Winter break is defined by Marisa Bernstein as a time when a college student returns to her parents’ house for an endless month of testing out every couch in the house and trying to convince friends to come over because of a personal lack of car, money, motivation and planning skills. A time when one wakes up in the morning just to spend two more hours laying in bed staring at the ceiling because there is literally no reason to actually get up. A time when bedtime is at 11 p.m. and the day begins at 1 p.m.
Pathetic, I know. But what’s a girl to do? Last semester was ferociously brutal and spending every day of break rotating sleeping positions from my bed to my floor was really not that bad.
It is astounding how exhausted I was. I was consistently sleeping for at least nine hours a night for the full month. Not impressed? Well my twin size bed at my parents house has a 20-year-old mattress, but not even that could stop me.
However, as it always does, winter break came to a close and I was shipped back to Madison to my other twin-size bed. Though the trouble is that I haven’t spent much time curled up in my slightly faded sheets enjoying that bliss of endless slumber that I took so much advantage of during my time at home. Instead, I greet that safe haven in the wee hours of the morning, and am abruptly ripped away by my busy class schedule far too soon.
Sleep deprivation is no joke. It weakens your immune system, makes it harder to focus, reduces information retention and memory and the list goes on. In fact, being awake for 18 hours causes the same effects of having a blood alcohol content of .05 percent.
Because of syllabus week, I haven’t been getting to bed very early. I am normally pretty on top of my bedtime during the week so that I am prepared and rested for the next day, but the distractions of college and this rowdy city sometimes get the best of us.
This past weekend, I was feeling a sore throat coming on and my eyes were stupid bloodshot, but I wanted to persevere and proceed with my plans for the evening. My friend and I started the night at around 10 p.m., which really would have been an appropriate time for me to go to bed, but I’m pretty good at making bad choices.
One thing led to another and a little after midnight, we went to go meet up with friends who work at Liquid nightclub. At this point I was exhausted, and after a little bit of dancing, I fell asleep on the couch in the club. Music was blaring and I literally fell asleep. Eventually, security found me and not-so-gently picked me up and tried to carry me out of the club. He dropped me off upstairs, where I fell asleep leaning against a wall. Standing up. I fell asleep standing up in a nightclub with blaring music.
Going out is fun, and being with friends is fun, but you really have to remember to take care of yourself. I am lucky that I have awesome friends who made sure that I was not thrown out on the street wearing only a tank top (where I would have absolutely fallen asleep given the pattern of the night).
Syllabus week is silly and college is full of adventure, but tuck yourself in early a couple nights a week. The adventures are much more memorable when you are able to stay awake for them. And please, don’t be that girl that falls asleep in a nightclub.
Marisa is a sophomore majoring in journalim. How does sleep deprivation affect you? Please send all comments, questions and concerns to opinion@dailycardinal.com
