Sleeping seems like such a simple thing. You go to bed at night and wake up in the morning, and whatever happens in between is what we call “sleep.” It’s you lying still in your bed for six to eight hours, and then when your eyes open in the morning, you’re refreshed and ready for the day.
At least that’s what we want to happen. I can’t remember the last time I truly felt refreshed in the morning. We, as Hopkins students, discuss how much sleep we get daily, but we aren’t noting the merits of a full circadian sleep cycle. We’re often talking about how little sleep we got because we were so busy finishing up our homework or studying for an exam.
“I’m running on eight hours of sleep for the last two days.”
“I pulled an all-nighter three nights this week.”
“The guys who work at Brody Café are judging me for how many dirty chais I’ve ordered today.”
We’ve all heard a variation on one of those, maybe we’ve even said it ourselves. Hopkins hell week is a real and true time for everyone and it usually comes with Satan stealing the sleep from your eyes.
How are we going to fight this culture of restlessness? It’s not like people are choosing not to sleep, right?
From my perspective, that’s exactly what people are doing. And I’m here to tell you to revert back to an old childhood classic: the nap.
Before you roll your eyes all the way back in your head and argue that you don’t have time to take a nap because you’re busy always, let me ask you this: Are you honestly convinced that you spend every spare second during the day working? Because if that were true, I have a feeling that you’d get to bed on time.
Maybe there are a select few who actually spend all day working and then most of the night working, and to you brave souls, I send a hearty “Godspeed.” But for the rest of us, we probably take a good two hours scattered throughout the day to check Facebook, to play an app game or to watch Netflix.
If you have followed my writing at The News-Letter or know me as a living, breathing human being, you know how near and dear to my heart Netflix is. But yes, even I have chosen to skip Netflix to rest my eyes for a little while. And trust me, it is worth it.
My napping habit started over the weekend because I’ve been sick, but it likely will continue throughout the semester as my nights get longer and my mornings veer closer. I hope you will see the light, draw your curtains and join me in the movement to reclaim some of our lost hours of sleep.
You’ve got one last obstacle that’s preventing you from joining the nap-olution: Every time you’ve napped recently, you always wake up more tired than you fell asleep. Don’t worry, I’ve got an answer to that. I took AP Psychology in high school and I got a five on the AP test, so I am an expert on this topic.
You’re waking up more tired because you’re allowing your body to dip into the deepest layer of sleep, but you’re pulling yourself out before you can complete the full sleep cycle. An average sleep cycle takes about an hour and a half, so I’d recommend allowing two hours for a good nap to give yourself time to fall asleep. If you can’t pull that, there’s some merit in a half hour power nap, but any longer and you risk waking yourself up in your prime sleeping moments.
There you have it. You are an informed nap voter now. What you choose to do with this information is your decision and yours alone. But for your own sake, give yourself a break.
Gillian Lelchuk is a junior Writing Seminars and mathematics double major from Los Alamitos, Calif. She is the Opinions Editor.
