Eat your vegetables, brush your teeth, say your prayers, be kind, play nice, etc … sound familiar? Maybe you heard something like these sayings when you were a little kid. Maybe you even adhered to your parental figure’s advice. Maybe you walked that line and spent most of your childhood grounded out of your mind. No judgment, it was a dark time for us all.
One thing I was asked to do many times as a child, and have since completely rejected, was the simple, yet seemingly impossible, task of getting a good night of rest. All those naps and early bedtimes, bump them. I wanted to be doing something else. I’ve never been able to fall asleep easily, even when I’m dead on my feet and have nothing hindering me from slumber. I just lie awake for what I’ve observed to be an unusual period of time. My best solution? Stay awake longer on purpose! The answer was obvious: perpetuate the problem by exacerbating it. If I couldn’t sleep when I felt I needed to, why sleep at all? I mean really. How dumb can you be, John?
I hope a large majority of you don’t relate and are getting bored at this point, but for those who do empathize, let me pose a proposition: a body with regular rest seems to function better than a body constantly in motion. I think that’s one of Newton’s laws of motion. Don’t take me for a fool, I do not endorse my habit of late nights and groggy mornings. Quite the contrary, I am looking for a solution — ravenously. I think it can be easy to fall into this mindset: “I’m in college, everyone stays up late and accepts constant sleepiness as a fact of life.” Don’t. I won’t be scientific, but the detriment that a consistent lack of sleep can have on a body is real and long-lasting — something I’m beginning to see even now. As I write this, my cells are begging for respite, my eyes for the curtain call, my heart for a break.
I stayed up way too late this weekend and instead of being able to recharge now, I have to prepare for another week of breakneck school and work and Theatron and debate and … eating? I don’t even have time to think about or pursue my hobbies, let alone sleep. Right? That’s the thought process I slip into most days during a semester. But it’s backwards really. I can’t do anything on that list well if I don’t first take care of my only permanent assignment: my body. And the foundational way to do that is to sleep. Why do we treat sleep as an expendable resource, a thing to be pushed aside to make room for other things? I don’t know, but I would say it has something to do with the cultural concept that “to produce is key, to accomplish is god.”
We have to slow down, friends, put the work aside and let our bodies do what they need to in order to function properly. Balanced diet is a different topic, but adequate sleep is the fuel that keeps us running. Do you expect to drive your car with no gas in it? Why would you expect your body to perform with no sleep? College is supposed to help us create and “succeed,” not ruin us. If it’s ruining you, like it has been me, change.
Don’t ask me how, though, I’m still figuring it out.
