The complainers are only considering an imaginary ideal alternative, not realistic trade offs.
I stayed in a room without a window for a week a few years ago. I wouldn't recommend it.
if the trade off is that I can't afford alternative housing I'm finding housing in a turn that I need to commute from. I went to ucsb and knew a few people who commuted from Ventura which is 45min away and much cheaper than Santa Barbara.
And, incidentally, I don’t need to accept the challenge to block my windows. I already have blackout curtains that I never open because the only time I’m in my bedroom is when I'm asleep or it’s too bright/hot to open. And I can’t use the natural light to wake up since where I live sunrise varies from about 4:00 to 6:30am, which doesn't work with my schedule at all. I've considered buying an automatic curtain opener to make use of the light as an alarm, but haven't gotten around to it, so for now the curtains just stay closed.
Also, I sleep with blackout curtains too! It's a much different experience than waking up in a pitch black room.
Small slivers of light make it through the edges of the curtains and that makes a HUGE difference in my own experience. Even in the winter when it's dark in the morning is a different experience than the pure pitch black. I know what I'm describing sounds silly and ridiculous but it's hard to explain how unsettling it is to wake up in a room like that.
Consider I had to wake up before sunrise and got out of classes after sunset, there wasn't much sun to deal with in my dorm.
I feel pretty strongly that data would back up my anecdotal experience though... not willing to take the time to look it up though so i'll stay out of the conversation from now on.
Isn't California trying to switch to permanent DST? In Santa Barbara that will move winter sunrise to as late as a little past 8 AM. That's going to limit how effectively a lot of people can use natural light to help wake.
In the winter I wake up before sunrise; however, there is still small slivers of ambient light out there(from the moon) that makes it through my blackout curtains which makes a world of difference.
Again, all anecdotal evidence but I'm inclined to join the rabble on this building given my personal experience.
??? I spent a fairly significant amount of time in my room studying, sleeping, and doing schoolwork when I was in college. I only went out for recreation, meals, and classes. I would argue that I spent the majority of time in my bedroom at college, including sleeping.