Life as a night owl

Lester Duhe

While you may be sleeping soundly in your bed, pillows fluffed, lights off and tucked under the covers, some people do not have this seemingly simple luxury.

College students are widely considered to fit this mold, due to high-level courses, unusual job hours, stress or even partying all night.

With the intense stress of school, Jasmine Nikdast, biology senior, would strongly consider herself a forced insomniac.

“When everyone else is sleeping, I’m usually not. With my major, biology pre-med, there is an immense amount of work and studying that needs to be done, and most of the time, there isn’t enough day time to complete it all,” Nikdast said.

Mary Staes, a desk assistant at WWL-TV and mass communication senior, works the overnight shift on the weekends at WWL from midnight to 8 or 9 a.m. While her work hours may be difficult, she believes the lack of sleep is worth it.

“I work when most of the world is asleep, and I sleep while most of the world is awake,” Staes said.”Work really gives me a feeling of satisfaction and importance, but I really wish I was asleep,” Staes said.

Lauren Vega, visual arts junior, said her mind becomes more active before going to sleep forcing her to stay awake into the wee hours of the morning.

“I get anxiety about having to go to sleep, my mind keeps racing, and I have lots of restless nights,” Vega said.

While trying to fall asleep is difficult for Staes, Nikdast and Vega, sleeping pills are a priority to catch some z’s, according to Nikdast.

“It helps to shut my mind down,” Nikdast said.

In order to try and get some sleep, Vega has put together some tips for herself that help. She tries to drink less caffeine, limit her television and computer usage at night, and tries to go to bed not too late and not too early.

While staying up all night may have some perks, less sleep definitely impacts their daily routines. Nikdast believes that while she may feel she has more energy from staying up all night, it greatly affects her throughout the day.

Vega said that she wants people to understand that insomnia is a real issue and can’t be willed or forced away.

“It’s real, people always tell me just to relax and go to sleep, yet they don’t understand that I can’t do anything about it,” Vega said.

Counting sheep, staring at the ceiling, scrolling through their phones, tossing and turning, and pulling several all-nighters in a row: this is the life of a night owl.