From a Teen’s Perspective: The 11:00 p.m. trap
I have always thought of myself as an early bird. I like to wake up around sunrise, get ready, and do my most important work in the morning. However, high school has shifted my circadian rhythm. I have to complete several hours of homework every day in addition to extraccuriculars and occasional social outings during the week.
I often find that when I get home, I’m so tired from my day that it’s hard to motivate myself to start my homework. However, that fatigued procrastination not only pushes back my bedtime but puts me in the wrong headspace. When I scroll on my phone right when I get home instead of forcing myself to get to work, I lose all my momentum and find it harder to focus for long periods of time. This struggle, among other things, often leads to the 11 p.m. trap.
When 11 p.m. hits, I find myself overwhelmed with two opposing forces in my mind: the desire to sleep and the need to finish my homework. Logically, I should power through my assignments as fast as I can and then go to bed. However, I tend to enter a liminal state of neither productivity nor relaxation. I can’t bring myself to work any longer, but I also can’t hitch a ride to dreamville just yet.
Instead, I sit on my phone, make a snack, watch a YouTube video — anything to avoid work but stay awake. This leads to an hour of procrastination and subsequently a mad rush to finish my homework and get to sleep. As a result, I’m very tired the next day, which makes it all the more difficult to complete my assignments in the evening.
This cycle has gradually created compounding fatigue and an overall shift of my circadian rhythm. However, I think there are ways to reverse (or at least improve) this fate.
The most important advice is to avoid using your phone when you get home. I find that completing one assignment right off the bat greatly increases my chances of continuing to do work. When I start strong, I typically manage to avoid the 11 p.m. trap.
In addition, I recommend putting your phone away for most of the night. Communication is the only phone feature that actually provides value to my life, so I set up iMessage on my laptop, allowing me to communicate with friends without getting distracted by other apps.
I find that alot of my 11 p.m. procrastination comes from a place of frustration. I feel like I don’t have enough time to relax in my life, so I force myself to make that time late at night. However, I’m not actually relaxing, just postponing my work while still worrying about it, and I know that sleep will feel a lot better than any sort of halfway relaxation.
To combat this, I’ve begun to build designated periods of relaxation into my schedule. For example, I’m usually free on Wednesday afternoons, so I’ll go out for food with my friends. On the weekends, I’ll block out hours to myself so that I can recharge for the week and power through those moments where all I want to do is give up on my work.
Finally, I like to set timers for my work in order to keep me on track. Even though no one is actually telling me to complete an assignment in a certain amount of time, the presence of a timer is often enough to produce a sense of urgency. I also feel a deeper sense of accomplishment when I finish assignments before my self-enforced deadlines, which inspires me to continue working.
Sometimes late nights are inevitable. But I think we all drag out our nights much longer than they need to be, especially when we reach the later hours. Creating a plan that maximizes your relaxation and productivity will make you a happier, healthier person, and establish valuable habits for the rest of high school and beyond.
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Dylan Lanier is a senior at Menlo-Atherton High School; his column appears weekly.
Stock image by Freepik
