We all know that sometimes in college, sleep can seem like the last priority between classes, friends and clubs. I know I’ve pulled more all-nighters during finals week than I probably should have, and I read all the articles about how most people need at least seven hours of sleep at night. Instead of waiting until I actually had to stay up into the early hours, (read: that point in the semester where I literally couldn’t procrastinate any longer), I thought I’d see how a lack of sleep would affect me when I didn’t have too much stress going on at the time.
So, for the last week, I challenged myself to only sleep four hours a night. Then, I recorded how I felt during the day. It was all very scientific. The results showed me that I clearly did better at life in general the more zzz’s I got.
Monday
I went to bed at 2 a.m. and woke up at 6 a.m. I wasn’t feeling too bad—being up before my roommates actually encouraged me to go for a jog that morning! Unfortunately, this was also my longest day class-wise, so by the time I got home at 9.00 p.m. I was ready to hit the sack. I forced myself to stay up for a bit by watching Netflix (namely, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, for the 6th time) and eventually went to bed at 1 a.m.
Tuesday
I gave myself a 5 a.m. start this morning. It was horrific, and I’ve now come to the firm conclusion that I am definitely not a morning person. What’s more, I didn’t have any classes until 1 o’clock, so I made myself do some assignments early and then caught brunch with a friend. He told me, quite kindly, that I was an idiot for sleeping less than I could when I didn’t have to, and when I fell asleep in my 12-person seminar later that day, I began to agree with him.
Wednesday
Somehow, I pushed myself Tuesday night to not fall asleep until four in the morning. I woke up at the much more reasonable time of 8 a.m., and alarmed my roommates with how much I was giggling whilst eating my cereal. Was this the delirium setting in? In any case, when I went to a club meeting later on that night, I was heavily caffeinated (four venti iced coffees were consumed in the previous three hours) and I was babbling so much that multiple people cornered me after the meeting to see if everything was okay at home. I got home at 11:30 p.m., and promptly fell asleep without setting an alarm.
Thursday
I woke up at 6 a.m. not by my alarms, but by the garbage trucks emptying the dumpsters behind my apartment. I wanted to cry and kick something at the same time. Unfortunately, I’d already slept two hours more than I was meant to, so I dragged myself up and turned on the Keurig. Classes were brutal, and I had to mentally prepare myself for one last night of not sleeping before I can hopefully sleep for two days straight.
Friday
I’d stayed up until 3 a.m. and at 7 a.m. an odd sense of calm settled over me. I knew I had friends who hardly slept more than a few hours a night most of the time, but honestly, I have no idea how they do it. I was mentally preparing to go to bed, even whilst trudging to class, and even though all my friends are talking about going out that night, the thought of being anywhere but my bed post-7 p.m. made me feel nauseous.
Let’s just say this week wasn’t the best for me—BUT, I now have an all new appreciation for sleep and I don’t intend to go without it for a long, long time. I’m almost motivated to get ahead on all my classes just so I never have to come close to pulling an all-nighter ever again. Friends, I did it so you don’t have to: and with empirical evidence, I’m saying that you definitely, truly, need more than four hours of rest a night.
Photo Credit: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7