Recently, a friend of mine started to share with me how her first few weeks of college were going. She just started here at BC and was already starting to feel the pressures all us veteran college students have become accustomed to. Between her busy homework load and class schedule, she said to me that the worst thing for her was feeling like she never had enough time to sleep.

Of course I told her that I completely understood the difficulties she was facing. Again as most of us know, it’s difficult to get the recommended eight hours of sleep a night when you have school and work and other obligations at hand.

The next thing she told me was how ridiculous she felt with her need to take three naps that day, one of which happened in her car between classes. Once again, I smiled at this young first-year.

For those of you who struggle and feel as though you just can never get enough sleep, I’m here to tell you it’s OK.

Many of us have passed by the student sitting under a shady tree, hat over his face, nicely dozing off between the next class or have walked by the student locked in their car taking a quick power nap. When I went to school in Utah, my school had an entire Instagram page dedicated to posting pictures of those poor nappers catching up on some Zs on campus (the page is byusleeps, check it out, it’s definitely good for a few laughs).

If you really feel the need to pass out for a few minutes on campus, go right ahead. Most of us here have that same need. If you’re concerned about becoming a humorous Instagram post, enact the buddy system, and ask a friend to watch over you for a few minutes. Lock yourself in your car, hide in some shade or an empty corner on campus. Do what you need to do.

If it seems like you can never get a decent amount of sleep every night, perhaps it is time to re-evaluate your priorities. Do you prioritize finishing homework during your free time? Do you tend to wait until the last minute to start assignments? When you get home, do you say to yourself, “I’m going to take a little break and relax for a bit before I start my homework?”

Yeah, I used to do that, too. I would get home and tell myself that I just needed to wind down and maybe watch one episode of whatever series I was binge watching on Netflix. And then one episode turns into two, then an hour and next thing I knew it would be 9 p.m. when I’d finally decide to start my homework. We’ve all had those days.

What’s worse is the vicious cycle it creates. You wait until later to start your homework, so you stay up late to try to get it all done. Then you’re exhausted the next day when you get home so you decide to take a little nap before you start working. Then once again, you’re starting and staying up late doing homework.

Heed my warning. Go home, start your homework and get some sleep tonight.