Dear Penn State,

I think it’s time that we start considering canceling classes the day after THON. Last year, students broke a fundraising record by raising almost 17 million For The Kids in the fight against pediatric cancer. This year, it looks like we are on track to breaking another fundraising record for a fourth consecutive year.

Listen, we all know what THON’s mission is. It’s to “provide emotional and financial support, spread awareness, and ensure funding for critical research,” something that we as students do every THON weekend. Without the students, THON wouldn’t be as special as it is.

Students have always done their part to support THON by donating through their fraternities, sororities, THON committees, general/special interest organizations, branch campuses, alumni, dancers, etc. Almost everyone at Penn State has a connection to THON.

According to THON’s website, more than 16,500 students are involved with the largest student-run philanthropy each year, which equates to roughly a third of the student body at University Park. A good amount of those students stand for all 46 hours which is a lot for us as students to endure.

For that reason, it’s critical that we get the day after THON off. We as students just had one of the most grueling weekends of the year mentally and physically where we didn’t sleep for two days and sit down during that time. Now you are asking us to recover from this in less than 24 hours, it’s just so hard to do that despite our young age.

Let’s be realistic, don’t be surprised if a lot of students decide to skip their classes in order to catch up on the work they couldn’t do during the weekend due to commitments or most importantly, to get the necessary rest to recover. It’s been scientifically proven that going 46 hours without sleep can bring health risks.

According to Health.com, it’s recommended that adults 18 to 60 years of age should get at least seven hours of sleep per night. Also, the effects of not sleeping can happen in just 24 hours and can be worse than drinking. Staying awake for 24 hours can cause similar problems with cognitive functioning as having a blood alcohol content of 0.10.

Some of the symptoms that you might feel after not getting any sleep in 24 hours are anxiety, trouble concentrating, impaired judgment, problems with cognition and thinking, and most importantly lower performance at work or school. This is why it’s important to prioritize the mental health of students.

The symptoms will get worse as time goes on. When you get to at least 48 hours, there’s a high chance you might feel depressed and hostile, have memory loss, and struggle to form thoughts and sentences.

You might ask, what’s the best possible solution for these students to recover? The answer is simple, let us students get the necessary rest we need to recover for just one day, and then we can go back to normal. This prevents us from having a low performance at school the next day, and professors don’t have to go through the problem of students complaining about why class can’t get canceled.

Sleep is the key to having good health. According to the Sleep Foundation, sleep allows us to improve our moods and mental function, relieve stress, and restore our immune system. Just one day of rest can help solve a lot of the symptoms that students suffered during these grueling 46 hours.

All we are asking is just for one day. It’s not that much. We did our part at THON and did it for an awesome cause. Not only do we desperately need it, but we also deserve it. I promise you if you give us the day off, it’s going to make a huge difference in our lives as college students.

FTK,

Fernando Martinez