The soft feel of a cotton pillow against my face, a warm blanket wrapping me around like a burrito, and nothing but silence in the harmonious air. Everyone has some unique talent that makes them themselves — whether it is songwriting, doing a cartwheel, or eyebrow dancing — everyone has that unique factor that distinguishes them from the rest. For me, that talent is falling asleep, whenever and wherever.
It did not take long for my family to realize that sleep was my deepest treasure and something that they should not interfere with, unless, of course, they would not mind facing the terrible consequences of interrupting my favorite hours of the day. As I grew older, this inclination towards sleep did not change much. I have memories of falling asleep in the most inconvenient places and positions – some of which include walking in the street and taking my passport picture (yes, I was asleep when it was taken. And yes, I refused to wake up). While this sleeping power might seem ideal for some, it comes with its problems. I have the tendency of getting grumpy when I am sleepy (which is pretty much all of the time), but I am working on that so don’t worry. On top of that, my cognitive abilities decrease significantly as well, and I am unable to focus on even the simplest of tasks. Long story short, while someone may try to separate sleep and me, we share a beautiful love story and a literally unbreakable bond.
Coming to college, I was terrified of messing up my precious sleeping patterns. As mentioned earlier, I need to get a decent amount of sleep each night to function properly as a human being (and therefore, as a college student). It is not like I can control it; if it was up to me, I would change this tendency of mine in the blink of an eye. I am not and probably will never be a sleep-deprived student, especially when knowing that my notion of “a decent amount of sleep” is 8 hours or more a day. During high school, I probably slept from 6 to 7 hours during the night, with an extra hour during the day in the form of a very necessary nap. That quickly became my routine, the nap turning into my lifeline for these tumultuous times of an adolescent’s life. I knew that taking a nap each day for college was not going to be a viable option so inevitably, the question pounded in my head: how was I going to survive? Luckily, I am thriving (at least in that sense). I get 7 to 8 hours of sleep every day, which is far from bad considering that I pretty decently manage my workload, my social life, and my classes (especially since I have 8:40s every day — which is a big mistake if you ask me).
If I could, I would give a list of advice on how to accomplish this sleep schedule as a college student. However, I am not sure if I can. As I have explained earlier, it just doesn’t take me much effort to fall asleep almost instantly, so it’s more a matter of luck or genetics than anything else. I was lucky enough to be born this way and even if I try to stay up until late, my eyes simply betray me. Nonetheless, what I can say is that organization can be key. Try to finish everything you have to do during the course of the day, and when you feel like it’s time for you to call it a day, put your cellphone aside and don’t look at it despite the huge temptation to do it. Everyone is different and leads a different life, but let’s not forget to get enough sleep and make it a priority to feel those positive results in the long run!