As students, I think we can all agree on a shared fact: we're all tired all the time. Whether you got a full night's sleep or just a handful of hours, it seems like those heavy eyelids never ease up. But a trend that's been popping up recently is bragging about being tired, or more specifically bragging about how little sleep you got the previous night.
It's like the SNL skit with Kristen Wiig as Penelope, a girl that must outdo everybody around her (see image below) except anytime someone says how tired they are, we feel the need to interject that we only got three hours of sleep opposed to their four.
I'm not hating on people that have insomnia or those that work night shifts; instead, it's a call to quiet everybody from this sleep-less competition for the sole reason that it's extremely unhealthy. Getting enough hours of sleep is really important for your body to recuperate and necessary for your mental and emotional health.
This unhealthy craze reminds me of the popularly-agreed upon annoyance of really skinny girls bragging about how unhealthy they eat (ex. Jennifer Lawrence, Gigi Hadid, etc.). It makes girls with slower metabolisms feel insecure because it makes them look uptight for caring about their food intake, but if they were to go all out like Lawrence or Hadid, they would most likely be looked upon as gluttonous or lazy.
Like this food trend, being tired is now the new "laid-back cool girl" as it seems like the cool thing to never get enough sleep because you're so busy. As for those getting enough sleep, they're now lame and have nothing to brag about. So it becomes this endless cycle of feeling the need to stay up late because you're in college and you can, plus you get to complain and (most importantly) get sympathy for how hectic your life is as it affects your sleeping schedule.
I understand having so many things pile up that sleep just doesn't seem to be in the equation every once in awhile, but certainly not every night. A good fix would be to cut any procrastinating habits and get that work done during the day (your body will love you for it) so you can get a full night's sleep and feel refreshed walking into your 9 am and not like Spongebob after a wild night at Goofy Goober's.
If you have a hard time falling asleep, try a couple of tips on how to get a better night's sleep and try to limit your late nights to at most three times a week (and super late nights to once a week).
Goodnight and may the sleep be with ye.
