I have always been a sleepyhead and as an engineering student, that’s a problem. In school, everybody has to deal with so many homework, exams and projects that having 24 hours isn’t enough to get everything done. While most of my peers managed to survive this situation, I just couldn’t help but spend a lot of hours sleeping. That has always been my problem.
Maybe you consider me lazy. Maybe I really am but I need to sleep a lot. I couldn’t function as a student if I can’t get enough sleep in a day. That’s why when my studies became more challenging for me, I had a tough time with my time management. When I had my major subjects already, I always had something to submit or take everyday. Whether that be an exam or a problem set I needed to submit the next day, working on them required that I spend the whole night just to make sure I get good grades.
So I decided to start studying in coffee shops.
Initially, I wasn’t open to the idea. What if I wanted to take a nap while studying there and wake up without my things anymore? What if it wasn’t really safe? I’ve seen my friends do it and they do a group study mostly in different coffee shops. So I decided to join them one day. When I finally arrived in the designated place where we were going to work on our problem set, everything was fun at first. We initially discussed our complaints about our professors and how unfair their requirements were.
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I ordered one cup of their strongest coffee and since they offered meals too, I decided to have dinner there as well. I told myself I was going to make myself comfortable if I was going to spend the night on a 24/7 coffee shop with my friends. I was drinking coffee and eating a decent meal, discussing with my friends what could possibly come out of our exam. There really wasn’t any rush to answer the problem set. Anyway, I was set to get everything done after I finish my dinner.
But of course, things didn’t go as I imagined. As soon as I started solving a problem, I realized how terribly difficult the problems were. My friends and I were trying to find similar problems with solutions on our books and on the internet just to get an idea what to do. Three hours later, I was so exhausted with the load yet we still weren’t halfway done. So I decided to take a nap at first.
For someone who had coffee, I still found myself sleepy. It sucked but I guess I needed a break from solving. So I asked my friend to wake me up after an hour so I could start solving my problem set again. There I was, oddly comfortable sleeping in a chair. For some reason, I ended up waking up in the morning. I was so shocked that the sun was out when I opened my eyes. Apparently my friends were trying to wake me up several times but I didn’t budge. I have betrayed myself. Good thing there were able to let me copy their solutions a few hours before the deadline.
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That wasn’t the only time I ended up sleeping in a coffee shop for a study night out. There were times when I do wake up but after a few minutes, I went back to sleep. I guess studying outside with friends never really works for me. Not even drinking the strongest coffee will help me escape my need to sleep.
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Now, I’m trying to survive engineering school by waking up very early. Less time sleeping but I still take naps. Do you have any suggestions for sleepyheads like me? As an engineering student, I feel terrible sleeping a lot while all my classmates are studying hard. I feel like I’m missing out on my academics.
