However, the one of my biggest regrets is the complete disparity between my love of sleep and the actual amount of sleep I get. It's usually my own fault, but I often go to bed too late to get a good night's rest. As a result, I find myself sleeping in a variety of unconventional places.
My most common bed-away-from-my-bed is any flat surface in front of my face. Coincidentally, this surface tends to be a desk, so I guess you could call this "sleeping in class," though I prefer to think of it as simply "recharging my brain."
Apart from my love of sleeping, I also love doing my homework anywhere except for a desk. Such alternate locations include my bed, a sofa, or on a pile of blankets. As a result, I will occasionally find myself waking up with a faint trigonometric function imprinted on my face. When my parents see this, they must think that I worked so hard that I fell asleep on my homework, which I guess isn't a bad thing. Sometimes, these imprints can also pass off as thought-provoking face tattoos.
And of course, the flat surfaces to best all other flat surfaces: the floor. Much like a real cat, as long as I have a blanket or other similarly comforting item, I will happily convert any floor space into a respectable bed. My definition of "floor" is also very flexible. On one occasion, my brother simply found me in a cocoon of blankets, sprawled on the stairs.
As one may expect, this tendencies lead to some very strange sleeping habits. The truth is, scheduled commitments like school, church, and eating are the only things that keep me living in the same time zone as my fellow people. Should these commitments disappear, my sleeping schedule becomes like a liquid, apt to flow and change on a whim. Usually, this simply leads to minor sense of "social jet lag." However, like any problem, this one once hit an extreme.
One midsummer's night, as I was getting ready for bed, I decided to pull out my computer and browse the web. This was a mistake. As many may know, the internet is a source of unlimited entertainment, and can prove to be very controlling for a weak-willed mind. For example, if one has no plans for the next day, there is literally nothing stopping you in terms of how long you choose to entertain yourself. It is for this reason that I soon found myself curled in my bed, having not slept a minute, watching my sixth consecutive episode of a horrible Asian drama. Even stranger, the entire time, I had no awareness of the world around me. It was only when I heard the faint chirping of birds outside my window that I realized something had gone horribly wrong.
What had happened? Did my clock really read "5:30AM"? And if so, why did I show no signs of fatigue? I rolled around in confusion and read for a bit, but alas, I still felt no trace of tiredness. The clock now read "7AM", but of course, I could no longer trust such a silly thing. Something in the space-time realm had been altered, and I needed to quickly do something that would ground me back in reality.
So I went downstairs and made some pasta.
Now, I have never tried any illegal, hallucinogenic substances before, but in those few minutes I spent making pasta, I must have gotten pretty close. With every stir of the wooden spoon, I fell deeper into this strange, mysterious world, in which I apparently did not require sleep and was actually the first of my family to get up in the morning. Did the answer lie in the angel hair I was stirring? I stared into the abyss of the noodles, only to receive a bunch of hot steam in my face.
I finally came to terms with the fact that I may never escape this world. I would simply have to make the best of it. Thus, I silently scooped the pasta out of the pot, dumped some meat sauce on it, and proceeded to eat. As I ate, the sun grew brighter. The bird's chirping grew more intense. At some point, the clock had changed to read "9AM", but of course, that meant nothing to me anymore.
Then, all of a sudden, my peace was shattered: I heard the sound of my brother rolling in his bed upstairs. Suddenly, I was vulnerable, exposed. I didn't know why, but something about my family's sleeping state contradicted the fundamental laws of the world, and I felt that, should I see them wake, a very fragile balance in the universe would be destroyed. There was no time to lose-- I had to escape. As swiftly as I could, I cradled my half-finished pasta in my arms and raced back up the stairs.
Returned to the safety of my room, I was able to relax again. Eventually, I finished the remains of my pasta. I rolled around a bit more. Then, somehow, I fell asleep.
When I awoke, I knew at once that it was all over. The world had righted itself, and it was once again another summer morning. Some part of me wondered if I had simply dreamed it all up, and, as a reflex, I turned to my desk to check the time. And at that moment, I couldn't help but to feel somewhat satisfied. As short as it was, my strange, other-worldly adventure would be forever confirmed by the clock face, which read "3:30PM", and the empty pasta bowl that sat beside it, which was still warm.
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I got some of the concepts for this post from this video here, from ASAP Science. It's pretty interesting, so I recommend checking it out!
