Dear Professor,

Today, my alarm went off at 7:45 a.m., and I, not so willingly, forced myself out of bed. When I say forced, I mean I hit snooze on my alarm for 10 minutes while contemplating dropping out of school. After realizing this wasn't a feasible option, I rolled out of bed, put on my running shorts and whatever over-sized T-shirt that seemed relatively clean, and ran to your 8:00 a.m. class.

As my junior year of college comes to an end, I find myself having more and more mornings like these. Staying up late, or sometimes all night, studying for a test or writing a paper that is due the next day seems to come with the territory. Sure, it's not necessarily what you may recommend, but, hey, it works.

With school, work and trying to maintain some sort of a social life, college students function on very few hours of sleep and whatever caffeine they can get their hands on.

"Welcome to my class, where a full night's sleep is incredibly rare if you want a good grade...." is not something that is usually advertised on a class syllabus. Blaming a university or professor for this seems to be the typical reaction for most students, including myself. However, many of you would argue that we students are really the ones to blame. Could this be true?

So far, my college education has taught me how to knock out a six-page paper overnight, while also somehow managing to study for a test that same day. Although procrastinating—and the desire to party too much on the weekends—clearly falls on the students, you, Mr. Professor, are not necessarily off the hook.

Among trying to function as a human being, attending classes and working a part-time job, there is little time left for the 100-page readings you assign on a weekly basis; let alone a paper due in another class, three reading quizzes, an exam, and a presentation all due within that same week.

Trying to accomplish everything during the day is near impossible for students with busy schedules, which ultimately leads to many all-nighters and very sleep deprived students.

So, to the professors who complain about students falling asleep in their classes, just remember that we broke college students have other things going on outside of that 100 page reading you quiz us over every week.

Sincerely,

A sleep-deprived student