Not Enough Sleep

So it’s 1:15 am, and I am wired. But this is early! The night has only begun.

I find myself going to sleep at 2:30 in the morning on a regular basis. Do I want to? No, but every night the clock seems to run a little faster after midnight, and sure enough I lay in bed and find myself starring at the same numbers. I have a feeling that I’m not the only one.

School environment encourages these late nights. Living in a resident hall for the first year set the tone for insomnia. Dorm rooms suck so you want to spend as much time out of the room as possible. Lights were on 24/7 in the halls making it as deceitful as casinos hiding time with no clocks in sight.

We are catered until 12 am for take-out, which I use just about every night. We live in close proximity to an unlimited amount of kids the same age as us with the same exact mentality: procrastinate work as much as possible and when you can’t procrastinate any longer, stay up late talking with friends and pretend to not be checking Facebook routinely. 

There are a million reasons why college kids find themselves with less sleep than desired. Jobs, school work, clubs, organizations, sports, and everything in between contribute to the madness.

No matter the reason, students report on experiencing sleeping difficulties more often than any other age group. This is an unhealthy trend that has very negative side effects.

This sleep deprivation damages the ability to learn new material, remember learned material, and function at the highest possible level. Check out this article all about sleep and what it means to get enough of it.

How should we avoid the easy trap of getting no sleep? Well I can only speculate since I haven’t been able to change my ways in a year and half. But my goal for next semester is to fix this tiring problem. This is my game plan for getting more sleep:

1. Start homework sooner than the day before it’s due
2. Stop being a lazy shit and exercise everyday to avoid getting a “second wind” around 12 am.
3.  Stop napping during the day
4. Avoid starting conversations at 1 am about how much homework I have