FEATURES
8:45 p.m. I spent an hour in traffic thinking about all the stuff I had
I tried re-reading the notes and focusing on each point,
to do while the blinking taillights lit up in front of me. I’m
reading them slower, but it isn’t working. The words are
home. I’m already exhausted. I think this is because I didn’t
morphing into gibberish.
get a whole lot of sleep the previous night. The project is due tomorrow. What I should do is set my alarm for 6 a.m. and
2:45 a.m.
get at least five hours of sleep before my first class, but I’m
I’m starting to freak out now. I can’t focus, I feel like garbage
not going to let myself do that because I’ll fall back asleep
and I’ve made minimal progress. My mind won’t stop blasting
and then wind up in a frantic rush to finish before class time.
me with the scene from “The Conjuring” where the gnarled hands come out of the bureau and clap. I’ve got goosebumps
9:45 p.m.
now as I’m starting to imagine this happening with my
I’m fighting a lot of distractions. I have to ask the Google
bedroom door and I turn to look at it every few seconds.
gods and Lynda question after question about Adobe Premiere every few seconds because my experience is limited
4:15 a.m.
and I didn’t take the best of notes in class. While on the
I’ve woken up from a brief nightmare that involved my door
internet, I’m tempted to just scroll through my news feed,
opening and slamming shut on its own. I closed my laptop,
maybe look at pictures of puppies or do something equally
left my room, hurried down the hallway, feeling like I was
mindless. The more my body starts to crave sleep, my ability
being followed. I’m going to try and go to bed when I shake
to stay focused and work efficiently decreases. The desire to
this spooked feeling. If not, I’ll just wait for the sun to come
Google pictures of various carnivorous plants and try to carry
up at six. No further progress made on my project.
on an intelligent conversation with Cleverbot increases. 6:15 a.m. 10:45 p.m.
The sun has started rising, so I went back to retrieve
Adobe After Effects won’t open for some reason. I have a
my laptop. On the way back I stopped and looked in the
headache, so while I’m trying to come up with possible
bathroom mirror. My eyes were bloodshot. I looked down at
solutions to work around this and finish my project,
my hands. They were shaky. The light cast an eerie glow on
nothing is sticking.
everything around me. I opened my bedroom door, expecting to see some evil face with a twisted smile, but instead was
11:45 p.m.
greeted with the remnants of the night: pencils and pens
My head is pounding. My eyes are droopy. If I lay back for
strewn across the desk along with different books, a water
just a second I would be asleep in no time. I look over my
bottle, my laptop and my notebook still open. The writing in
shoulder at my bed: messy, yet undeniably comfortable. I
my notebook transformed into an unknown language around
have this little voice in my head that’s telling me to lay down.
4 a.m., some of the letters trailing off and turning into just
Just 20 minutes. Bargaining is a stage of grief.
scribbles. I still need to go to bed. If I sit down to finish my work, I may just laugh hysterically out of sleep deprivation.
12:45 a.m. I’ve scrolled through my Facebook newsfeed and there’s a
Enough is enough. I’ll set an alarm for a few hours from now.
tab open with a meme of a raccoon on it. I’ve lost focus but
9:15 a.m.
don’t remember how. I’ve decided to take an hour break. I’ll
I woke up at 8 a.m. and finished my project at 9 a.m.
get some water, snacks and read to give my mind a break. I
I’m running on roughly two hours of sleep and a lot of
want to sit down somewhere a little more comfortable than
adrenalin. The project itself isn’t what I would call perfect,
my computer chair but if I do I’ll fall asleep. I wake up from
but since when have I ever looked at my work with anything
a few minute outage with my head in my hands, there’s a
but derision? Jokes aside, there are some things that are
little bubble of drool on my keyboard. Going to get a tissue to
definitely missing from this and my mind is shot to pieces so
clean this up. Lost this battle, but the war effort continues.
finding some way to circumvent this is not happening. So not only is sleep deprivation destroying my health and wellbeing,
1:45 a.m.
it may just kill my grade too. Tonight, I may try and get some
As I attempt to read over some project notes on my break, I
sleep even though it’s finals week. Maybe.
find myself reading the same sentence over and over again.
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