If you have to choose one animal that resembles you the most, what would you choose? To answer this question, I will not spend more than one second because I am a stereotypical night owl. I love the smell of the break of the day; I adore the moment when everyone is sleeping and I am the only one who is wide-awake; I enjoy the feeling of my brain busily working in the middle of the night; I just feel more efficient, vigorous, and flourishing when I stay up until late night. So, as you can see, I am for sure a night owl.
However, being a night owl is often extremely arduous for many reasons. First, the world views you as lazy-and-incompetent-to-wake-up-early type of person. As if the world was created solely by morning larks, night owls of our time are often treated as sluggish beings who do not know how to use their time efficiently. Second, even though you do not care of your reputation, the entire society and its systems are crafted for morning larks, not for night owls. Think about your life; you had to go to the kindergarten before the clock hits nine; your high school began classes around 8:30 in the morning; SAT took place in the morning, without giving you any other choice; your job interview never took place in the evening; you had to show up at the office every single day before 9:00 am; and all those inspiring books and speeches of our time talked about 'How To Use Your Morning Efficiently' or 'Miracle Morning' sort of things.
I also admired those morning larks when I was young. Because everyone around me praised their diligence and efficiency, I thought that being a night owl was something forbidden. When we were rubbing our eyes and yawning real hard during the first class of our days in high school, teachers often said "you must know how to wake up early in order to succeed in the rest of your life". Constant exposure to such environment made me to think that morning lark is something desirable and night owl is something that needs an immediate fix. I tried so hard while growing up to become an early bird. I set multiple alarms before going to bed, I tried to go to bed early the night before, and I even stopped drinking anything that contained caffeine. But, guess what? None of them worked and they rather made me feel more tired and drove my efficiency and creativity to the very bottom.
Also, apart from struggling between the morning lark and the night owl lifestyle, I tended to sacrifice my sleep in order to achieve something else. I was one of those people who say "I shall sleep when I die". Even though my doctor told me to provide myself at least seven hours of sleep every day and I actually had to go to the hospital more than once because of sleep deprivation, I completely ignored that advice partially because I was too busy studying (Complete side note: Before our AP exams, Alex and I went to Incheon International Airport--which was fifteen minutes away from our high school by metro--with bunch of books because our dormitory forced us to go to bed around midnight and we wanted to stay up all night, studying for the upcoming exams. We actually studied all night on the benches in the airport, went back to school around 6am, and managed to successfully take the exam.) and partially because I just wanted to spend some time of the day solely for myself. If I had an assignment to do, I worked on it until the break of dawn with bottles of coffee and tea. Then, after finishing the work, I did not go to bed but instead watched Netflix, read a book, or scrolled down instagram just to feel satisfied. On Monday, I slept for four hours and woke up at 6:30 am; on Saturday, I slept for ten hours and woke up at 2pm; on Sunday, I slept for six hours and woke up around 8am; in other words, my sleeping pattern was a total mess.
After graduating from high school, I went to college. Compared to my high school where everyone had to go to bed at 12:30 am and wake up at 6:30 am, college was a literal paradise. Depending on my class schedule, I could sleep more in the morning and go to bed late at night. I did not have to follow a static schedule prescribed by someone else (who is probably a morning lark). I could watch Netflix all night without anyone telling me to go to bed. If I decided to procrastinate instead of finishing my essay during the day, I could stay up all night and squeeze my brain to finish it before sunrise. If I wanted to go out at night, I could do so and sleep for twelve hours straight after coming back home. I was way happier, but there still remained a little piece of guilt that occasionally yelled at me "WAKE UP EARLY, SLEEP ENOUGH, AND GO TO BED REGULARLY, DUMBASS".
However, one book turned my life upside down: <Why We Sleep> by Matthew Walker. When I saw the title of this book, I could not resist myself picking it up and flipping through pages. When I came back home, I just sat down in a couch and began reading it. When I finished the first chapter, I was already moving onto the next page. And when I finished the book, I was happier than anyone else in my apartment complex because this book gave me an answer about everything related with 'sleep'. Mr. Walker, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, shed light to the agony of nigh-owl-who-disregarded-sleep-for-a-long-time-Jin. Immediately after I finished the last page, I experienced some sort of catharsis as all my guilt, concern, agitation, distress, apprehension, and frustration disappeared, puff!
I am not going to tell you what did the book teach me. I will say nothing about the content of the book because I want YOU to find out by yourselves. Look back on your sleeping habits and come up with variety of concerns. Do you get enough sleep? Do you go to bed regularly? Do you feel motivated and energetic when you wake up in the morning? Do you sacrifice your sleep and do something else in the dawn as I did for my entire life? And when you have your own answers for these questions, open up this book and just read the first chapter. I am very sure that most of you will not be able to resist the temptation to move onto the next chapter and enlighten yourself with the blessings of good sleep.