three hours to finish instead of the usual one hour. I was exhausted after the first match and slept for four hours before the next match— which I lost because I couldn’t move.

Another time I was studying the night before a big history test, cramming like crazy. I had spent the last couple of days procrastinating, and I had convinced myself that I already knew most of it, that there wasn’t that much left to cover. I sat down at my computer around 5:00 to write some study guides and within minutes I was in a panic— I freaked out because I realized there was so much information to cover.

I stayed at my computer until 12:30 easy, until I finally finished a 12-page review. But that was just the typing part—then I actually had to memorize the information. I sat on my bed with highlighters and open textbooks surrounding me, along with three cups of hot cocoa, until I finally gave up, exhausted and defeated, around 2:00 a.m. I decided I would wake up around 6:30 to review everything I had highlighted.

The next morning when I woke up I felt very unrefreshed, and I was horrified to realize that I had retained almost no information and that my test was in a matter of hours. Again panic set in. When I finally got to my classroom and my teacher started handing out the test, my eyelids drooped, my mind wandered, and that terrible feeling crept in that I didn’t remember anything that I had spent the night and early morning cramming into my brain. It was not my best test, and I spent the rest of the day exhausted and feeling bad.

Why did I do this to myself? Now I know that I need to get more sleep if I’m going to play tennis at all well and do at all well at school.

Q: Were there any incentives that helped you to get more sleep, in addition to coming to the realization that you did better and felt better when you had enough rest?

A: I hate to admit it, but the arguments I had with my parents, plus my exhaustion, helped motivate me to get more sleep and take care of my body. So did waking up at 1:30 in the afternoon with 10 text messages