College: The Place That Never Sleeps

As i sit here and blog about this, my eyelids are slowly falling over my eyes. But i snap back awake in order to write this blog.

So why blog about this?

Well, first off i am currently a college student and therefore i know what it is like to lose sleep. Having to stay up all night in order to finish that paper or to study for that test. It was exhausting and it felt like you were never getting any sleep. I remember at one point when i would only get about 5 hours of sleep Monday through Friday then sleep for 9-10 hours Saturday and Sunday. Falling asleep around midnight then having to wake up around 5 a.m. in order to get to the shower and get ready for my early class. I won't lie...that sucked!

However, in my final semester, my first class doesn't start until 11 a.m. everyday versus 8 a.m. everyday in the past. You won't believe what 3 hours will do for you in sleep.

I remember going to Vietnam and what is was like to sleep over there (ngủ - sleep in Vietnamese). Considering i traveled halfway around the world and was in a different timezone, not to mention i was in a completely new surrounding with people who were basically strangers, it was next to impossible for me to get sleep. But as i grew accustomed to my surroundings and better understanding of the people i was staying with i was able to get sleep again.

Ok now to the second reason i decided to blog about this.

Aside from experiencing sleep deprivation in the past, i was listening to the radio on my way to school today and heard the host of the radio show talking about hte medical side of sleep.

First off, you know that your body does most of the healing while you are asleep. But there's more to it than that. As humans, we are supposed to get around 8 hours of sleep. Not getting 8 hours of sleep does have consequences. For example, did you know tha not getting the proper amount of sleep can lead to diabetes, a spike in your blood sugar levels and a drop in your body's insulin? That's like a triple whammy right there.

Lack of sleep can also lead heart disease, memory loss and loss of concentration as well to name a few. Remember in my last post when i said Vietnamese people eat healthier than we Americans do? Yeah, they sleep better than we do as well. No seriously, i went to Vietnam and Vietnamese took naps in the middle of the day. It's like every Vietnamese's internal clock said "pull out the hammock" around noon and take a nap. Do you know how wonderful a nap is? Now that I'm back in America, i don't nap. But Vietnamese people do. Oh, they do. I saw people literally sleeping on the sidewalk in hammocks out in the open. You do that in America, you get mugged.

So now that i have shown you how important sleep is, are you going to get 8 hours of sleep? I am. Yeah, I'm going to go get myself some ngủ.