Over the past few weeks my sleep schedule has been a little hectic. That’s partially because somedays my classes start at 8 AM and other days my classes don’t start until 4 PM. Since my sleep schedule is pretty much nonexistent, I decided to stay up for 24 hours so I can try to regulate my sleep schedule. ONE, I am not an expert or a doctor and this may not be the healthiest move. TWO, I am just a college kid trying this out to see if it works and document my experience. THREE, if you try this and have negative side effects, I am not responsible as this is just me sharing my experience to let you know how it went (I feel like we are all friends by now so if this goes bad for me, then my goal is to get a good laugh out of you NOT have you try it and fail with me). I knew I was going to be doing this, so I took a 30-minute nap, roughly. I officially began counting my 24 hours awake at 5PM so below you will find a detailed timeline of my 24 hours awake experiment (AGAIN PLEASE DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME, much love).
5PM - 9PM
I FaceTimed my mom, told her about this plan and she sort of giggled. I ate some dinner, got some sodas (hoping the caffeine will help keep me up) and relaxed for a little while. I told my roommate that my sleep schedule has been a mess and what my plan was to get it on track as my schedule has become busier over the last few days and how I need to start taking vitamins to boost my energy. She told me about this hydrating powder you can add in your water that also increases your energy- Liquid IV Energy Multiplier (Lemon ginger flavor) so I of had to try it. I mixed the powder and water and started drinking it after 9PM.
9PM - 12AM
Although not fun, I had to find ways to keep myself busy during this 24-hour period especially overnight, so I started with my study guides for my philosophy test coming up. The first study guide alone was so thick with content it took just under two hours to complete. Either way I think the concept make more sense now so studying is always a plus for sure. Anyway, I was sipping the hydrating energy drink and had maybe 25-30% of the drink consumed but I wasn’t sure if I should drink it all at once or not for the full effect. My roommate told me to drink it all at once for the full effect, so I drank the rest of it a few minutes ago.
12AM - 3AM
I have reached boredom. Although I am keeping myself busy, homework is so boring. Writing in the blog is my current escape for being in that state. My fingers and neck are starting to hurt as well from hours of writing, typing, and sitting at my desk. While I do feel awake, I am almost compelled to go to bed because I never realized how boring writing about research can be… I get what my TA’s meant by pick a topic you enjoy.
3AM - 6AM
This time was filled with major confusion about my Psych research assignment and I promise I have read the instructions 5 times or more. Usually, my roommate and I don’t stay up this late and if we do, it’s usually one of us by ourselves but she was trying to get some assignments done too so she could start fresh this week and stayed up with me until 5:30 roughly. While struggling to do this assignment (please laugh, it’s okay, every college kid feels my pain right now) my roommate downloaded Spotify and started telling me about all these 90’s to early 2000’s songs she is rediscovering and how old she felt because she knew them. Some of these songs are straight iconic, as in I would be down to have a jam session to all of them in my car driving through the Flagstaff Mountains. We also talked about random stuff like potential day trips and bringing both our friend groups together to hang out and of course we had some girl talk. Even though it probably didn’t last as long as most of our conversations do (and yes, we don’t know how half of our 4+ hour conversations begin half the time) it was a much needed, short mental break. After that conversation I continued my research assignment and listening to my rad tunes to keep me going. What music do you listen to when studying or even doing chores around your home?
6AM - 11AM
Okay guys… brace yourself. At one point I thought I was doing this assignment wrong but wasn’t and just realized I needed to add a page that I can literally do in like 15 minutes. Well… needless to say I think I’m officially reconsidering my major (I’m mainly joking but who hasn’t felt this way on overnighters). This time block has been super lame, so I won’t bore you with those details. My roommate eventually went to bed sometime between 5AM and 6AM and let me just say: Candy if you’re reading this, I wish I could fall asleep as fast as you can. She also sat up at about 9AM and asked if I really hadn’t slept at all yet and I told her I had been sitting in this same spot since she fell asleep, she giggled and she’s snoozing now! I hope she’s getting some good zzzzz (maybe for the both of us).
-SIDE NOTE- That drink really worked. I’m not going to lie chugging it made me initially tired but for the most part I feel good. I do have moments of tiredness but that is probably because I am bored out of mind from homework. Additionally, at this point this post may become obnoxiously silly if you’re not with it no worries!
I have 2 essays and an exam left…. Wish me luck? (;
11AM - 3PM
Other than talking to my roommate I took my first real break from homework at 11:57. I literally plopped on the floor a stretched out… what a great mental break. Eventually, I finished that crazy paper. I began to feel tired between 2 and 3 but I just think it’s because my brain was put to work for so long.
3PM - 9PM
After all of this I just wanted a nice (boiling hot) shower. It made me feel so good and refreshed in addition to making my muscles feel loose. My brain juices were replenished. I spent some time watching an episode or two of a Disney throwback. Then I had a few meetings which had fun content and was another nice little mental break.
9PM - 1AM
Rounding out my 24-hours awake (as I have long past that mark), I had to finally take that exam. The exam was 90 questions in 90 minutes, some of these questions requiring a written response. First, I would like to say I understand why some instructors give 1 minute per question because of cheating however this was for a philosophy class and philosophy is a lot of interpretation (as my instructor has expressed). I wish I would have had maybe 10 extra minutes because the last 10 question I had to speed read through. Also, when the test got to 0 seconds I was barely scrolling onto the last question and just clicked so it would record some sort of answer. This happened to be the first answer since that is where my mouse was, and I know I didn’t pick the right answer and that sort of sucks because I did know the answer but now missed the points.
Update: The Liquid IV Energy Multiplier did some sort of magic. The moments I felt tired were after sitting in my chair for hours just using my smart brain which made me sleepy but after I gave my brain a break, I felt awake, energized, and good all together. Also, I thought maybe I would need another energy drink before I tried this to get through this 24-hour period and I decided not to because I knew at some point I did need to go to sleep and I am so glad I did not drink another energy drink because I am still wide awake at 1 AM going into my third day (Monday). Without this drink I would have hit that wall where I crash at like 22 hours of being awake.
At this point I think I should take my mom and roommates advice and catch some zzzzz. I’m pretty sure everyone is questioning how I am even functioning at this point.
Don’t Stay Up to Late IG @lexiekristinlee
**** Disclaimer: I am not an expert or doctor. I am not sponsored by the drink brand. I am not sponsored by Spotify. This was just my opinion and experience (as many of my friends asked for my opinion after I used the drink). ****