Read o, Read o! But What If Nature Says Sleep?

 

Photo Credit: Pexel

Elizabeth Fatokun

‎Sade planned to do TDB, but she ended up sleeping throughout.‎

‎As undergraduate students, we all want to perform excellently in our various academic fields. We have heard about how important discipline, consistency, attending lectures, doing assignments and also reading every day are, especially to avoid bulky materials.

‎But have we ever thought about how feasible this is? It seems like a case of easier said than done.

‎We can imagine a student who sets an alarm to wake up at night to revise but wakes up at 8:00 a.m. the following day. Perhaps it is no longer about setting priorities but about how to fulfil them, because sometimes, nature may have another plan.

‎So, before we blame that student or cram another line of motivation into our heads, we should take nature into consideration.

‎Yes, discipline is important. Consistency is important too. As students, we have responsibilities towards our academics, but have we also considered the fact that we are human? We are not machines that can simply be programmed to read at a particular time and perform perfectly regardless of our surroundings.

‎Sometimes, the weather itself seems to have a role to play. There are days when the weather is hot and uncomfortable, making concentration difficult. Then there are those days when the weather becomes cold, calm and comfortable, and suddenly, sleep becomes much more appealing than the material we promised ourselves we would read.

‎This is where the struggle begins. You tell yourself that you will only rest for a few minutes before continuing with your reading. Those few minutes turn into an hour, and before you know it, morning has arrived. The book is still open. The notes are still untouched. The alarm has probably gone off several times, and somehow, you are still sleeping.

‎So, is the student lazy? maybe, maybe not.

‎Sometimes, procrastination is simply procrastination, and we have to take responsibility for it. But sometimes, it is not necessarily about a lack of discipline. Sometimes, the body is tired. Sometimes, the environment affects how we feel. And sometimes, nature simply decides that sleep is more important at that particular moment.

‎This does not mean that students should abandon discipline or use the weather as an excuse for everything. Rather, perhaps we need to understand that being consistent does not mean forcing ourselves to function like machines. It also means understanding our limits, getting adequate rest and creating realistic study plans.

‎After all, what is the point of spending hours with a book when the body is demanding rest and the mind is barely processing what is being read?

‎So, before we conclude that Sade is simply unserious because she planned to read and ended up sleeping, perhaps we should ask another question: what if nature had something to do with it?

‎Because at this point, we are not protesting against laziness.

‎We are protesting against nature itself.

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