The Sleeping Beauty Project

Please go to number 102 on my playlist for an extra effect for my post.

(New York, Rockefeller Plaza '95)

First, I'm not calling myself a beauty (the title of this post)...the above picture (and pictures below) proves this to be false. ;) What I am speaking of is an experiment I am conducting for my English, yes English, class. It was my idea to do, but my teacher helped me revise it to make it a little more interesting. What I am doing is conducting an experiment of my sleeping habits and how it effects different aspects of my life. My project will take place over a 6 week period (I've already done 2 weeks) and luckily I'll be done the week before finals week so it won't mess with that week's schedule. It sound crazy. . . because it is:

For three weeks I will be going to bed at 10 pm and getting up at 6 am; a solid eight hours of sleep. For the other three weeks I will be going to bed at 1 am and again getting up at 6 am. Only 5 hours of sleep; not so good, especially for a college student. (The National Sleep Foundation suggests that college aged students get 9 hours of sleep a night.) I will flip flop the weekly schedules: 1st week to bed at 10, 2nd week to bed at 1, 3rd week to bed at 10, and so on. There are three observations I will be making between the three sets of different sleeping week patterns (1st and 2nd week are one set, 3rd and 4th, 5th and 6th are the other two sets.) The first observation for the first 2 weeks has been on my overall heath and how I feel physically & mentally. The next two weeks I will see how it will effect my social life and the last two weeks I'm going to see how it effects my schooling.

(Freshman year, Winter Semester '06...loverly)

Confused? If so, I'm sorry for my poor writing abilities, but I shall press on. Man, I can tell you now that this is SO HARD, especially the 1 am-6 am hours. I use to be able to stay up til 1 am without a problem, but this semester there is NO way!! I started going to bed on average around 11ish about a little over a month ago and I can't do the whole "night owl" thing I use to claim to be able to do. The first week when I was going to bed at ten, I actually really liked it. I thought I would miss out on a lot of roommate/social things, but I didn't (except for one "major" thing with Michelle.) At the beginning of the week I would sometimes have a hard time falling asleep at ten because my mind would wonder and I wouldn't get to sleep for another 30+ minutes, but by the end of the week I was asleep within a few minutes.

(Winter Semester '09 (Wow, I'm really pretty.))

But this week, the 1 am - 6 am week, man, it has been so tiring. Given, this week I have been more physically involved than most (6+ hours of cycling, 1.5 hours swimming, 3 hours TAing for a tap class, and how ever much running/walking to/from campus (this is just exercising, no classed or homework involved.)) I don't think I have been more tired in my life. And that's saying a lot because Interior Design wreaked havoc on my body/mind from lack of sleep. (I'm going to do the same workout schedule this coming week (a 10 pm - 6 am week) to balance the experiment out.) Last night, after my friend who was visiting from Logan left, I recall saying, and I quote, "I feel like my eyeballs are going to fall out of my face because I'm so tired!" and that was only at about 9:30 (if not before,) and I had to stay up til 1 am!!! Now don't get me wrong, it hasn't been totally heinous this week, it has actually been pretty fun all thing accounted for and I have gotten a lot done. I even learned to play most of "Postcards From Far Away" by Coldplay on the piano!! (Go to number 85 on my playlist. It's SO beautiful!) But I can't wait until Sunday comes so I can switch back to the 10 - 6 hours.

From what I have experienced these past couple weeks I have come to the conclusion that 11 o' clock will probably be my ideal bed time, if not before. And I love getting up early. Before school even started I was always up before 7:45, even on the weekends. It just feels good. My "night owl" nights are over, for the most part.

(The night before my marathon. Fall Semester '09)

The following video is of my cousin Brock, who has had a sleepwalking problem since he was little. Here is one of the many videos (click here to see more highly suggested HILARIOUS videos from Brock & Veronica's blog (Scroll way down towards the bottom)) that was filmed of him sleepwalking/talking back in '07. Enjoy. (Make sure to pause my music so you can actually hear him talking...sorry I'm being so demanding.) :)

Happy sleeping!
______________________

Update:
Check this out!! My roommate just showed me this quote by Elder Bednar and I about died!!

"Remember, our bodies are not our own; they are on loan from God. Indeed, they are temples, and the Spirit of the Lord should dwell therein and shine through. And, may I quickly add, it is harder for the Spirit to shine in and through our physical bodies when we are dozy and dull from foolishly going to bed at 1:30 a.m. or 2:30 a.m. or later night after night after night. (D&C 88:124)"

The first thing I did/said after he said 1:30 a.m. was clapped my hands together and exclaimed, "OH SNAP!!" So perfect!! I'm totally using that in my paper. It's going to be perfect for my new found love of going to bed between 10-11 p.m. :)