Burbank House Outreach Presentation

An Outreach Project by Jessica Guenther & Alexander Chen | Return To Outreach Projects 2010

For our outreach project we chose to teach our fellow friends and dormmates from Burbank house about sleep. We covered topics we felt were interesting as well as important to college students such as sleep basics (i.e. sleep types, sleep cycle, sleep onset...), sleep disorders, sleep debt, drowsy driving and sleep hygiene.

Jessica Guenther and Alexander Chen present at Stanford's Burbank house

We feel we were very effective in delivering our message, as the students seemed engaged and interested in what we had to say. We used several videos to help explain certain topics, such as a video depicting a narcoleptic dog, which the students found surprising and entertaining. We believe these videos and our presentation helped increase the student's awareness of the importance of sleep as well as of certain sleep disorders. For example, many people seemed surprised by the notion of sleep debt, as well as by how easy it is to collect a huge debt.

Jessica Guenther and Alexander Chen present at Stanford's Burbank house

We explained to them that each person needs a certain amount of sleep per night, and that if they get one hour less than they needed per night for a week, they would have to sleep seven extra hours to make it up. This had a big impact on the students, who, like most Stanford students, wonder why they feel tired most of the time!

Jessica Guenther and Alexander Chen present at Stanford's Burbank house

We also believe the students will take drowsiness more seriously in the future now that they realize it can be even more dangerous than being drunk, especially when driving! Surprisingly, the students asked questions mainly pertaining to the concept of sleep debt (surprising because it is such a simple concept!). Many students had either heard myths conflicting this, or found it hard to believe that they really need to sleep extra to pay off their sleep debt, and not just get "enough" sleep the next night.

Jessica Guenther and Alexander Chen present at Stanford's Burbank house

Our only regret is that we didn't realize that the projector we planned to use could only connect to a PC. The two of us had Macs so we had to borrow someone else's. This person did not have Microsoft Powerpoint unfortunately, so the presentation we showed on Open Office was not as effective as it could be since it did not contain all the cool backgrounds we had planned to show. We are extremely excited we were able to send our outreach project to Kevin so certain parts of it (what you see here) could be put on this new website!



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About This Site

Welcome! This site is continuously being created by students of Dr. William C. Dement's Sleep And Dreams course at Stanford University.

We made this site as a call to action for people all over the world to live healthier, happier, safer, and more productive lives by learning about their own sleep. We have faith that reading the information provided on this site will motivate you to be smart about your sleep deprivation and strategic about your alertness in order to live life to your fullest, most energetic potential.

In fact, we challenge you to do so! What do you say, are you up for the challenge?

The Stanford Sleep Book

Stanford Sleep Book Picture

Dr. Dement's pioneering textbook has been the core text for Sleep and Dreams since 1980, but it has just recently been made available to the wider public for the first time.

In it you'll find a more detailed account of the most important things you need to know about sleep, alertness, dreams, and sleep disorders. Studies, statistics, plus plenty of Dr. Dement's classic anecdotes painting the history of sleep medicine.

Preface | Intro | Contents | Get A Copy

More Sleep Resources

The Zeo

A revolution in personal sleep tracking, the Zeo is a wireless headband that transmits your brainwaves in realtime to a dock (pictured here) or your smartphone. The result? You can wake up and see exactly what stages of sleep you were in during the night! Unprecedented personalized sleep knowledge.

Sleep Paralysis: A Dreamer's Guide

Sleep Paralysis Treatment Book

Ever woken up paralyzed? A surprising number of us have, believe it or not. But few know the actual causes of this phenomenon, and fewer still how to exert control over it. Dream researcher and sleep paralysis expert Ryan Hurd shares breakthrough insights into how to do just that.

Important Disclaimer

Please Note:

The information found on this page and throughout this site is intended for general information purposes only. While it may prove useful and empowering, it is NOT intended as a substitute for the expertise and judgments of healthcare practitioners.

For more info, see our
Terms of Use.