Ah, sleep. Everyone’s favorite activity – people will do everything in the power to sleep as long as possible and whenever possible. There are not many things people wouldn’t do in order to sleep longer…except if you’re me.
My whole life I’ve had difficulty sleeping – it takes me a good 45 minutes to fall asleep (so, for those of you who can close your eyes and immediately be asleep, I’m jealous). For those of you who are unsure of what I mean, once I turn off my lights and close my eyes, I will actually be asleep in 45 minutes.
This, of course, can be a struggle in college since college students are notorious for having little sleep. Most comments one hears on a college campus ranges from “I’m so tired” to “I got [x] hours of sleep last night.” As a result of this, most of the student body has their eyes half-open as they stumble around campus. It’s worse for students who have morning classes and have poor sleeping habits.
To be clear, I don’t have insomnia, I just have trouble sleeping. My body, even when I was a baby, wanted to be awake. I had a serious case of FOMO before the idea of FOMO was even created.
I assumed when I entered college my sleep schedule would be awful. I don’t go to sleep weird hours because of my difficulty sleeping – which for those of you are curious, my goal is to be in bed by midnight – and I was worried it would be weird for my roommate. Luckily for me, my roommate is a gem and doesn’t care at all.
However, imagine my surprise when my sleeping schedule did not decline, but perhaps even improved. Perhaps because of all the work I am doing because, as every college student knows, you do have a lot of work, and that allows me to fall asleep easier because I’m tired. Or, maybe it’s because I have morning classes this semester, and it’s better for me to fall asleep easier so I can, you know, actually function during my classes.
Which, surprise, surprise! My two-morning classes – Elementary Statistics at 9 am and Astronomy at 9:30 am – I am actually doing well in. This is especially nice because, while failing is not good, I do consider myself to be a morning person, and I’m glad to know that is a good fact.
My lack of sleep also allows me to get loads of writing done (hello, this article) so maybe my difficulty isn’t a bad thing. That being said, sleep and me will always be in a complicated relationship. I love it, sometimes it loves me, and sometimes it really, really doesn’t.
Do you have trouble sleeping? Comment below!