I am wide awake at 11:35 p.m. eastern standard time. Why? I took a nap at 7:42 to 8:42 p.m. I should have just rolled back over and gone to sleep but no… I decided to do homework to get just a little bit ahead of everything I need to get done this week.

Unfortunately, even crunching numbers in calculus and physics problems didn’t help me in the slightest. I went back up the stairs, put my homework away, and hopped into bed.

My mind just wouldn’t stop racing with everything that needs to get done this week. Even with the Christmas lights off and Spotify on, sleep still evaded me.

Now, I am writing this because I can’t print my rough drafts of my papers that need to be revised and edited without waking up my roommate and my only other options for homework to do besides writing all involve math.

Even if I did try to go to bed right now, I still wouldn’t be able to sleep because this is one of those times where I hear everything, it feels like all the sounds are amplified and crashing inside my head.

If only people knew how to walk quietly down the hall, or whisper after 10 p.m. Or, maybe not slam drawers shut in their dressers because this is the one night I can’t tune it all out.

I took a nap at 7:42 because I was tired, maybe if it had been less than an hour I would be snuggled up in bed right now, but I am not. In effect, I am at the very least cranky now and it’s no one’s fault but my own. Could I fix this issue, yes, but in the process, would I wake up my roommate?

Am I going to wake up my roommate by turning the lights back on so I can read, or clear out the reading nook I made under my bed so I can read/knit/ do homework in a place where I can fall asleep without an RA being required to wake me up? No.

For the moment this leaves me stuck out in the hallway writing while everyone else I assume is sleeping except for the now one other person who is out in the hallway with me.

Sleeping right now would mean missing out on awesome high fives, making awkward eye contact with my RA, and watching my floor-mates play with a yo-yo although at this point it’s more of listening to them play with it than anything else. Would I really be disappointed at missing these events, probably not? I value my sleep above most things especially at this moment in time.

Honestly, though, I would probably miss the high five, that was pretty cool.

Lessons learned:

-No naps past 7 p.m. unless being up until odd hours of the morning is the goal.

-No naps longer than an hour.

-If a nap longer than an hour occurs at any time past 6 p.m. just go to bed.

-Staying up means there is the possibility of both witnessing and experiencing strange events.

-There is no place like a dorm common room at midnight.