Body in Balance: Discovering Sleep, Nutrition, and Exercise

(3 Credits)

What does it mean to have a healthy body, and can we rehack our biology in a rapidly changing world? Who among us has not struggled to balance fatigue, eating well and exercise against competing pressures of work and personal life? This course explores the interconnected science of sleep, nutrition, and exercise, and the tension between fast-paced lives and healthy lifestyles. With the UAE a key player in global food and energy systems, we explore biological and ethical costs of our modern, high-stress life, considering how to break free from these cycles and live healthier lives. Our inquiry into who gets to live a healthy life tracks the UAE's transition from a lifestyle centered on physical labor, traditional whole-food diets, and natural sleep patterns to one characterized by sedentary work, ultra-processed foods, and artificial light, taking us into fieldwork in health clinics, food markets, historic communities, national museums, and UNESCO Heritage sites. Students conduct two caffeine timing experiments, maintain a sleep diary, exercise log, and food journal, carry out an Abu Dhabi food environment audit, and produce a cross-national comparative analysis of health behaviors.