Starting in 6th grade, school stress and assignments began to take its toll on my sleeping habits. Foothill Middle School isn't exactly the easiest school out there in terms of homework load. I remember having to construct pyramids for history class, do reports on specific countries for geography, do daily write-ups for science, do a seemingly endless number of word problems for math, do research papers for P.E., practice my part in orchestra, try to learn a new language, etc. I would say that my troubles with sleeping began during these formative years. As more homework assignments started rolling in, I began staying up later and getting up earlier. I would wake up in the middle of the night worrying about due dates and presentations in class. Even when I was exhausted, I had difficulty shutting off my brain enough to fall asleep.
The insomnia only escalated further when I hit high school and began attending early morning seminary. Every morning, I rolled out of bed at 4:25 AM so that I could shower, get dressed, dry my hair, eat breakfast, get any last minute homework done, and be at the Northgate Chapel on time for 6:00 seminary. When I came home from school, I sat at the table and did all of my homework until I finished late in the evening. Unlike some high schools in the area, we did not have block schedules where we only had certain classes on specific days of the week. We had all of our classes every day. Each day we were assigned a new homework load, and I was not one to skip out on assignments or only do them halfway. After finishing all of my homework as best I could, I would steal into bed around 10:00 or 11:00 at night just to toss and turn and get up the next morning at 4:25 to start the whole process over again.
One day during my sophomore year of high school, I had had a particularly troublesome night sleep. I had gone to bed only a couple of hours before getting up to get ready that morning. As usual, I rolled out of bed when my alarm went off at 4:25. My eyes remained closed during the entirety of the hot shower that followed. I got ready without even really noticing what I was putting on. My Dad took me to seminary where I sat in silence, eyes glassy and chin resting on my arm. The kids with cars then drove us over to the school where we started our A Period classes at 7:00 AM, mine being Chemistry. I sat down in my assigned seat in the front row of the classroom. Mr. Moniz turned the lights off while we watched a short film on elements combining to make molecules. I could feel myself drifting...I vaguely remember hearing Mr. Moniz say, "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." A question flitted across my mind as to why we were talking about physics in chemistry. Then I was rudely pulled out of my stupor by a loud THWACK on my desk. My head shot up, my arms flew out to my sides, and I looked up to find Mr. Moniz standing over me with a ruler in hand. "See!" He exclaimed, "That was quite the reaction!"
Needless to say, I never fell asleep in class again no matter how tired I was...at least not until college :)
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