According to doctors across the world, humans need around 7ish hours of sleep a night to function at their highest potential. I'm not a scientist and really didn't pay much attention in psych when we learned about sleep, but from what I remember sleeping helps renew pretty much everything in the body. It's also a break from the day to day activities and gives your body a chance to recharge.
I wish I woulda known earlier in life that these doctors and experts may be right about needing sleep to survive, but sleep, and a lot of it, is overrated.
Overrated!?!? You must think that I'm joking. Well, I'm not. Don't get me wrong, I love to go to sleep and wake up after 10 hours and feel great. I love to cuddle up in my bed, hug my stuffed animals and pillows, and fall asleep in a ball of warmth in my cold room. However, it took me till this past spring as a junior to realize that you just need a few hours of sleep a night to get by, and it's better to sleep a little than to rush through whatever you have going on just to sleep a lot.
Since getting back from being abroad last fall, my life has been in fast forward. I can't believe it's almost October. I've been interning non-stop since January, taking 5 very intense classes both last spring and this fall, and been active in extracurriculars, from being on the executive board of my sorority to interviewing high school seniors for GW to being a regular member of clubs to anything and everything else. As much as I wanted to just lay down and sleep for hours/days, I haven't. I've gotten enough sleep t survive and not feel super tired, and I've gone about all the things I've wanted to do.
College is about doing what you might not get to do once you graduate. Staying out late partying on a Friday and waking up for a self-defense class the next day and then writing a paper all Saturday night is not something to be avoided - it's something to be embraced. You'll never have another chance to be like this, and once you're in the real world you'll be on a schedule that probably won't change much. BORING.
Early in college I'd sleep my weekends and days off class away. If I didn't have a morning class, I slept till I absolutely needed to get up. However, I rushed through homework and papers, didn't have time for all my extracurricular events, and never felt rested because when I was awake I was always moving. When I figured out that I could sleep less and do what I needed to do, as weird as this sounds, I felt more rested. My time awake was better used, and I'm a completely healthy person, sleeping 6-7 hours average a night.
Do what you want, and don't waste your time. You can sleep when you're a real person.
Always,
Caroline
"Dreamgirl" is by the Dave Matthews Band.
Last week I averaged three and a half hours of sleep each night, due to exam studying, papers, and whatever else, so I completely get what you are saying. On a completely different but totally the same note, do you remember always getting asked questions about sleeping, dreaming, and napping on your SATs. Maybe it was just me, but each time I took it, there were always questions about it.
ReplyDeleteI love how both of the comments of far are being posted at extremely late hours, yayyy school work,I agree that you don't want to waste your time in college sleeping through your days, however I think the most important thing about sleep is to get into a very regimented schedule so your body can adapt to less sleep. This is for sure something I have yet to master..... ugh
ReplyDeleteWow you guys are up so late. I used to feel like I could stay up for ever, but I think that I can't anymore. I need a good 7 hrs, but I try to make the most of the time I am awake. But I often find that I sleep to AVOID doing things (and almost brought in a blanket today for my office....)
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