Are you a senior suffering from mood swings? After four – or more – years of classes, are you… Are you a senior suffering from mood swings? After four – or more – years of classes, are you feeling stressed out and overwhelmed with school work? Well, if any of these symptoms seem familiar please consult your local physician because you may have the dreaded senioritis!

Senioritis is a term used to describe the laziness displayed by students reaching the end of college or high school.

According to wikipedia.org, senioritis is not recognized by the American Psychological Association as a distinct illness, but may generally be considered as a combination of attention-deficit disorder and amotivational syndrome.

And right now I know I am suffering from it.

Only four weeks left of school and senioritis is taking control of life. I am overwhelmed with finding a job, school work and graduation, and it’s hard for me to focus.

Even my close friends are suffering. My roommate still hasn’t completed his 20-page paper that is due this week, and my friend Tanya, who is usually efficient, has started to procrastinate on her homework. In fact, when I wrote this column Tanya was taking a nap, instead of doing her project for tomorrow’s class.

My suggestion that will help all students – as well as workers – around the United States is a siesta. Yes, a siesta is imperative to alleviate the stress that we face as seniors in college.

A siesta is a short nap taken in the early afternoon, often after the midday meal. It is a common tradition in hot countries. It was adopted also by the Spanish and, through European influence, spread to Latin American countries and the Philippines.

The original concept of a siesta was intended to allow people to spend time with their friends and family. Although our climate isn’t as bad as those in many other countries, a siesta is still crucial. As students – especially as seniors – we are overwhelmed with everyday stress and an abundance of school work.

According to wikipedia.org – the site that has saved many of my friends’ academic lives after heavy procrastinating – studies have suggested a biological need for afternoon naps.

Researchers found that subjects of the studies felt that it was easiest to fall asleep at night and in the afternoon. Contrary to popular belief, eating lunch does not bring on drowsiness in the afternoon. There is simply a loss of alertness and a decrease in body temperature that occurs around midday which brings on this urge to sleep.

A siesta, or a slightly longer nap, can often satisfy this desire for sleep and allow a person to wake up feeling refreshed and much more alert – which is exactly what I need to survive until graduation.

If we are allowed more sleep and less work, we will be more alert. As we prepare to enter the real world, as we look for professional jobs or grad schools while also attending school full time, many of us are working to save money.

A siesta would rejuvenate our bodies and prevent us from feeling sluggish and skipping that 6 p.m. class.

It would be wonderful if during my three-hour class we were allowed a 30-minute power nap, or if I were allowed a 30-minute break instead of a 15-minute break at work. I probably wouldn’t nod off during lecture as much. Unfortunately, the odds of an educational institution or a workplace implementing a siesta are about as good as those of Flavor Flav finding true love in Hoops. I will just have to find other options.

This is why I turn to the World Wide Web for answers – it’s the greatest tool for the lazy researcher. I discovered that a doctor will not prescribe drugs to treat this painful disease of senioritis, and that a professor reducing the workload for class is probably unlikely.

Alas, the only cure for senioritis is to just buckle down and try to do my work. I would search for a better cure, but that would only give me extra work.

If you need more information about this illness contact Natasha at [email protected].