Campus environment not conducive to sleep

It's happened to all of us. You're trying to catch a few extra Zs after a particularly long night and...RRRR-some obnoxiously loud grounds-keeping implement impedes your attempt to get even a solid five hours of sleep. You pull your pillow over your head to block out the noise, only to find that pillows don't make good sound insulators.

Finally, exasperated, you look at the clock, figuring that if someone is making that much noise outside your window, it must be later than you thought. Upon realizing that it's only 7:30, you climb out of bed and in a last ditch effort to block out the offending racket, you close the window.

You know what I'm talking about.

We've all been there, so I'm sure you've realized by now that in my above anecdote I've addressed two little annoyances of living on campus.

I'm not going to pretend that I'm dealing with a hard-hitting issue here.

It's just that I, like many others, have had my slumber disturbed one too many times on the one day that I don't have to wake up at 8 a.m.

I realize that it is necessary to keep the grounds of the campus looking nice and that the use of leaf blowers, pressure washers and chainsaws is required to do so. However I have to ask, is it necessary to work on the grounds surrounding residence halls when the majority of people are still trying to sleep?

No matter where on campus you live, there's a fair amount of noise at any time of the day. Going to school in the middle of a city, that's to be expected and accepted.

I mean, face it, there's not much anyone can do about the noise of the interstate or the racket of the garbage truck clamoring down the road at 6 a.m. You get used to it, and after a week or so you're able to sleep through it. However, any additional decibels over that and sleep is a near-impossibility.

Now, I said there are two little annoyances of living on campus that I was going to address here.

One is excess noise pollution; the other, if you're good at picking up on subtleties, involves the excessive heat in the dorms during the winter months.

So what does that have to do with noise and trying to sleep? First of all, most people find it difficult to sleep in a room that is 80 degrees.

With the possible exception of possibly some very cold days, heaters in rooms tend to stay off because the heat in the hallways and common areas is enough to keep everything more than warm.

As a result, most residents leave their windows open at night to keep things at a comfortable temperature.

The connection between these two annoyances follows some pretty decent linear logic. With the windows open, any outside noise becomes much more audible and residents must then decide whether excessive noise or excessive heat is the lesser of two evils when it comes to things that keep them awake.

I don't want to use this editorial to point fingers and say that the excess noise pollution is the fault of this department or that the high temperatures in the dorms is the fault of that department.

Fingerpointing only upsets and offends and works contrary to any facilitation of change or adjustment.

That said, I'm simply putting my grievances out there so that the "powers that be" might be aware that there is a problem. I also hope that other students who live on campus and have found either of these things to be sources of undue stress speak out and request that change occur.

For instance, is it possible for noisy, early morning grounds keeping procedures to be relegated to areas of campus where people are already awake, or at the very least not still trying to sleep?

Or, could the heating in the hallways and common areas of residence halls be kept at a lower temperature, say a more energy-efficient 68 or 70 degrees?

Sure it's not a really big deal, and sure it might even be a little petty, but in an environment that is already pretty stressful, it can't hurt to remove a few minor stressors from the lives of students who are already on edge.