Late night studying, the graveyard shift

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Hamlin Wade, Staff columnist

It doesn’t really matter what doctor you ask, pretty much any of them will tell you the same thing — young adults need at least seven hours of sleep a night, preferably somewhere closer to nine. We’ve all sat through the health classes that have talked about our sleep cycle, how we can’t “catch up” on lost sleep and that any overtime sleeping we do on the weekends only hurts our cause, instead of helping it. We’ve heard the warnings, we’ve been read the side effects and we have consistently been instructed by our parents to get more sleep. But for some reason, we don’t listen. To the untrained observer, we would simply be blamed for insolence and an overall disregard for common sense. Yet, to those who know us better, the excuse is much more concise and simplistic. We simply look up over our eight cups of Starbucks coffee and energy drinks and mumble “Work Forest.”
There is something uniquely special about ZSR in the wee hours of the night. At midnight, the library is bustling, people move around, gossip and exchange horror stories about the week that lies ahead. Students will catch up on the weekend party stories or move about from table to table in the atrium, saying hello to whomever they pass, all in an attempt to avoid doing any real work. However, by 12:30 or 1 a.m., the library begins to quiet down. Outlets become available, the noise within the atrium begins to dampen, and the machines in Starbucks begin to shut down. The hours become to move more slowly and the eyelids begin to get heavier. 1:30, 2:00, 2:30 a.m. — the time slips by as if it is being willed along by the silent hallways of the Wilson Wing. This is when the excitement of ZSR really begins to take hold.
Passing time in the library in the obscure hours of the night can be manipulated down to a science. Of course, people will be studying, buried nose deep into their Philosophy of War book or editing their upper-level political science paper for the 18th time. Some people just like to wander around, see if they are in fact the only one still on the seventh floor at 4:00 a.m. Others like to perch on the sixth floor balcony, which opens up a whole other plethora of options for passing the time. You can sit and look at the things hanging from the ceiling, and, being a cerebral Wake Forest student, attempt to figure out how they were able to suspend a Star Wars Fighter Jet from the eighth floor crossbeam.
Your brain is racked even further as you notice the candy cane hung precariously over the highest point of the support arches. Next, you wonder whether the strength of the wire supporting the planet Earth would be strong enough to support your weight. Finally, you realize that you could monopolize the opposition in a game of paintball from your balcony viewpoint.
Yes, the library is home to many opportunities. Not to mention, its late night inhabitants are just as exciting.
You’re liable to see a variety of characters, all slumming through their work, muttering under their breath and analyzing how much more sleep they would get and less work they would do if they had gone to another school only an hour and a half to the east. From the girl who hasn’t slept in four days to the guy who’s 5 o’clock shadow has turned into a 4 a.m. moonless night, ZSR accepts all applicants. ZSR is there for anyone in need of study space or a sofa in which to take a quick nap.
The library can be a place full of opportunity and excitement. On any given night, you may have the chance to have a quick conversation with an estranged classmate, a best friend or a new acquaintance. You never know who you will run into at 5 a.m. You never know what new study spot you will discover or what exciting game you will be able to invent. And finally when you pull yourself together, when you finally click “save” on your paper, it’s time to leave for a few hours, get a quick night’s sleep and get up and get ready to do it all over again. As you walk out, you’ll say hello to another poor soul as they head in for a quick study session at 6:00 a.m. The people may come and go, but ZSR remains, always there, bidding you goodbye, only to welcome you home a few short hours later.
Hamlin Wade is a sophomore political science major from Charlotte, N.C.

It doesn’t really matter what doctor you ask, pretty much any of them will tell you the same thing — young adults need at least seven hours of sleep a night, preferably somewhere closer to nine. We’ve all sat through the health classes that have talked about our sleep cycle, how we can’t “catch up” on lost sleep and that any overtime sleeping we do on the weekends only hurts our cause, instead of helping it. We’ve heard the warnings, we’ve been read the side effects and we have consistently been instructed by our parents to get more sleep. But for some reason, we don’t listen. To the untrained observer, we would simply be blamed for insolence and an overall disregard for common sense. Yet, to those who know us better, the excuse is much more concise and simplistic. We simply look up over our eight cups of Starbucks coffee and energy drinks and mumble “Work Forest.”

There is something uniquely special about ZSR in the wee hours of the night. At midnight, the library is bustling, people move around, gossip and exchange horror stories about the week that lies ahead. Students will catch up on the weekend party stories or move about from table to table in the atrium, saying hello to whomever they pass, all in an attempt to avoid doing any real work. However, by 12:30 or 1 a.m., the library begins to quiet down. Outlets become available, the noise within the atrium begins to dampen, and the machines in Starbucks begin to shut down. The hours become to move more slowly and the eyelids begin to get heavier. 1:30, 2:00, 2:30 a.m. — the time slips by as if it is being willed along by the silent hallways of the Wilson Wing. This is when the excitement of ZSR really begins to take hold.

Passing time in the library in the obscure hours of the night can be manipulated down to a science. Of course, people will be studying, buried nose deep into their Philosophy of War book or editing their upper-level political science paper for the 18th time. Some people just like to wander around, see if they are in fact the only one still on the seventh floor at 4:00 a.m. Others like to perch on the sixth floor balcony, which opens up a whole other plethora of options for passing the time. You can sit and look at the things hanging from the ceiling, and, being a cerebral Wake Forest student, attempt to figure out how they were able to suspend a Star Wars Fighter Jet from the eighth floor crossbeam.

Your brain is racked even further as you notice the candy cane hung precariously over the highest point of the support arches. Next, you wonder whether the strength of the wire supporting the planet Earth would be strong enough to support your weight. Finally, you realize that you could monopolize the opposition in a game of paintball from your balcony viewpoint.

Yes, the library is home to many opportunities. Not to mention, its late night inhabitants are just as exciting.

You’re liable to see a variety of characters, all slumming through their work, muttering under their breath and analyzing how much more sleep they would get and less work they would do if they had gone to another school only an hour and a half to the east. From the girl who hasn’t slept in four days to the guy who’s 5 o’clock shadow has turned into a 4 a.m. moonless night, ZSR accepts all applicants. ZSR is there for anyone in need of study space or a sofa in which to take a quick nap.

The library can be a place full of opportunity and excitement. On any given night, you may have the chance to have a quick conversation with an estranged classmate, a best friend or a new acquaintance. You never know who you will run into at 5 a.m. You never know what new study spot you will discover or what exciting game you will be able to invent. And finally when you pull yourself together, when you finally click “save” on your paper, it’s time to leave for a few hours, get a quick night’s sleep and get up and get ready to do it all over again. As you walk out, you’ll say hello to another poor soul as they head in for a quick study session at 6:00 a.m. The people may come and go, but ZSR remains, always there, bidding you goodbye, only to welcome you home a few short hours later.

Hamlin Wade is a sophomore political science major from Charlotte, N.C.