There is one thing that gets me through the day. Through every day and any day. Something I can look forward to on a Monday, a Wednesday or a Sunday. Something that is extremely basic yet rewarding. Something everyone gets to do.

Sleep.

I know that no matter how hard it is to rip myself out of my warm nest of sheets and blankets in the morning I get to return to that place in a matter of hours. Sometimes when I don’t make my bed, I get to return to that exact place in my sheets where my huddle outline is preserved.

Sleep is like hitting pause on the VCR and putting stress and worries and that to-do list aside. But sleep isn’t just curling up in bed when it gets dark outside. Sleep is total relaxation.

Try going limp in your chair and sliding down to the floor. Let your jaw hang open and your neck roll to one side. Exude no effort whatsoever to maintain any sort of bodily function. Just lie there and relax. See what happens. I’ll tell you what won’t happen. You won’t want to get up, you won’t want to finish studying for Quantitative Psychology, you won’t want to think and you certainly won’t want to get up to take your contacts out before they dry to your eyeballs during the eminent REM cycle that is fast overtaking you. What you will want to do is explain this experiment to your friends before collapsing onto the ground.

The point is, sleep doesn’t just happen at night, and it doesn’t just happen in bed next to your teddy bear. Sleep can happen anywhere where relaxation can occur. Where have you nodded off?

The couch, the tanning bed, the back of the car, at the masseuse, in the last row of desks in that lecture hall.

What professors often mistake as rude inattentiveness and laziness is actually the highest compliment. Dozing off in the middle of a lecture really says, “Professor, I’m comfortable with you. I’m relaxed and at ease in your presence. I feel like I can let my guard down, and that I can be myself.”

It’s true. How many people would you feel comfortable drooling in front of? I can’t think of any. Sure I enjoy showing my friends the notes I took in class while I slept. Gibberish is great, but I feel vulnerable when my head starts rolling, and my eyelids succumb to the all-powerful gravity. I know everyone is watching and judging, wishing they too had worn the proper hoodie and sweat pant attire, and could find the exact angle of slouchage that allows for total relaxation in a wooden desk and chair.

God has come up with some pretty great things: hoodies, couches, gravity and teddy bears, but He scored big when He thought up the concept of sleep. Now you understand why we kneel at our bedside each night before our eight-hour nap to say our prayers of thanks.

Kristine Gill is a sophomore journalism major and a columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].