The epiphany came when Gina was laying in bed, staring up at the ceiling, feeling the seconds and minutes tick past as she knew she needed to go to sleep by 2 a.m. in order to be functional later that day at 10 a.m. after waking up at 6 a.m. The activity that took up most of her time in the week was not student teaching at the middle school or writing papers or working behind the register at CVS. No, it was sleeping. Eighty-four whole hours of her life were spent sleeping, and now she was lying here, trying to sleep and just wasting that time.

Maybe the answer was to sleep less frequently but for longer periods of time. Maybe she needed to invest in the quality of her sleep over the quantity of it. By the end of the day, she was just too overstimulated to go to sleep, so if she just didn’t sleep until she was so tired she’d nod off as soon as she hit the sack, well, there was merit to that idea. And she had to finish that discussion post …

After the first day of her experiment, Gina was ready to call it a success. Maybe it was premature, but she had left the house with her laundry done and scrambled eggs in her stomach. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had more than a granola bar for breakfast.

She had expected to flag by the end of the day, but with the help of a soda from the vending machine in the teacher’s lounge, she was good to go. And if she seemed jumpy, well, it was nothing compared to the students who were tapping pencils, ripping paper, and playing Subway Surfer under the table. 

She couldn’t pay attention in her own class that day, but she could never pay attention in that class, and by the time she started her shift, she switched her weekend shifts for overnight shifts during the week. God bless a 24/7 CVS.

After the first week, the only flaw Gina found was that grocery stores weren’t open overnight, but she had no class or student teaching on Fridays, so she could just get everything that needed to happen during normal business hours done then. And when she laid down at 7 p.m. on Friday and slept until 1 p.m. the next day, well, it all seemed worth it. It was the deepest sleep she’d had in recent memory, and in further memory. She quickly shoved a sandwich into her mouth and went back to sleep.

The next weekend, she was woken up midway through Sunday by a pounding knock on the door. She stared up at the ceiling, seeing red, before getting up and opening the door.

“What?”

Her roommate, Amanda folded her arms, annoyance stamped onto her face. Amanda had a face made for annoyance, with her perky nose and expressive lips. 

Amanda drawled, “So you’re alive.”

“Yeah, I’m alive. Why?”

“Why? Gina, I haven’t seen you all weekend and you didn’t respond to my texts and then I had to knock like 50 times before you answered.” 

Gina glanced back at her bedside table, where her phone sat on “Do Not Disturb.” She said, “I was just sleeping.”

“All through yesterday and today?”

“Yes.”

Amanda snorted, then frowned. “You’re not kidding? Are you sick or something?” Her hand flew out to touch Gina’s forehead and Gina bent backward.

“No, I’m not sick. I’m trying something new.” She explained her new sleep schedule to Amanda and watched the judgment flash across her face, then consideration, and finally wary acceptance. That had been how her co-workers had reacted.

“And that’s working for you?”

“Really well, yeah.”

Amanda pursed her lips. “Well, I guess you don’t really do anything on the weekends anyway.”

“Thanks.”

“What? It’s true! You do not leave the house.”

“Because I have work to do!”

“So what, you’re doing all that work at night now?”

“Yeah.”

“And you swear this is working for you?”

“Yes!”

Amanda did not look like she believed Gina. Amanda never looked like she believed Gina; as a matter of fact, she always looked at Gina like she thought Gina was a pitiable fool stumbling along through life.

“I need to get back to sleep,” Gina said. “Am I alive enough for you?” 

Amanda looked her over. “You look like you need that sleep.”

Gina shut the door, checked her phone and dismissed the 40 notifications from Amanda, then didn’t go back to sleep. Instead, she pulled a Red Bull out of the case under her bed. If she was more productive just by only sleeping through the weekend, she could only get more productive if she never slept at all.