The following post was written by Peer Advisor Dylan, a sophomore in CCAS.
My biggest blunder in college was my circadian rhythm during the spring semester of my freshman year—and, to be honest, a good amount of the fall of my sophomore year. Growing up, both of my parents stayed up late, and for the most part, led very functioning lives. So how could I not be as successful, right?
In high school, I might stay up until 12, at the latest most week nights. I’d wake up at 7:30 and be out the door. Well, when I came to college I was faced with assignments and commitments that were new to me. My first semester at GW, fortunately, I was not taking on an arduous course load and although I didn’t go to bed in the timeliest fashion, I was able to average about 7 hours of sleep a night. (Although, I now know that you can’t “make up” for lost sleep, but that’s beside the point.)
Then the spring of 2015 came and I found myself in a constant state of misfortune.
I joined a good share of student organizations my first semester and by the time spring semester rolled around, my commitment in them increased greatly. Also, the classes I was now taking were posing to be a lot trickier than I originally planned. (Thank you Calc II!)
Although I was consistently strung out on caffeine to stand up, the following are some of the highlights of my semester:
- I showed up to a class 45 minutes early so that I could take a nap and be sure that I would make it to class on time. My friends tried to wake me up, but it didn’t really work. The only thing that did was when the professor intervened and told me to “go home and get some sleep.”
- I fell asleep during my Origins class on more than one occasion.
- I was studying for a midterm that was supposed to being at 11:10. I ended up waking up at 12:00. (Fortunately, we ended up having a snow day.)
The only things that would get me through the dread were pictures of my dog. I thought this behavior was normal and the constant feeling of a kick to the head were normal. (They weren’t.) Refusing to go to bed all the time impacted my grades, my social circles, and the commitments I had to student organizations.
I am not saying that I have the best sleep habits, because I don’t. But I have begun making smarter decisions about when I start assignments to keep procrastination at bay. Or at what point to leave Gelman because staying up until 3 just to watch Buzzfeed videos is not conducive to a healthy lifestyle. And I have finally been able to experience coffee as a pleasure, instead of as a necessity.
