If you’re like me, then you’re one of the many college students who don’t get enough sleep every night, but somehow still get up to get the job done. We all know that sleep is essential. But with so many tasks on hand, especially if you’re a working student, sleep is so hard to find.

Sleep was so much easier to find when we were young. Remember nap time in kindergarten? Sleep was given to you like it was invaluable. Now, it’s so hard to find, it’s like digging for gold. Sleeping for 12 hours in a day was cut down to six hours, eight hours if you were lucky. Sleep suddenly became the most precious thing.

But now, things are different. Some days, your friends want to hang out. Other days, your boss asks you to stay overtime. Some other days, you have too much homework on hand. And on the worst days possible, all of the above.

Heck, I’m staying up late to get this article done. I have to get up for school in less than seven hours, especially if I want a good parking spot. Then I have to stay for a production tomorrow, and I have work the following morning. Basically, each work day I have, I’m deprived of sleep. I can only catch up on my days off, but school gets in the way and so do my friends and suddenly, I don’t want to sleep anymore.

It’s like an equation. Think of a Venn diagram. You have three choices: work/studies, sleep, or social life. And you can only have two at a time. Work/studies plus sleep equals no social life. Sleep plus social life equals bad grades. And work/studies plus social life equals tired. As you can see, I chose the last one. And I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one.

I’ve embraced my self-induced insomnia. I get up every day, regardless of what amount of sleep I get. I love the time I get to do everything I want to, even if it means that I’ll be exhausted. Just sip a cup of coffee and I tackle whatever’s ahead of me, then reward myself with a good Netflix marathon or video game session with friends.