I have stayed up past 3 AM every night this week.
From midterm studying to essay writing to morally supporting my roommate, they've been a series of super productive nights. The library staff is getting sick of us; my mother is getting worried about my sleep habits, and my Fitbit is fed up with me ignoring its midnight "It's time to start winding down for bed" notification. Yesterday afternoon I fell asleep on the couch while I was babysitting and that is where the mom found me when she got home (at 4:45 pm). Although this nasty habit is taking its toll on my wellbeing, it doesn't look like it's anything I'm going to stop doing anytime soon. Here are 10 thoughts I've had at 3 AM this week:
1. I should really be asleep right now.
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I have a class at 9:15 in the morning. Although I set my alarm every day for 8:00, I tend to snooze it until 8:36 (exactly). I cannot count the number of times my roommate has thrown a pillow at my face or even just gotten up and turned off the alarm herself because I am simply too tired to wake up that early.
2. I practically am asleep right now.
I don't know about you but my brain doesn't even function this late so I don't know why I even try to pretend it does.
3. Why aren't they selling food this late?
When you stay out this late you get hungry and it's really frustrating when the dining hall and the grocery store aren't open anymore.
4. Why is everybody asleep?
Once you start staying up for all hours of the night you start assuming that everyone else does too.
5. Should I even bother going to bed?
At a certain point, going to bed seems pointless because you're going to wake up in a few short hours anyway. On Monday night, I was up so late that my dad (only one timezone away) was already awake. I thought about calling him but I figured that'd scare him more than it'd be worth.
6. MUST. HAVE. COFFEE.
Although I'm convinced I've developed an immunity to coffee at this point I still consider it an essential part of my daily diet and I regularly brew myself a pot or buy myself a mocha at about 10 PM.
7. Do people really need 8 hours of sleep a night?
I read the other day that getting less than 6 hours of sleep a night is basically the equivalent of walking around drunk all the time so that would explain a lot of my decisions lately.
8. Did we really need to stay at the library until it closed?
The short answer is no. We didn't. Although we were all done with what we needed to do around midnight we ended up stumbling out of the library at 2 AM when they were closing. For the fourth night in a row.
9. I'm never doing this again.
This is a lie we all tell ourselves at this point but everyone knows this is one bad habit that won't be broken for a while.
10. I am a champion.
There are very few people who can pull this off without suffering major consequences: college students and parents of infants and you can't help but feel a little bit of pride every time you successfully get through a series of nights like these.