We've all been there. Those nights that you're up until the wee hours of the morning for whatever reason, probably Netflix if you're like me. And as it starts to read 3 AM you start to think about going to bed, but you just have one last episode in this season, you have nothing really to do the next day so you hit the play button. Then the next thing you know it's 4 AM and there was a huge cliffhanger at the end of the episode you just watched! So you hit play again because you HAVE to know what happens next right? And then the next time you look at the time its 8 AM and you think to yourself a couple expletives.
There are only so many options you have at this point, but your brain is so sleep deprived are they really rational ones? Your first thought is "I can stay up all day and go to bed tonight, that will work!" Well it could work but it takes a lot of willpower and someone to hit you if you do doze off. Plus that might not be the healthiest thing on earth. Next option is to go to sleep, but only for a little bit. You try to set alarms for 10 AM or maybe even 12 PM if you're really living life on the edge. Sad news is, you're probably going to hit snooze or turn them off when they try to disturb your well earned slumber. So option 3 is to just sleep all day, and this is usually the one that prevails. Here is the problem with that. Let's say you go to bed at 8 AM. The doctor recommended is around 8-9 hours of sleep. So if you do get that amount of sleep you might wake up around 4 PM. sounds great right? You got your eight hours and you didn't miss any responsibilities at all, but you did just sleep though a day. You go about your business as usual until it strikes.
Just when you turn in for the night and crawl into bed that sinking feeling hits you. Your stomach feels as if it is flip flopping to the beat of a Britney song. You realize something that could potentially ruin your life. You are not tired. (This is the part where you gasp loud enough for the people next to you on the bus to feel weird about it). YOU'RE NOT TIRED! You realize that you're not tired because you woke up at 4 PM so you've only been up for around 6-7 hours depending on when you turn in for the night. Thats the equivalent to it being 2 PM if you woke up at 8 AM. Your sleep schedule is now ruined, and now it hates you. And you have no one to blame but those pesky TV people for producing so many amazing shows and the rude people at Netflix for making them available for you to watch hour after hour after hour. And yourself don't forget to blame yourself it's most yourself.
The only way to cure this is to pull an all nighter and an all dayer (new word, I'm making it up). You need to stay up until at least 8 PM the next night. Which will take not only your strength and willpower but potentially a ton of coffee and a bucket of ice water. I leave you with these words, dear reader. If you find out a way to throw your sleep schedule back into rhythm let me know. Mine has been out of whack for at least a week at this point. Good luck and happy sleeping! Even if it is in the middle of the day.
