This past week, while attempting to tie up some loose ends before the semester is over, I realized something. I had not started to work on an eight hour research requirement for my psychology class. So I did what I had to do and signed myself up for one of the few studies available. Little did I know, I had just signed myself up for a twelve hour long zoom call, during the night, where I'm not allowed to sleep.When I received the directions in my email, I was honestly terrified. A sleep deprivation experiment? Really?
I work almost full time and I'm a full time college student, so you can only imagine just how tired I am on a regular basis. But If you add being sleep deprived into the mix; It gets real. So naturally, I decided to take an account of my thoughts every hour during the study. Here's what happened:
1. The first hour. (11pm-12am)
I was already falling asleep. I had to complete some cognitive test that made my brain hurt very badly. Testing my reaction time and memory is not a good idea at that point in the day. I didn't have much hope at all for how the rest of the night was going to go. However, I knew if I fell asleep, I would definitely fail this class.
2. The second hour. (12am-1am)
This is when I discovered that the task I would be completing was the same thing each hour. And it took about 35 minutes. I was very annoyed and did NOT want to do this for the rest of the night.
3. The third hour. (1am-2am)
Made myself a bagel after I finished my task. I really thought that would give me more energy but to my dismay, it did not. Wasn't really sure if I was gonna make it but hey, at least I wasn't hungry anymore.
4. The fourth hour (2am-3am)Â
This is when I became mad. Who in their right mind signs themself up for a sleep deprivation study the week before finals? Obviously only someone who only has half a brain, AKA me. I thought I would get so much studying in during the night, but at three am, things were not looking good.
5. The fifth hour (3am-4am)Â
At around 3:30 am the exhaustion really hit. I hadn't stayed up this late since early on in quarantine and honestly, I'm not sure how I ever did it. While doing my tasks, I began to fall asleep which is NOT good. I took myself to the bathroom to splash some cold water on my face, hoping it would wake me up a little bit. Surprise, it did nothing.
6. The sixth hour. (4am-5am)
I literally had to pace around my room clicking buttons on my computer to keep me awake for this hour. I made the grave mistake of sitting down in my bed, which then just made me want to lay down. However I knew that the second my head hit tht pillow I would be out. So, I forced myself out of bed and paced between my door and my desk just to stay awake.
7. The seventh hour. (5am-6am)
You know when your'e dosing in and out of sleep, and you have no idea if your eyes just shut for a second or maybe five minutes? That is what this entire hour felt like. I don't even know if I made it through my activity for this hour, and really, I didnt care because i was just that tired.
8. The eighth hour. (6am-7am)
Around 6:30 I started to feel awake again, thank God! Although I was still tired, I think my body began to understand that it was no longer the middle of the night. My family started to wake up, so talking to them also helped me as the zoom call was completely silent.
9. The ninth hour. (7am-8am)
My alertness was gone just as fast as it showed up. At this point I realized people in the study were literally just quitting and leaving the zoom call. I was definitely jealous but I am not a quitter! I only had three hours left. How hard could that be right?
10. The tenth hour. (8am-9pm)
My family started waking up, I ate breakfast, and things started looking up, until I went to complete my task for that hour and began falling asleep again. great. I really didn't think I had ever been this tired in my entire life.
11. The eleventh hour. (9am-10pm)
Two hours left. I could do it right? I became determined to get this thing done. I was over it, but that did not mean I was gonna let myself throw away the past ten hours of my life.
12. The twelfth hour (10am-11am)
The nap I was waiting for was beginning to seem like the best thing I had ever dreamt of. And when I got to click "leave meeting" I was ecstatic. I jumped in my bed and thanked God that was over. So here's my advice, always read the directions and details when you sign up for something, or else you might end up spending your Tuesday night awake on zoom.
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