theinfamousbob

I'm still awake; it's 5AM here. (Eastern Standard Time). I'm always up this late, yet it's not a big deal for me. Was/is this the norm for just about everyone here when they were in college/university?

...a lot of my friends are always up this late too. Not that there's anything to do; it's more of a "not-feeling-like-going-to-sleep" kinda thing. And yes, I did this when I was still living at home, only shifted back a little; had to be up at 6AM every day.

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-Ian

dknguyen

It's not just you. Naturally I would stay awake until 3am or so if I didn't have to get up. With alcohol, about 5am. woo!

As soon as classes were over and exams started I was regularily staying up to at least 3-4 am. My goal for tonight is 5am and my "supplie"
shhould suffice until then (its 330 right now here).

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bryan1

I aint got imsomnia I just can't sleep

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dknguyen

Two Words: Dor-Itos

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theinfamousbob

I'll see your Doritos and raise you a Mountain Dew.

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-Ian

Hank Fletcher

Yes and no. Every now and then I'd stay up late to finish a project. My first year I partied a fair bit, but even then I was till in bed by 1am. A lot of that was because I was all about getting in good shape back then (my uni had great fitness facilities). That said, I sensed that I was in the middle of bedtime trends in my first year: some jocks went to bed early and seemed like they were always sleeping, while film students didn't seem to ever go to bed the entire year. Apparently there was little correlation between bedtime habits and academic accomplishment when the results came in at year's end.

After my first year "life" happened, and it was either pull myself up by the bootstraps or drown. For that reason, I went hardcore into very conventional sleeping, eating, working patterns, etc. It didn't make me a lot of friends at the time, but for the liberties that were sacrificed then, I'm beginning just now to appreciate and enjoy the rewards of the forced labour back then. My advice: ideally, you should choose daily to make healthy living and working decisions, instead of those being just something you do when necessity dictates. You can either deal with adversity by digging yourself out of the hole, or deal with it by being prepared enough to avoid the holes in the first place. If you currently have the upper-hand on life, the choice is yours. If you currently don't, good luck to you, brother.

The opportunity for developing good sleeping and eating habits when starting college or university should be taken a lot more seriously than it is. There are a lot of factors that can distract you from what you'd otherwise realize is the best way to do things:
- the parental training wheels are finally off, so you're practicing real self-discipline for the first time ever;
- there are always unchaperoned girls around;
- you're at or close enough to the legal drinking age, and drugs are easy to score;
- you're living in close proximity with people who, by way of the academic filtering process, share much of the same interests as you do... even the non-scholastic interests;
- you're studying something that you were buzzed enough about already to make the effort to go to college or university to study;
- at around 19 years old, your body is at its most capable. You're stronger than you ever were, and more than it ever was and will be, it's most capable of bouncing back from physical, alcohol, caffeine, and drug abuse (sorry, mental abuse and STDs still seem to effect everybody about the same, although your immune system can hold off the appearance of symptoms for longer in the case of the latter).

Long story short, you're over-stimulated. That's why you can't, or choose not to, sleep. And you're an independent adult: your consciousness is yours to do with as you please, and the consequences of the decisions you make are 100% yours to enjoy or suffer. The parental safety-net is gone: no one is going to tell you you're wrong or right about the choices you make, as long as they're legal or you don't get caught.

The deception is perhaps that as you're growing, you're told, "When you're 18, you're an adult." Until that time, important decisions are made for you, because you don't have the capacity to make those for yourself. It's that incapacity that is the reason decisions are made for you - it isn't that when you turn 18, there are suddenly no more bad choices to make. The only difference when you turn 18 is that the choices, and the consequences, are yours to bear in their entirety. Just because you're 18 doesn't mean you're ready for it (for the most part it's an arbitrary number), but we throw you in the lion's den anyway. Good luck!

rjvh

I had the same and it for me it is now that i need only 4 hours sleep a day

but my body does need more rest a day i only don't sleep but do a lot of thinking

10 years ago even my body could cope with this patern but now i have more difficulties to recover from a late drinking night or skip a night if i am totaly in something

again it's not the sleeping part, that is from my 14 a 15 years old unchanged (4 a 5 Hours a day) but my body needs defenetly more rest as before
and i feel more tired as before if i doo the same tricks

I AM GETTING OLD

Robert-Jan

Hank Fletcher

Beats the alternative!

dknguyen

Getting young?

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Hank Fletcher

Since when has that been an option? Keep guessing, you'll figure it out.

Marks256

Death? Marriage? Degree in art ()?

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theinfamousbob

I see exactly what you're talking about with most of the people around me. It's, as one person in my dorm put it, freedom. The freedom to do whatever one wants. It hasn't manifested in the drinking/drugs/sex way that it has some other people, just in my sleeping schedule. I did have to wake up at 5:30AM for school from 12 years old onward, so I'm already pretty used to a small amount of sleep; six hours seems just about right. However, I can swing the other way and sleep nineteen hours without a problem, even if I had a full night's sleep before. I've seen kids slack off in school and not attend class at all this semester. They thought their parents would help out, seeing as they're rich and can afford to be here without actually being qualified enough to be here. Long story short, his parents are cutting off funding for school. The problem with my school (private university) is that it's expensive enough that you get the people that deserve to be here and have a generous scholarship, and the way-below-average people that have "Mommy and Daddy" pay for everything.

I do dislike the "You're 18; you're now an adult" idea. Sometimes it's so prominent around here that it makes me sick. I know people that have the motto "No self control 'til 21." These kids are contracting STDs, doing drugs, and drinking a few times per week. Not responsible drinking, either; they're getting trashed. As for the lion's den analogy...just give me a whip and chair.

I guess part of me is also bored with classes; I'm still taking all "core" material and the closest thing to computer engineering I've taken so far is the intro Java programming course, required for all engineering majors. I am going to TA it next semester, though; that'll be a source of income and a fun time.

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-Ian

dknguyen

Yeah, people always seem to be suprised that I didn't do anything for my 18th birthday. Everyone else I knew went out and drank themselves silly for their 18th. My parents are paying my way through university too. THe only reason I don't blow my money on food and liqour (that is not to say I don't spend any money on them) is because robotics puts a huge dent in my wallet. I have it pretty good financial-wise for now, though I am having a terrible time finding 4-month EE jobs here since this is Oil and Gas Alberta and everyone but EEs and CompEs can find a job. 4-month jobs are already really rare and they're even rarer because no one seems to need EEs or CompEs here (well CompEs seem to have an easier time since they can specialize in coding software). I'm also limited because it's just not worth it for me to work somewhere out of the city if my accomodations aren't paid for. I used to think no company would pay for accomodations for something as short for a 4-month work term but I was wrong. THey will...just not for EEs. You have to be in mining, civil, mechanical, or chemical or something else that is needed in Fort Mac.

And interestingly enough, my greatest motivation for working out is because I enjoy a drink a little too much and though money is a deterrent, it's not 100%. HOwever, if I'm sore from working out and I know my body is still healing I won't drink. Weird huh?

But I can proudly say that am essentially in the clear for university and have never had a cup of coffee or all-nighter yet! (though last semester I came 4 close to an all-nighter.)

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theinfamousbob

Sorry I've been wavering in and out; it's finals week so I'm studying for courses I'll never need again. Been close to an all-nighter with studying; I don't want to do this, however, because my exams are all 4PM to 7PM. I'd be worried about drifting off or at least not having full mental abilities.

In the meantime, I have to finish up studying for a chemistry of materials exam... this will be an interesting evening.

And dknguyen; it's the same thing with drinking here but replace the 18 with a 21.

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-Ian

dknguyen

We just finished our exams here.

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