How Taking Classes Online Has Drastically Changed My Sleep Schedule

I have always had an imperfect sleep schedule, but having online classes has made my schedule even worse than it already was. During fall and winter quarters while I still lived in the dorms, I would come back from classes around 3 p.m. and stay up until 4 a.m. However, with this online school schedule, I now sleep at 7 a.m. and wake up for my Zoom lectures just to go back to sleep until 4 p.m. I know that this is a bad habit, especially since most of the day is gone by the time I get up and decide to be productive. Despite the hours I lose in the day with this sleeping schedule, I have somehow survived.

Maintaining this sleeping schedule has worked for me because I work better in the night. Usually, when I wake up around four, I do not immediately get up from bed. Rather, I spend another hour scrolling through my phone before I wash up. After this, I spend another hour on my phone before I work out and then eat dinner. By the end of this routine, the time is somehow 9 p.m. So technically, my day really starts at nine. I personally like how this schedule works because it feels like time passes by quickly while at home. I believe that I have managed to survive with this schedule in terms of academics and health because I have organized lists of things I need to complete for each day. For my classes, I keep track of assignments that I need to complete each day, and for each assignment I allot a specific time period to finish it. For my workouts after waking up, I give myself two hours to complete my routines. Furthermore, if I ever need extra time to complete other tasks, such as club meetings or time for my hobbies, I rearrange my schedule to fit these things in. 

Although sleeping late and waking up late has worked for me so far, I realize that this will not be manageable in the future. I admit that I do have a hard time waking up before four and I manage to always turn my alarms off when I try to wake up earlier. Slowly, I plan to adjust my sleeping schedule so that I can sleep by 4 a.m. and wake up by 12 p.m. to get that extra four hours in the day that I miss with my current sleeping schedule. Also, by waking up earlier, I can find the time to engage in my hobbies without disturbing the rest of my family. For example, I like to play the piano, but because I don’t start doing anything productive until late at night, I cannot really play without disturbing the sleep of the rest of my family. Hopefully in the next few weeks I can shift to sleeping and working earlier as well.

Personally, I like working in the dark and I somehow feel more energized in the night than during the day. I have survived because of my daily lists, but at the same time, I have sacrificed most of the day with sleeping in. Because I can just attend lectures by grabbing my laptop from my desk and hopping back into bed, it is easy for me to just go back to sleep after every lecture until 4 p.m. However, this schedule has limited my overall productivity because I do not work on my tasks in my list until nighttime. With a schedule like mine, I’m surprised that I somehow have been able to keep up with my classes and extracurriculars. But, in the end, I hope to adjust to an earlier schedule so that I will be more productive in the day- wish me luck!

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