By: Karen Huang
It’s that time of the year again, everybody: finals season is officially upon us.
Not surprisingly, it’s also the time of the year when we lose the most sleep. If you haven’t had this conversation at some point recently, I’m sure someone close to you has: “I’ve been up for forty-eight hours straight, what about you?” “Oh, that’s nothing. I’ve been up for seventy-two hours.”
I exaggerate. But still. I think we’ve all played this game to some extent – that is, comparing our crappy sleep schedules with those of our friends to see who’s been suffering the most. It’s like that website that used to be really popular a few years ago: fmylife.com. People posted depressing stories about their lives, and the most depressing ones got the most votes of “I agree, your life sucks.” When we play this game of who’s-more-screwed-for-finals, we’re engaging in a one-upmanship of FMLs. The person with the worst luck wins. But that person also loses. Everyone loses.
Back to sleep. It’s easy, even tempting, to miss a night or two of sleep when we’re swamped with finals and papers galore. Around this time, all-nighters are the norm, really; after all, who needs sleep? We’re busy students. We have better things to worry about than a good night’s sleep. Better yet, we’re totally resilient enough to get by without sufficient sleep. Sleep is for the weak. Sleep is overrated. Right?
That is what I’d like to believe. But as someone who has royally messed up her sleep schedule beyond repair in just the past week, I think I can safely conclude that I need sleep. Lots and lots of it. Sleep is not overrated – to the contrary, it’s vastly underrated.
I’ve engaged in the FML game more times than I can count. But as much as I commiserate with my friends who have had to endure seemingly endless late nights of studying and/or paper writing, I really envy the people who don’t participate in this game. I envy people with normal sleep schedules. These people still adhere to the “early to bed, early to rise” mantra famously endorsed by Ben Franklin. Who are these people, and how do they do it?
Sure, late nights and especially all-nighters are sexy in an adventurous, livin’-on-the-edge kind of way. But at the same time, do we really want to subject ourselves to such misery all the time? I certainly don’t.
I miss taking the morning commute without feeling like I want to hurt the person next to me for doing something very trivial, like invading my “personal bubble.” I miss not feeling delirious and foolish every time I turn in a term paper. And, above all, I miss sleep. It really is, as they say, the healthiest thing you can do without doing anything.
Unfortunately, I won’t be getting proper sleep for at least the next couple of days. But I hope someone out there who’s been pulling a lot of all-nighters (as I have) will be able to get a good night’s sleep sometime soon.
Image source: http://blog.eventbrite.com/11-ways-to-improve-your-sleeping-habits/