Shorman: Early birds get the grades

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

It starts softly at first, but quickly my alarm becomes a wailing siren so annoying that I am forced to jump off the top bunk and walk over to my desk and turn it off. It’s 5:30 a.m. on the first Monday of class, and I have only myself to blame — and maybe my roommate.

During Hawk Week he casually mentioned that he was planning on waking at 7 a.m. every morning. Yes, I had the same reaction: He’s insane.

After all, college students are not commonly thought of as morning people. If the rooster crows some of us might shoot it. But it turns out my roommate is actually onto something.

In June, Time ran an article covering the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, which detailed new findings on college students and sleep.

Different studies were cited that show a student’s sleep schedule has either a positive or negative impact on school performance, depending on when he or she sleeps.

Researchers found that students who described themselves as night owls — go to bed late and sleep late — had lower GPAs than those who described themselves as larks — early to bed and early to rise. According to one study, night owls averaged a 2.84 GPA at the end of their freshman year. Meanwhile, larks averaged a 3.14 GPA.

Now, if my roommate knows this intuitively, I figure other people do, too. Maybe some people wake even earlier than 7 a.m.

Let’s be clear, I’m not talking about people who have to wake up early for a job or other obligations. I’m talking about people who do it because they truly want to.

I wanted to talk to those people to find out why they do it and if it comes naturally to them.

So now, at 5:45 a.m. on a Monday, I’m walking down a very dark and silent Jayhawk Boulevard toward the only place that I know on campus where you can go to study at unholy hours: Anschutz Library.

I arrive, and I’m amazed at what I see. Nobody is there. There are no backpacks. The sound of clattering keyboards is absent. The not-so-hushed collaborative library that is Anschutz is silent.

I spot only one staffer behind the desk hunched next to a computer and wearing headphones.

So I sit down and wait. Maybe I’m just too early.

And I keep waiting. I wait for 40 minutes, actually. Frustrated that no one has either come or emerged from another floor, I leave. Maybe there are fewer voluntary early-risers than I thought.

I love sleeping, but I wonder what we could accomplish as individuals if we set the alarm clocks earlier; I wonder what we could accomplish if some of us dragged ourselves to Anschutz at 6 a.m.

It’s only a baby step, but I’m going to try to not sleep past 9 a.m. during the week. Maybe I’ll get more done and have more free time in the evenings. It can’t hurt, right?

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go take a nap.

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