Signs of a Sleep Deprived Grad Student

Full-time work, seminary teaching, graduate school, and part-time interning are starting to their toll on me. I’m a lot punchier than I usually am when I’m not sleep deprived. See, I’m generally the quintessential night owl. I like to go to bed around two or three am and sleep until ten am. Lazy? Nah, just bound and determined to get eight hours of sleep a night.

Since school, early-morning seminary, and my internship all started the same week, I’ve been waking up around 5 am and trying to go to bed by about 10 pm. So far, it hasn’t worked out well for me.

Anyway, I generally know when I am sleep deprived by the fact that I find the world considerably funnier. Case in point:

I was sitting in class yesterday, thinking about my errands I needed to run after class. I remembered I need to pick up a part for my computer (a Mac book). I don’t live in the area where I go to school, and I am unfamiliar with the city. I turn to my classmate who lives in Winston-Salem and I ask, “Do you know if there is an Apple Store anywhere in town?”

“An apple store?” he says. “I think there’s some fruit stands around.”

At that point I burst into uncontrollable giggles and pointed to my computer. My classmate laughed too. Here is where the sleep deprivation comes in. Instead of giggling at our miscommunication and then refocusing my attention on my professor’s lecture, I giggled uncontrollably (albeit quietly) for ten minutes while my classmates and professor stared at me in confusion. Even after we explained the joke to the class, no one could quite understand my uncontrollable laughter.

“ANYWAY…” my professor said, and resumed her lecture, and the class went on while I struggled to regain my composure.

See, even as you read it, I’m sure it’s not all that funny. I have countless examples of laughing hysterically over nothing when I am tired.

This is why the majority of us social workers need to sleep more. When those hours are going to come, I’m not entirely sure. Probably not for the next 15 months while I get through this program. Do you think if we put together a petition and got 10,000 signatures, we could successful convince God to give us longer days?

Posted in: Coursework,graduate school