All hail the procrastinators, busy-bees and overworked students who consistently run on little to no sleep during the school week. So many of us are veterans to the nap-craving feelings that result from nights where sleep was almost non-existent. And only those who go to bed late understand the many phases one goes through between the hours of 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. Basically, the person you are when you first feel the tired is very different from the person that falls dead asleep a mere few hours before dawn. The transformation typically goes something like this—
A timeline of late night thoughts:
9 p.m.: I'm so tired I'm going to go to bed early tonight.
9:30 p.m.: Ugh! I still have to do this huge project.
10 p.m.: Maybe if I eat this candy bar I will have more energy. Chocolate has caffeine in it right?
10:30 p.m.: All right. I put my headphones in, and I had a chocolate bar. Now I can try to focus so I can go to bed.
11 p.m.: I spent half of the last two hours on my phone. This wasn't supposed to happen. I'm going to turn it off.
11:15 p.m.: Whoa it's so quiet without my phone. I think I just heard my brain turn off.
11:30 p.m.: To reward myself for a half an hour of being focused, I will turn my phone back on. I'll just listen to quiet music to make me focus.
11:45 p.m.: What, Rhianna's new album was leaked?!
12 p.m.: Good news: the album is really good. Bad news: I still haven't finished.
12:15 a.m.: *Sends "see you tomorrow" message to members of group project.*
12:20 a.m.: Group member sends back, "*today."
12:30 a.m.: How is it already today? Now it's really crunch time
12:35 a.m.: *Turns music up and tries get energized.*
This assignment doesn't even make sense. Maybe I will just drop out and try to be like Rhianna.
12:45 a.m.: *Googles pictures of Rhianna in high school.*
All right. She wasn't super famous then. What am I good at that I could turn into a multi-million dollar career? *Makes mental list of possibilities and feels hopeful.*
1 a.m.: Man—I have great ideas this late.
1:15 a.m.: Actually, I think I'm not even tired anymore! I am going to get back to being focused.
1:30 a.m.: Psh. I am on a roll and nothing can stop me.
2 a.m.: Huh. It's pretty late—I wonder what time it is in Hawaii. I should probably sleep—I wonder what *insert name of celebrity.* is doing right now—Uh oh. I'm delusional. I really need to sleep.
2:15 a.m.: Okay I think I finished most of everything. Now it's time to check social media and see what everyone else was doing while I was working.
2:30 a.m.: I'm not really that tired anymore so I should be good when I wake up. Time for bed for real this time.
2:45 a.m.: Goodnight, world.
*Sleeps like a baby.*
Next morning: I am so tired. Never doing that again.
—until next week.
