A Chronicle of Sleeps Retold
07.28.10

Theorem. Your school load increases exponentially with respect to your free time.

Proof. Who needs proof?

It is my first semester without any Math subjects and I imagined it to be one slaved in front of my computer, coding, reading ebooks and language manuals. Well, I'm not wrong but I'm not completely correct either. My Computer Science subjects are still math, albeit currently more inclined towards the discrete form than the continous. True to my vision, I read ebooks and language manuals but I do not code as much as I expected. At home, I stay up until the wee hours of the morning trying to sneak in a small bit of code or so and, when time permits, an episode of Lost.

It's lucky that our library has a sofa where it is not forbidden to sleep. Just last Friday I found myself being a bedspacer among books, waking up just in time for my next class. Without it, college life would've been unbearable. Unlike high school, I am making an extra effort not to doze off in class, without much success sadly. I even remember sleeping through almost all the lectures involved for Math 55's second long exam.

(As far as I remember my high school slumber sessions occurred only during my fourth year. I remember, once during Filipino class, I was sitting in the front row, right in front of our teacher, and I dozed off. I don't remember her scolding me though.)

During regular school days, my life revolves around Computer Science, EEE, and Statistics. My EEE and Statistics subjects are specially for CS majors. Hence, I do not see much variety of faces during the course of the week. What a shame. I love CS people but I also love the experience afforded by being with different people on every other class even if I do not talk to my classmates that much. Being with almost the same people throughout the week is an experience I've come to associate with the illogical (and largely unnecesary) travails of basic education.

One thing nice about being around almost the same people the whole week is that feeling of camaraderie inspired by the informal club of sleep ninjas you eventually form. I remember, one Statistics lecture, dozing off then waking up only to find about three or four others taking power naps. I turned to ask a non-sleeping classmate if the attendance already went our way. She assured me that it hasn't yet and that I can safely sleep again. What's even better with this sleep club is that you learn some nifty lecture-sleeping techniques. In one lecture (Statistics, again) everyone in my immediate area was amazed by one of our classmate's sleep-disguise form: at first glance she seemed to be shuffling through the songs in her iPod but on closer inspection you'll find her brain waves away from the conscious plane.

And lest you get the impression that we only sleep during Statistics class, let me tell you that we (the antecedent being all members of the sleep club) have already slept through almost all our classes. I, for one, has had a taste of slumber during my Operating Systems class. I even inspired one of my classmates during that same lecture. I sincerely hope that the sight of us didn't offend our instructor. In one Algorithms lecture, I thought of borrowing the guy-behind-me's copy of our reference book. I changed my mind upon seeing that he was having an intimate moment with his desk. And then in one EEE lecture, I pity that other guy behind me who went for a quick nap during the five-minute break only to wake up around twenty minutes later, deep into the second part of that day's lecture.

Hey, when did I write this? During elementary school? Sleep deprivation has some interesting effects!