The alarm on my phone goes off for my 8:50 math lecture. I can hear my roommate groan and turn in her sleep as I stare bleakly at the screen blinking, urging me to hop off my bed and prepare for my day.
I press snooze.
Five minutes later, it goes off again. This time, I’m the one groaning as I turn off the sound and stretch out in my single bed and adjust the pillow beneath me. Finally, I get out of bed and manage to throw what I assume are clean clothes on.
I attempt to keep my eyes open during lecture. It’s no easy task.
Afterward, I collapse into my bed (well, climb up my desk and precariously leap onto it) and attempt a 20-minute power-nap.
I wake up, still exhausted and force myself to study before my next lecture.
I flop on my couch after dinner and sigh at the e-mail telling me where I need to meet for Spanish Club.
I get ready to go out on a Friday night. I need to cover up the dark rings under my eyes with some make-up I just picked up for that particular purpose.
I get up for a Saturday football game, yawning. I drink two 5 Hour Energy’s to get through the day.
Ahhhhh Sunday… Oh, wait. I have that composition to write. Oh, and that math homework. Wait, don’t I have a Spanish test on Tuesday?
I throw down a RedBull with my Cheerios.
Of course, I expected college to be strenuous. I expected to yawn through a couple of my classes, but I really underestimated how tired I was going to be. I have homework, student organization meetings to attend, workouts to force myself to do, and a social life to try to balance.
And yet, I don’t generally climb into my bed till after midnight every night, sometimes, much, much later (particularly Fridays). So, basically, I have no internal clock and I live off next to no sleep.
But do I have much choice? I’m not totally sure. Of course, I could go to bed earlier, but that means I’d have less homework done, or I would have to give up my time for other activities. I believe my economics professor would call this “opportunity cost”.
So really, it’s an impossible balance. I understand it’s incredibly unhealthy, but sleep is ranked rather low on my priorities list. I know what I have to do to get good grades. I know what I have to do in order to build a resume. I know what I have to do in order to stay in shape. I know what I have to do in order to have some FUN.
Comparatively, sleeping eight hours really isn’t in my schedule.
However, I have opted out of going out on certain weekends in order to catch up on sleep. On some days, I will work extra hard to get my homework done early, so I actually can sleep. I try to be healthy. I know that sleep is essential to stay sharp.
The fact of the matter is, I can’t expect to sleep as well as I did in high school, and I guess that’s okay. Green tea and power naps get me through many of my days and I’ve accepted the fact that, sometimes, a break from a Madison Weekend will be good for me.
Having a boring night once every five weeks is probably better than passing out from exhaustion while walking up Bascom to my morning lectures.