After a restful and relaxing Fall Break, I came back to campus eager to start my week afresh. Though I procrastinated all my homework, I was able to go to bed Sunday night at a reasonable time, and I couldn’t wait to wake up feeling rejuvenated for the second half of the semester. I laid my head on the pillow, anticipating the sweet lull of slumber. Then disaster struck.
My room felt like a cauldron boiling me from the inside out. I got up twice throughout the night to walk around and splash cold water on myself. Despite my efforts, I still felt the sweltering fire of my once comforting sheets. I couldn’t fall asleep until 4 a.m., and even with that, I woke up intermittently throughout the rest of the night. When my alarm rang, instead of feeling ready for the remaining semester, I felt like I had just been through a blazing ringer. Being the first day back, I toughed it out, got up and somehow made it through my three classes.
The next night would be different, I told myself. I made the effort to go to bed early, and I even cracked my window to let in some cool air. I made sure my quilt was far below my shoulders, and I splashed cold water on myself right before going to bed. I figured these precautions on top of my exhaustion from the night before would guarantee a restful night of sleep.
Turns out, I thought wrong. The same thing happened again, and I woke up Tuesday morning feeling like an absolute zombie. Two sleepless nights in a row. I thought I was going to malfunction.
After taking some melatonin, I finally got a good night’s sleep Tuesday night. However, I knew the culprit wasn’t my brain’s lack of sleep-inducing chemicals. Rather, Villanova was in swing mode, otherwise known as the transition between AC and heating. No matter how my roommates and I adjusted our thermostat, our room remained the same scalding temperature. I’m well aware that swing mode is necessary for the university’s HVAC systems, but I think we started making the transition too early.
The weather has been consistently sunny and temperate. I’ve been hot walking to my classes in my long pants and coming back to a warm room has not been helping. I also understand it’s a difficult decision for the university to decide when to go into swing mode, but in all honesty, I’d rather my room be too cold than too hot. You can always layer and adjust the thermostat as needed.
“It’s still consistently around 60 degrees every day, which is too warm not to have AC,” junior Luke Fabietti said.
“With temperatures remaining warm this late in the year, it feels a bit unreasonable that the dorms were switched to heating already,” junior Simon Weber said.
In my opinion, unless I need to wear a coat outside, the heat should not be on. Generally, it seems the heating system at Villanova is quite strong, so it does not feel necessary when it is still somewhat warm outside.
“I have to wake up early for nursing clinicals, but I can barely sleep when it’s hot, which leads to even more exhaustion,” junior Maggie Coia said.
“Even after turning down the thermostat, my room has still been uncomfortably warm this past week,” Weber said.
Like me, other students have been struggling to sleep in the heat. Even with the thermostat turned all the way down, rooms on West Campus and in the Commons remain blistering. If students cannot sleep from the heat, they will perform worse in class and struggle staying awake for everything college demands of us.
The heating system is powerful, and I’m grateful for such warmth during the harsh winter months. However, while the fall weather is still nice, keeping the AC on will leave students happier and better rested.
