Sleep essential to college life

There really aren't enough hours in the day. With class, midterms, studying, working, eating, writing research papers and calling your mom, we students often sacrifice a very special thing in order to get by in college.

You can see it in the gait of students on the way to class, all bundled up in plaid pajama pants and block-letter sweatshirts, wearing glasses and still running into trees. You can see it in the drool and handprints on comatose faces during 8 a.m. lectures in Chem 194. You can see it in soporific students huddled over mugs of glorious caffeine while studying until the sun comes up.

Sleep, oh how we adore you.

There is no greater feeling in the world than waking up clarion-eyed and refreshed after a wondrous night of verdant rapid-eye movement. Sometimes you wake up, the sun is shining, birds are chirping, you get to the bus stop on time and for some odd reason, you actually feel compelled to head to campus and start your day.

Unfortunately, most days I wake up with eyes all burny and rheumy from a lack of rest the prior night and groggily fall off my bed, somehow getting dressed and off to class - if I make it that far.

As a night person, I maintain a vast abhorrence for my vile alarm clock. The next time I hear that pernicious screeching wail, it will be all too soon. I am surprised that the alarm clock I purchased freshman year hasn't been reduced to plastic dust by now from my furious pounding of the snooze button.

The worst is when you hear an alarm clock go off during the day (like a roommate's or on a television commercial), and you just want to murder something. Hell hath no fury like a sleep-deprived college student.

Supposedly, if we don't sleep at least eight hours a night, then we build up a "sleep debt" that we eventually have to repay at a future date. If this is in any way true, then I will have to take the next year off to hibernate - I'm continuously kicking myself in the head for being a barney and not going to bed when I should.

And once you get to campus after not getting much sleep, it's a complete downward spiral to oblivion. I've tried everything to stay awake in class -- drinking lots of water, slapping myself in the face, sitting in uncomfortable positions, doodling in my notebook, pounding gallons of coffee. You name it, I've tried it. And there's no stopping the inevitable when you are feeling lethargic. You can always tell when it is going to be a bad day when you catch yourself falling asleep and wake up when your head starts to fall. Oh, and waking yourself up when you start to snore. How embarrassing.

The university needs to remove the 24-hour reading room in the library, and instead put in a bunch of cots you can rent by the hour. How awesome would that be? During breaks between your classes, just pay a dollar or so and sleep off that post-lunch daze without having to wander home. It would be a lot more comfortable than passing out in a lecture hall. I mean, hey, how many times have you gone home between classes with the premise of just taking a nap, only to awake hours later to a night sky?

Oh yeah, yesterday