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180 units to graduate!at Stanford University means that on average!a student must take 15 units per quarter!
1 hour of class !time per unit means students must be in class for !
15 hours per week. !
division I student athletes devote !over 40 hours to their sport per week1, !leading many to squeeze most of !of their class time into the morning hours!!
An analysis of the !Stanford student athleteʼs utilization!of time between lectures for stress reduction !
Researched and created by Coulton Bunney!Stanford University Class of 2013!
Human Biology!
Thus, one of the only times !in an athleteʼs day to reduce !stress is in between classes!
Commonly observed practices of students at Stanford in
between classes:!
• needless texting!
• talking on cell phone!
• worrying about lecture!
• unnecessarily rushing to next class!
All of these practices lead to stress!!
texting!“is beginning to worry physicians and psychologists, who say it is leading to
anxiety […] falling grades, repetitive stress injury […]” 2!
cell phone use!“Aside from becoming an intrusion and consequently resulting in perceived stress, [Information and Communication Technology, which includes cell phones] use can
itself be a source of stress.” 3!
worrying about lecture!“Academic concerns like school work and grades, with 77 percent and 74 percent
respectively, maintain their positions as the top drivers of student stress” 4!
rushing in between classes!“[Hurry sickness then is] expressed as heart disease, high blood pressure, or
depression of our immune function” 5!
how can this time in between classes be better utilized in order to decrease stress for Stanford student athletes? !
My analysis of current solutions in this field all point !To focusing on the act of walking itself. !
TEMPO FOCUSED SOLUTIONS!
iPod:!Listening to music between classes.!
I. Focus on tempo created by music lifts mood 6!
II. “Music can be a great aid in meditation, helping to prevent mind wandering” 7 !
III. Listening to music while walking increases adherence to practice 8 !
SynchStep iPhone app:!Automagically changes song to match
current tempo of walking!
I. Allows user to keep attention on how fast he/she is walking through auditory feedback!
II. Allows oneʼs pace to have concrete effects on exercise!
Drawback: The stress defeating properties of music depend largely on genre. Fast paced complex music often leads to arousal, the opposite of calm 9 !
MIND BASED SOLUTIONS!
Walking Mediation:!Mindfulness based stress reduction walking with a focus on five points: feeling, breath, world, audition, and
vision 10!
I. Meditative aspect has positive impacts on attention, emotion-regulation, and self-control 10!
II. Mindfulness aids in coping with distress 11!
BreathWalk:!Concentrated breathing patterns
correlated with steps!
I. Supposedly leads to “biologic flexibility” [… which increases] ability to gain resilience and rebound under stressful situa?ons 12
Drawback: Although both of these practices have obvious benefits for stress reduction, few athletes have the time to learn them, and more so there are no triggers to elicit their continued use !
GOAL ORIENTED SOLUTIONS!
Momentum iPhone app:!Focus on your steps in the real world as you climb stairs in order to make it
to the top of virtual monuments!
I. Gives incentive to students to actively want to walk in order to beat game!
II. Makes walking in between classes purposeful!
Pedometer:!Keep track of number of steps taken in
between classes!
I. Allows for tangible data to represent exercise achieved in between lectures!
II. Can be used to achieve pre-determined goals!
Drawback: While both solutions increase motivation to engage in walking, neither actively draws attention to the act itself. Also, stress of achieving goals might counterbalance stress
reductive properties of walking.!
SUMMARY!Tempo focused solutions: !
! !(+) Increases adherence to focused walking, prevents mind!! ! !wandering, and gives concrete feedback on pace!! ! (--) Calming properties too dependent on genre, leading to!! ! !subjective stress reduction from user to user!
Mind based solutions: ! ! !(+) Increases resilience to stress, decreases mind wandering, and!
! ! ! gives users reason to engage in a proven stress reduction method!! ! (--) No good methods to trigger this behavior without strict self-!! ! discipline, and also need initial time to learn practice !
Goal oriented solutions: ! ! !(+) Gives incentive to users to engage in continued practice from both!
! ! ! a data and fun driven perspective!! ! (--) Does not actively require user attention whilst walking, thus failing!! ! !to defeat the stress causing properties such as texting, worrying, etc!
CONCLUSION!
Mind based solutions seems to have the largest efficacy in reducing
stress without external controls, but tempo and goal solutions seem to be
more accessible. If controlled for genre, tempo based solutions would be most effective method for stress
reduction in Stanford athletes.!
CITATIONS!1 hBp://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2011-‐01-‐14-‐ncaa-‐survey_N.htm 2 hBp://www.ny?mes.com/2009/05/26/health/26teen.html 3 Massimini, M., & Peterson, M. (2009). Informa?on and Communica?on Technology:
Affects on U.S. College Students. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on
Cyberspace, 3(1), ar?cle 3. 4 hBp://www.campuscalm.com/did_you_know.html 5 hBp://www.amca.com/ar?cles/ar?cle-‐hurrysickness.html 6 hBp://www.webmd.com/mental-‐health/news/20031022/music-‐improves-‐mood 7 hBp://psychcentral.com/lib/2007/the-‐power-‐of-‐music-‐to-‐reduce-‐stress/ 8 Research:Interven?ons to promote walking: systema?c review David Ogilvie, Charles E Foster, Helen Rothnie, Nick Cavill, Val Hamilton, Claire F Fitzsimons, NaneBe Mutrie , on behalf of the Scofsh Physical Ac?vity Research Collabora?on (SPARColl)BMJ 2007;334:1204 doi:10.1136/bmj.39198.722720.BE (Published 31 May 2007) 9 hBp://www.sixwise.com/newsleBers/05/10/12/new-‐study-‐confirms-‐it-‐music-‐is-‐a-‐must-‐ for-‐your-‐good-‐health-‐-‐and-‐your-‐brain.htm 10 hBp://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-‐science-‐willpower/201009/walking-‐ medita?on-‐the-‐perfect-‐10-‐minute-‐willpower-‐boost 11 Grossman, P., Niemann, L., Schmidt, S., and Walach, H. (2004). "Mindfulness-‐based stress reduc?on and health benefits: A meta-‐analysis", Journal of Psychosoma?c Research 57:35–43
CITATIONS (CONTINUED)!12 hBp://www.kundaliniresearchins?tute.org/breathwalk/wha?sbw/science.html
