So, assuming you have above a 3^rd grade education level, you’ve already been told how important sleep is, and if you’re above a 9^th grade level, you’ve likely already ignored these words of advice. I get it. There isn’t much time left in the day between homework, work, sports, community activities, and maintaining emotional sanity (Those, of course, are in order of decreasing importance). Naturally, many simply learn to push off sleep to work on more important matters, whether personal or not.

This isn’t always wise, however.

Yes, I know most of you reading this can probably perform your necessary daily tasks just fine on half a night’s sleep, and being a college student, I’ve very frequently been forced to operate on much less than is ideal. On top of this, the beginning of my semester was riddled with a stressful social life and a rather sedentary set of habits. The result? I ended up perpetually tired, drifting through my classes and homework, barely comprehending anything, and I didn’t even know it.

It only occurred to me that this was the case when a new friend of mine convinced me to get a full night of sleep in the middle of the week because I had recently deprived myself of more sleep than usual. What I woke up to in the morning was a different world.

Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration and a bit cliché, but it’s not far from the truth. Concepts I couldn’t follow in my chemistry class, I now understood almost instantly. Connections in works of literature in my English classes seemed to form out of thin air when, only a day before, I was struggling to see their themes . Smells were stronger, sounds were louder, every damn color in the world was brighter. I am not kidding. I found I lost a huge amount of stress which came from absolutely nowhere and, suddenly, I was happier.

There are a lot of things to get done in the day, but keep in mind that if you aren’t feeling yourself, all you might be missing is a full night of sleep.