For the last four years of high school I hammered away at life at an explosive pace, nailing out each day with the maximum amount of intensity and holding strong to the conviction that sleep was for the weak. “Sleep?,” I would respond to questions about my anti-sleep mentality, “Sleep is a waste of time. You only have one shot at life, and I’ll have plenty of time to sleep when I’m dead.” With five to six hours of sleep per night, I managed to do well wherever I applied myself. I had no reason to believe that my lifestyle was anything but an enhancement to my current and future goals.
Then I got to Cornell, where the famous 1,300 person Psych 101 dismantled every aspect of my beloved “no sleep” philosophy. Professor Maas not only systematically showed why 8 hours of sleep was necessary for optimal daytime performance, but also provided empirical evidence that showed the physiological and social detriments of sleep deprivation. I’ll leave the specifics out of the discussion—you can take Psych101, check out one of Maas’ books, or consult pretty much any introductory psychology textbook on the subject.
I was completely floored by this world-view-shattering information, but being a natural skeptic, I was still unconvinced on two points: 1) Sure, there’s a scientific explanation for why 8 hours of sleep is optimal and 6 hours of sleep is harmful, but I’ve been sleeping 5-6 hours for most of my teenage years, and I’ve been feeling great! In fact, I think I feel less aware and productive after I sleep 8-9 hours on a particular night. 2) I like to think that I’m a pretty vivacious person, and something doesn’t sit well with sleeping 8 hours per night and only being awake for 15-16 hours per day. There’s just so much to do, how could I waste so much time on sleep?
Despite my reservations, I decided to give this 8 hour sleep schedule a shot. After three weeks of a regimented sleep schedule, all of my reservations were removed. Not only did I feel cognitively sharper during the day, I also got a lot more done in 16 waking hours than I had ever previously done in 18-19 hours!
This all begs an interesting question: what else don’t I know? If I was wrong about something as certain as my “no sleep” mentality, maybe I’m wrong on other things? Maybe it’s not optimal to exercise five to six times per week, to eat a balanced diet, to lift weights, to socialize with friends, and to study a lot for classes? Yes, these propositions seem ridiculous, but for me, finding out that 8 hours of sleep is way better than 6 hours was equally ridiculous. If anything, this entire experience for me has turned into another warning against intellectual certainty. I like to think of education as a process of discovering more and more about how little you know about the world. So, I say, do everything in moderation, be open to persuasion, realize that half the things you might now be convinced on could be completely false, and don’t be surprised to hear that your favorite food is discovered to contain the newest deadly carcinogen.
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