If you run into anyone from The Poly on a Wednesday, there’s a pretty good chance it will be after 2 pm. That’s because Tuesday night is our big rush to print, and some of us stay up until horrendous hours working on it. For some, this is a once-a-week event, and they specially rearrange their schedules to plan for it. Others, however, keep this nocturnal rhythm consistently. This is wildly unhealthy.
One of my good friends is among these. She drinks coffee at midnight and ends up going to bed at 4 am. She then sleeps through her classes the next day and insists that the only way she could possibly fix her sleep schedule is to stay up all night and the entire next day. I usually find her in bed around 10 am.
My point here is that it’s easy to get caught up in things other than classes, and forget the necessity of things like food and sleep. You may not even think you can afford them, but it’s absolutely essential to take care of your physical needs because, shockingly enough, it will affect how you do everything else. You will probably have a harder time with classes, and also with finding human life outside of the Union (Interestingly enough, this experience may change your definition of “human.”). You may find that the one time you decide to get a little shut-eye instead of going to class you miss the lecture defining a Reynold’s number, which, of course, will ruin your exam grades. This will happen if you stay up too much; college students do not have the willpower to burn the candle at both ends.
You may say that you survived in high school on four hours of sleep a night. However, just because you can manage it for a while doesn’t mean it’s really good for you. I tried it. Your mind will crack eventually, and you find yourself shouting at the Approach for no particular reason in, say, the middle of October. Fun once, not great to remember. So whatever you may do during your day, make sure the day doesn’t last too long. Get some sleep; you’ll be glad later.
