A whimsical creature, it comes not when summoned but is known to creep up on the unsuspecting. Nobody is completely immune to its soft siren call although some can resist for days on end often with chemical help. It’s also one of the most valuable resources a student has and must be hoarded whenever possible.

When I was in my first year, all those months ago, I got very stressed out about University. I would spend all day in class, go back to the village and eat dinner and then go back up to the library. At about 3 a.m I would walk back from the library, exhausted and not any more confident in myself, only to get up early the next day and repeat the cycle. It was inevitable that the sleep deprivation would catch up with me and on the night before one of my exams it did. I had been studying too hard and getting very little memorised when I just collapsed, luckily I was in my room studying on my bed. The next day I slept through the alarm I had set, waking up feeling very groggy at 9 instead of 7. My exam was at 9:30. Even today I get a little frightened at how I nearly decided to go back to sleep, luckily I glanced at my watch and my brain did a little scream propelling me out of bed and into the shower. I did pretty well in that exam but that’s not really the point, from that day forward I vowed to never let myself get so sleep deprived.

It’s a vow I’ve broken many times, sometimes because of exams, sometimes because of assignments and sometimes because I just didn’t want to go to sleep when I could be hanging out with my friends instead. I think the last one is perhaps one that a lot of people can relate too. I didn’t exactly have a curfew when I lived with my uncle but they had work in the morning so there would come a time when I would be alone in the living room while everyone else was asleep upstairs. When I started at Murdoch I could wander into the living room at 3 a.m and find my flat-mates watching the television or simply talking for hours about nothing. It was amazing for the first few weeks but after I started dozing off in lectures I kind of realised I would have to start being a bit smarter about when I went to bed.

At first I got around the sleep I was losing from late-night studying by simply drinking a lot of coffee. This seemed to work for a week or two but I still did have trouble focusing when I’d pull all nighters on my assignments, until I discovered No Doz. I’m not going to list the numerous problems I had with No Doz, nor do I think it necessary to tell the story about the time it made me shake so much in a lecture that my notes were illegible. I think if you learn anything from this blog let it be that No Doz is not a good idea. Ever.

I guess the point is that sleep is very important to your average student. I would like to believe that I can build up a ‘bank’ of sleep over the holidays and on the weekends but really that’s more of a temporary measure. Sometimes you will just lie in bed and stress out over exams and assignments that you know are going to be there when you wake up but sooner or later you learn to just push it all aside and relax. A lot of people I know find that the early hours of the morning are their most productive; perhaps the removal of other distractions helps their concentration. Personally I find it helps with mine but you might find it just makes you tired.

So at the end of the day you’ve got to decide when you go to bed. Maybe you’ll want to stay up to read that final chapter in your textbook, or have one more beer with a friend but at the end of the day I hope you guys don’t neglect your pillows as I did in my first year. Also I hope you learn the lesson about No Doz without having to find out first hand.