The Great Grade Slumber

We've all been there, haven't we? Surrounded by books, scribbled papers, stationeries spread all across the table and constantly scratching our heads trying to make our battered, worn out brains work. Exams can be a rollercoaster ride for some - a very wild one. Yet ironically, in the midst of all the adrenaline rush and panic attacks, we tend to entertain the idea of getting a good night's sleep and fail miserably the next morning. 

Allow me to break this down to you.

1. Procrastination leading to Pro-hibernation: You've been glued to your smartphone screen watching cat videos instead of calculus videos and after 3 long hours, you realise you're a feline expert while calculus suddenly sounds like Hebrew. Your body immediately responds by pressing the snooze button. Let sleep clear all the mess.

2. Panic attacks: You walk into your room, give 100 push ups or practice amateur ballet dancing – anything that takes your mind away from the dreadful exam. You seemed to have cracked the code until you finally realise all these "moments of escapade" have left you with very little energy to read all the notes and revise. And wait, what's with the gigantic yawn again?

3. The Elon Musk effect: At one point or the other, your mind begins to entertain this alluring idea of getting a power nap and wake up as Elon Musk – to function at your highest human potential and become a chemistry scholar within a night. It all starts with the idea of a power nap, my friend. A mythical, overly attached power nap that leaves you at 8 AM in the morning, with barely an hour left to sit for the exam.

4. Attaining Nirvana: While your brain is deep inside the textbook, your subconscious mind tends to question the education system, the world, and our existence. You ponder about the reason for our existence in this interplanetary system and whether our souls can finally attain peace or not. And the more lines you mark with highlighters, the more impatient you become of this materialistic world. Where is tranquillity for the trapped soul? In an exam script? No, in a meditative state till the morning, known as "sleep". 

5. The "brain freeze" dilemma: An innumerable number of calculations, hours of writing, constant Skype calls for clarifying topics – your exam prep is second to none. If a mental activity was considered to be a workout, then you've become Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson by now. And that is when you suddenly realise your six pack grey matter up there needs a lemonade to cool off before the next set of workouts. Can't you smell all the golden grades that you've been cooking till now? The reward for all this sweat – sleep.

So, as you now know the true reasons behind your brain plotting conspiracies to put you to sleep in times of grave "grade situations," it is better you stack a few more jars of coffee in your cupboard. After all, nothing puts the great grade slumber to the rest harder than caffeine.