My dorm room is silent and dark. The smell of freshly brewed coffee engulfs the small space. It’s coming from a black mug on the nearby brown window sill. Grey and white sheets are pushed halfway on top of me. I check my phone: it’s noon.  

As a college student, I thought it would be a clever idea to take classes this quarter in the late afternoon. The point of this was so that I could have more time to do the things I want to do and be able to sleep in. What I’ve learned is doing schoolwork late at night sucks.

College students get to choose their schedules every quarter. Most of the time, they’re limited to a few options. This becomes more of a problem when someone is at the end of a major. Most of the classes I’m taking next quarter will be in the afternoon again.

I have class four days out of the week. I wake up each day at noon. After showering and putting clothes on, I make a cup of coffee. There isn’t time to do anything else because I’m meeting my girlfriend at 1 p.m. Classes start an hour later and last three hours. Most of the day is gone by then and I haven’t done anything yet.

When you get out of classes late in the day, there is only so much time until midnight. I still need to go get dinner and work on homework. This can take several hours and sometimes more. At 9 p.m. or 10 p.m., I’m getting close to being done. I still haven’t had any time to myself or for other activities I wish to pursue.

Most weeks of mine consist of working on homework. Waking up in the afternoon follows me everywhere. Once you have a routine set in place, it’s difficult to change it. I wouldn’t know how to switch things up right now because I’m sure it would create more problems.

Waking up early just means that I’m pressured to work on things the day they’re due instead of getting them completed the night before.  During a creative writing class last quarter, I wrote a non-fiction story for an assignment. It ended up being a pissed-off rant about staying up late one night doing homework.

I ended citing the following reference in the final draft.

According to a page on WebMD.com, sleep plays a primary role in your ability to learn and think. If you don’t have enough sleep, there are many ways it can harm your cognitive processes.  

I’m guessing many college students have dealt with lack of sleep. Studying for homework, midterms and finals can take so much time. Add that to an individual taking afternoon classes, and I bet anyone would be really annoyed. You will stay up late doing classwork or go to bed early. Honestly, who wants to do either of those things?  I don’t.

Night owls must deal with harsh realities like no food options available on campus at 1 a.m. Other fun activities include being as quiet as possible, struggling to stay awake, not having anyone to ask for help on classwork and waking up in time for classes the next day.

Students should schedule classes earlier in the day. No one want to be doing homework past 5 p.m. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who is excited to be working at night. At a certain point, we all want to be doing something completely different and fun! That includes going to sleep at an early time as well.  

When I get out of bed each day, some college students are already done with their classes for the day. They’re onto doing their homework while I’m listening to a lecture or heading to meet my girlfriend between classes. I suspect some may think it would be easy to have an equilibrium in all of this.

It’s not.