How to Play: Bedtime
If sleeping were a sport, would you win?
Bedtime is a sport played around the globe by overzealous students who fret over getting enough rest—you can call it the sport that never sleeps. Read on to learn how to play and win Bedtime!
[Object of the Sport]
The aim of Bedtime is to defeat your grueling schoolwork and bottomless TikToking in order to get a reasonable amount of shut-eye each night. You get a point every time you sleep for 7 to 8 hours a night. Bonus points for every minute you squeeze in more than 8 hours. (And if that means snoozing your alarm clock 12 times, then so be it. We don’t judge.) Your points can be cashed in the next morning for a functioning brain, a positive outlook, a bubbly mood and more!
[Players and Equipment]
The beauty of Bedtime is its convenience. You can play anywhere, anytime (typically in the evening, but again, we don’t judge). All you need is yourself, really. A bed or dorm bunk is a plus.
Bedtime’s a sport played around the globe by overzealous students who fret over getting enough rest—you can call it the sport that never sleeps.
[Strategies]
Don’t stress if you don’t get any points one night. Easier said than done, yes, but try not to. You can play Bedtime every single day. You have 365 chances a year to rack up those points!
Keep in mind that the sport of Bedtime is cyclical. Points you accumulate after a winning night of Bedtime make you efficient during the day, which means you sleep earlier and accumulate more points the next night. Or the other way around—if you don’t get points after an unsuccessful night of Bedtime, you take longer to complete your tasks and leave less time for shut-eye.
Bedtime is a competition between you and your sleep habits, not between you and other people. And remember that everyone plays Bedtime! Consider finding a support buddy/group. You can hold each other accountable, share tips to beat the game and celebrate each other’s wins.
Process
This piece stemmed from the Writing Works Industry Workshop, “Train Your Brain with NBCU: Think Like an Elite Athlete.” Our Opening Lines prompt was, “If your life were a sport, what would it be called and how would you win?” As a junior in high school, the first thing I thought about was sleep.
After learning methods to train my brain for success, I took my Opening Lines and crafted a formal instruction manual. I had a blast fleshing out the rules, obstacles and strategies of my new sport, Bedtime. Because the topic was so familiar to me, I could spend less energy wracking my brain for content and more energy injecting my humor into the piece. The writing process for this piece was very reflective. I had the chance to identify what was keeping me from my beauty sleep and develop a game plan for getting more of it.
After creating this structured manual, the obstacles to getting shut-eye seem more conquerable.
Ashley Wu
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Ashley Wu
Ashley Wu is a teenager in New York. She is a daughter, a sister, a friend, a student and a zebra. Only four of those things are true. Outside of Zoom classes, you might find her taking photos, making movies, playing the flute, dancing her heart out or pretending she lives in one of the books she’s reading.
