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With many activities, even unlikely ones such as colonoscopies, it appears that ending procedures are important and affect evaluation of the entire experience. This has been dubbed the "happy end" effect. Training specialists, while acknowledging the importance of endings (e.g., seminar closures, class conclusions, and workshop completions), often place greater emphasis on openers, icebreakers, and starters. A sample of trade publications in the training and development field, as well as professional publications was reviewed. It was found that such resources had significantly higher numbers of articles/exercises and pages devoted to beginning activities than to closings. A number of suggestions are offered on how closing activities could be better incorporated into training and development programs to improve them.

University students report significantly worse sleep quality than the general population. Sleep problems are related to increased health concerns, irritability, depression, fatigue, and attention and concentration difficulties, along with poor academic performance. Clinical research indicates that psychoeducational interventions are among the most effective methods for improving sleep quality in the general population. Similar studies for university students are lacking. In this study, the authors describe the development of the Sleep Treatment and Education Program for Students (STEPS) and evaluate its effectiveness with a double blind, experimental design. Students in the treatment group reported significantly improved sleep quality and sleep hygiene behaviors at 6 weeks posttreatment.

The negative effects of sleep difficulties have been well documented. However, the prevalence of such problems among US college students has not been well studied. Design difficulties are common in the limited number of existing investigations, making it difficult to estimates the prevalence and types of disturbance studied. The authors describe the use of a quantitative-based assessment instrument to provide an initial indication of students' sleep problems and to serve as a means of addressing some of the deficiencies in the literature. In their sample of 191 undergraduates at a rural southern university, they found that most of the students exhibited some form of sleep disturbance and that women, in general, reported more sleep disturbances than men did. They suggest how colleges and university officials can alter procedures to minimize students' sleep disturbances and reduce the deleterious effects of sleep problems on academic performance.