short but rewarding four years.

“Shahin Firouzbakht writes a Thursday column on health issues affecting student life.
Contact Shahin Firouzbakht at sfirouzbakht@dailycal.org.”

The post An inner voyage appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Sucharitha Yelimeli/Staff

So it’s that time of year again when we are forced to get back into the Cal groove that basically and unfortunately consists only of repressing the desire for “just five more minutes.”

A lot of us have been away for several weeks; we’ve reunited with old friends at the local Golden Corral (that’s a common tradition, right?), and are now reconnecting with the people we’ve met here. As we start a new semester, the students living in the residence halls are beginning to settle into their social niches —they’re finding a close group of friends as well as clubs and organizations that they’re passionate about.

Unfortunately, the extremely eager attitude of Welcome Week, as expected, has faded some as routines and bonds are established – a new person seen in the lounge might as well be an intruder. So this transition from eager enthusiasm to dim friendliness might seem like a totally normal and reasonable thing, but it kind of sucks.

Because seriously, I’m not an intruder. I just want to be friends.

The explanation is easy: Having a group to fall back on can make us hesitant about putting effort into new relationships, even if we may not notice it. But whether you’re a freshman living in the residence halls or a senior living off campus, it is important to maintain your social health.

Sure, eating right, exercising and getting a flu shot are fantastic things to do, but don’t forget that our ability to thrive and interact in various social settings is a significant part of our overall well-being and happiness.

We’re faced with a time in our lives where we’re thrown into the greatest college town on the planet surrounded by people with whom we have so much in common and so much to learn from. So don’t miss this opportunity to engage, interact and learn. A good thing to keep in mind is that not every friendship has to be that soulmate relationship — everyone you meet might not be your next BFFL.

Regardless, let’s strive to keep engaging with our peers and not miss out on potentially valuable relationships, no matter if it’s just a semester-long study buddy or RSF workout partner.

It’s a new year — let’s resolve to continue making new relationships, new friends; let’s try to approach people we don’t fully know and not let the unknown or the perceived (and usually self-inflicted) “awkwardness” deter us from doing so. And a new year means an influx of spring admits and junior transfers.

Starting college in the middle of the academic year can be difficult; social groups may already have been established, people already seem to know each other. Immediately finding a place to fit in may be tough. Keep in mind that Berkeley is teeming with opportunities! The campus offers a multitude of clubs and organizations. If you’re new to Cal, don’t be afraid to explore and to branch out. If not, then make them feel at home.

And if all else fails, I’ll be at Crossroads every Wednesday for lunch. Let’s be friends.

Shahin Firouzbakht and Naveena Sunkara are members of the Tang Center Health Worker Program.

Contact the opinion desk at opinion@dailycal.org.

The post In new semester, don’t forget to keep branching out appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Whatever you do, do not be an enabler. Let it be known that you want change. Directly encouraging students to engage in safer, more risk-free drinking from a physical health standpoint — pacing yourself, limiting yourself, alternating between alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks — is very “hit-or-miss.” But I do think it’s possible to achieve this from a social standpoint. Think about the naked walk from the fire escape, which you thought was your room, to your actual room the next morning. Think about being forced by the custodial staff to clean up your own puke on all fours while your neighbors are leap-frogging you just to get to the elevator.
These highly profound thoughts and realizations might be difficult to comprehend with a high blood-alcohol content, but then again, if you do decide to drink, you should try to think about these things ahead of time. Odds are if you’re bothering people around you with your drunkenness or impairing their ability to carry out simple activities, you’ve probably had too much to drink. So let me be completely honest with you: When you vomit in my living space, I am very bothered, and I want you to clean up the mess and make the proper adjustments so it doesn’t happen again. So it all goes back to common sense and awareness.

Get to know your living community and your neighbors, and familiarize yourself with rules, laws and repercussions of alcohol-related activities so you can mitigate some negative effects and maybe convince yourself to put down that last shot. More importantly, learn about the on-campus resources that are available to you, like health and wellness coaching and counseling services at the Tang Center.
If at this point you’re saying, “Pft, I can handle my liquor,” then keep it up! But if not, it might be time to re-evaluate your drinking habits. Because if you live in the residence halls, then believe me, you don’t want to be on the receiving end of incessant glares and threats to be reported to an RA. And if you live in off-campus housing, I’m not even sure how far disgruntled roommates or neighbors would go. They probably draw the line at having to long jump over their trashed driveway to get to their Honda Civic. Seriously, some people just aren’t that athletic. Be considerate, please.

Shahnin Firouzbakht is a member of the residence hall health worker program directed by the Tang Center.

Contact the opinion desk at opinion@dailycal.org.

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