Okay Fam.
If you are currently a student on this thread, you are either…
A.) stressing about getting into a college
B.) looking to some way to satisfy your insecurities about getting into college (it’s okay- haha I do it too!) or
C.) Genuinely looking for information about a particular college
So I’m a current IB student who is looking to apply to a couple of Ivies and other upper level schools. I’ve got a good hook, good ACT, good GPA, good story ya dah ya dah ya- you’ve heard if before (I would love to get in, but i’m cool if I don’t too!). But that’s not what this post it about. Since the people reading this post are probably also grade-crazy nerd from all around the world (just like meeee!), you’ve probably experienced just how stressful school can be. Now i’m the kind of person who loves high-stress situations. However, my big concern is getting enough sleep.
If me writing this post at 2:15 in the morning didn’t already signify it, I don’t usually get more than 4 hours of sleep every night. Similarly, I end up crashing on Fridays, and sleeping for 13 hours, rendering half of my Saturday unproductive or really suckish if there is a standardized test to take. On top of the IB Diploma and college apps, I also run a self-made research business, am the president of 4 clubs (and help out in another 2), am applying for large scholarships (like the Coca Cola one), and am currently planning my own TedTalk (yayaya). Like I said, i’m cool with this stifling busy schedule (frankly, if you are on this website, you probably are too!). But i’m having a really hard time dealing with such a lack of sleep! It’s not like I come home at watch TV for an hour or check my phone- I literally get up 15 minutes before school starts, rush to school, stay after school for an hour or two for clubs, do work with my business/tedtalk/e-mail stuff, do homework, and go to bed around 2 or 3. But the side effects of sleep are really starting to kick in. I find myself having a hard time looking for positive things everyday (as a normally optimistic person, I find this kind of debilitating), and am always having to fight staying awake in class. I’m grouchy with my class mates, and see them in similar situations- it’s pretty depressing, especially because our school is pretty dirty and is kind of falling apart. I seem to just look forward to the next opportunity to sleep, and drink so much caffeine (for me, tea works better than coffee, but stains my teeth and drives me crazy!) that it impacts my digestion. While my diet still remains good, I don’t have time to exercise much, so I feel a little weaker in comparison. Sometimes, i’ll get so tired I hear a ringing it my ears for hours on end- it’s like my brain is overheating!! I often find myself so close to dozing off when reading assigned pieces at home that it’s like my brain blacks out for a second or two. I feel like a computer that is dying to be rebooted. I have to be working at a 100% capacity at every moment of every day! But to do that, I don’t have time for sleep. But I can’t function without sleep- it’s a vicious cycle.
Thus, I was wondering what tips current or past high school students might have on ways to deal with little sleep, or even ways to get more sleep with an impossible (or seemingly impossible) schedule.
But, like the title suggests, you guys are my college stress fam! How are you holding up? Are college apps tearing you from limb to limb too?
I would appreciate any info, and I hope you all continue to hang in there!
Thanks,
~M
thanks