I go through this every year. The school year begins again and I’m forced to readjust my sleep schedule. I constantly have to convince myself that it’s a good idea to go to bed early because I know I have to get up early the next day. But I’m not sleepy at 10:00 p.m. That fact doesn’t stop my alarm from waking me up at 5:00 a.m.

I hit the snooze, of course, but then I’m up by 5:30. This gives me an hour to shower, dress, and eat a little bit of something resembling breakfast before I have to be out the door to face my hour long commute on country roads to the school where I work.

My mornings tend to crawl by at a snail’s pace. By 9:00, I’m exhausted and struggling to keep my eyes open. I don’t like coffee, but I sure wish I did. Though I’m certain all the caffeine in a Mountain Dew bottling plant would do little to reverse my yearning for a few extra minutes of sleep.

Honestly, I can get by on four hours of sleep if I need to. Sometimes the occasion calls for that sort of foolishness. But that lack of sleep turns me into a slightly more hateful version of myself. I say unforgivable things to my alarm on those mornings. Seriously, my grandmother would weep if she heard some of the insults I aim at my alarm.

Would extra sleep at night really help me, though? I feel like I would still be at least a little tired throughout the school day. Maybe it’s the soft instrumental music the teachers like to play while the kids are quietly working. Maybe it’s the hot and stuffy classrooms that inexplicably receive no circulating air despite the multiple ceiling fans on full force. Whatever the case, it feels as though my eyelids have weights attached, pulling them closed as I struggle to keep them open.