Starting from the very beginning of high school, I got into the bad habit of starting my homework late and pulling all-nighters to study for tests. The number of all-nighters I’ve pulled throughout all of high school is actually pretty ridiculous (I stopped counting after freshman year). Back then I had no idea that this was how it would affect my brain.

Freshman year: I was very tired and moody throughout the whole year; however, I didn’t see any other impact of not getting enough sleep.

Sophomore year: In the middle of my sophomore year, I started getting mild schizophrenia. I kept hearing random sounds in the middle of the night and always felt as if there was someone watching me. Sometimes I would freeze in place in the middle of the night because I felt a presence hovering over me. Sophomore year was also when I started experiencing sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis is an occurrence where an individual is unable to move or speak in their sleep, even though they can see and hear everything around them. It is typically accompanied by terrifying hallucinations, whether that involves someone or something suffocating them, or even just lurking around them.

Junior year: This was when things got pretty strange. Along with the mild case of schizophrenia and a very typical onset of sleep paralysis, something else happened. Every time I felt myself falling asleep, I would hear sharp ringing sounds in my head that would get louder and louder by the second. It felt as if my body was telling me that I should just permanently stay awake. Whenever I tried to ignore it, it only got progressively louder and more painful until I opened my eyes. And when my eyes were open, even though the ringing stopped, the frightening feeling lingered for hours. Even with the crazy amount of internet research I’ve done, I have yet to figure out what this reoccurring phenomenon I had back then is.

Senior year: During the first semester of senior year, as I lightened up my class load and got more sleep, my schizophrenia and sleep paralysis went away (also the fact that my family moved into a smaller house might be a contributing factor— I feel much safer in a smaller space). The ringing in my head still happened nightly as I tried to fall asleep, but by this point, I was pretty used to it. Then during my second semester of senior year, as I had nothing more to worry about (college apps were all done, and now my only job was to make sure I don’t fall below a B), the ringing occurred less and less until I was able to believe that it completely went away. Occasionally when I was stressed out, the ringing would come back, but most of my nights were peaceful.

Something I do want to mention is that not all my experience with sleep were terrifying. There were times when I’d have nice random dreams and enjoy sleeping. But my emphasis goes on the fact that poor sleeping did impact most of my nights negatively.

And of course this is all just my personal experience, which means the environment I was in, my personality, how I cope with stress, etc. come into play. But sleep is important nevertheless! And I’ve come to realize this fact more, ever since I started the whole “sleeping before 1 AM” thing (read "I Tried Sleeping Early For Once" for reference). So, if you’re lacking sleep and starting to see any side effects, please go catch up on your sleep!