Sandy Mann ‘8-10
FF Late Night Reporter
Last night, Senior Catherine “Cat” Knapp reportedly achieved the eight hours of sleep recommended by the American Sleep Association, becoming at once both a role model and source of envy to much of the student body.
“It was a lot of hard work to get here, but my new motto is ‘snooze it or lose it!’” remarked Knapp, citing the huge mental and physical strains consistently bad sleeping habits can have on teenagers.
Getting a full eight hours of sleep may not seem like such a noteworthy accomplishment, but for Knapp, who will be the first Trumbull High School student to attend the prestigious Sleepford University in New York City, balancing her busy academic schedule and extracurricular activities with a solid night’s sleep is quite the feat.
“It took hours of practice and preparation,” recalled Knapp. “Despite my substantial commitments as Captain of the Co-Ed Varsity Curling Team; President of the Unicycling Club; and the future Prime Minister of England, as well as having to balance the work of my nine AP classes, I felt it was my duty to work toward consistently sleeping a solid eight to ten hours a night. As I will soon be moving to ‘The City that Never Sleeps’, I need to get into a good sleep routine in order to avoid taking to the bad habits of my new neighbors.”
Thinking of the skills that she learned in AP Fatigue Elimination, thought to be the hardest class taught at the high school, Knapp started by working to make the best of her study time.
Knapp said, “I spent time learning how to read Braille in order to maximize the amount of books I could read at a time. This way, I could read four books at a time— two books with my eyes and two books with my hands.” This strategy allowed Knapp to cut her study time in half, even if she now suffers from eye strain and constant migraines.
Then, she had many unsuccessful practice attempts to reach her eight hour goal, having to overcome much insomnia over the nights, until it all eventually fell into place. Knapp recalled, “To the contrary of the common belief, I found that it was actually better to let the bedbugs bite.”
Knapp is hopeful that she will be able to keep a streak of nights well slept, saying that she will no longer partake in her regular “Two Hour” Tuesday’s and “What’s Sleep?” Wednesday’s. She encourages other students to aim to get sufficient amounts of sleep but suggests trying different methods to get there, saying, “Now that I think of it, my efforts were probably a bit extreme.”