8A = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
TUESDAY, APRIL 15,2003
While most students are sleeping others are burning the midnight oil
Aaron Showalter/Kansan
Pat Knobloch, St. Louis sophomore, works on drawings at night for an architecture class in Lindley Hall Annex. Architecture students regularly spend long nights on campus working on projects for classes. "I know guys that pull all nighters as many as two or three nights in a row when projects are due," Knobloch said.
Above Leftr: Jeff Eisenbeis, Lansing senior works the late shift from midnight to 5:30 a.m. at the Hawk Shop. Eisenbeis has worked at the Hawk Shop since August and hates the boredom his job creates. At 3:27 in the morning the Hawk Shop had no customers and was quiet except for Eisenbeis' Interpoel cd playing in the background.
By Kevin Wiggs
Photos by Brandon Baker
kwiggs@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
While some students doze in their warm beds or party with friends, others fight off drowsiness for the sake of their grades. It's 2 a.m. and students use the night to toil over their projects, papers or professions in secluded corners of campus. Their lives are anything but ordinary, finding time for occasional naps while struggling against unorthodox adversaries: sunlight, noise and the activity of the campus community.
The Race Car Kids
Take a trip into 1055W Learned Hall and you'll run into 18 senior mechanical engineering majors who use the night to build a race car. The group, hidden in the Learned Hall garage, works to build a Formula-1 style car for its senior project, which will compete against other universities at a race sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers on May 14.
About 140 teams participate, and the KU team has placed in the top 25 for the past four
years. The car must be completed early enough so it can undergo a month of testing before the race.
Students work on different sections of the car day and night as they listen to James Brown and eat pizza and cookies in the dirty concrete garage. Because of their deadline, they must work on the car constantly, even making trips between classes to do whatever they can.
Ben Brown said he chose the formula car project because it would give him an experience he might never have again.
"When we're done I get to drive this thing at 100 miles per hour," said Brown, Haven senior.
Some students have had to establish new sleep habits to avoid a common enemy — sunshine.
"I've started sleeping in my closet," said Patrick Nuss, Shawnee senior. "I crawl in there and listen to National Public Radio."
The students admit to having problems attending class. Many stopped going at one point or another throughout the semester. But they don't look for pity.
"People can tell when I walk into class that I've been up all night, but I don't say anything," Brown said. "I take more pride in
Brandon Baker/Kansas
Paul Sedlacek, Topeka senior, Marcus Stice, Burlington senior, Ben Brown, Haven senior and Lindsay Straghan, KU grad pause to chat after connecting the chassis and frame of the formula car. The KU Motor Sport Team worked Sunday night till 5:30 in the morning when they finally decided to call it a night.
getting it done rather than the night of sleep I just missed."
Staying up all night can make it easier to get to an early class, rather than trying to sleep for a short time.
"You hit a groove—it's easier to keep going than to try to sleep for an hour," he said. "It's better to have early classes so you can just go straight there and then crash."
As Bethany Anderson, Andover senior, said, "I'm not staying up all night every night to take second place."
The mechanical engineering students became so used to pulling all-nighters that the group from five years ago made T-shirts that read "Formula Car
What Happens Without Sleep
— What a great way to ruin a relationship. "The saying remains this year's unofficial team slogan.
While late nights and long hours may benefit the night crawlers' grades, it can lead to physical harm.
Attention, memory and reaction time were all affected by lack of sleep, said Mark Raskind, president and chief scientist of Alertness Solutions and member of the National Sleep Foundation's board of directors.
While one night of significant sleep loss could affect alertness the next day, sleep loss over many nights was a problem that should be dealt with, possibly with the help of a professional, said Rosekind.
Across the street from Learned Hall and the senior engineers is the Lindley Annex, filled with young architecture students who are just as willing to jeopardize health in exchange for good grades. Lindley Annex is the classroom and work area for students in Architectural Graphics and Design, a six credit hour class for beginning architecture students.
"While we may recognize these symptoms, we do not always associate them as being symptoms of sleep loss," Rosekind said.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, although sleep needs vary for everyone, most adults need an average of eight hours of sleep per night. Late Nights in Lindley
The walls are covered in spray-paint and marker, with obscene words and pictures all around. The word "BOOB" is
Maryna Silchenko, Lawrence junior, is in her second year in the School of Architecture. When they got close to a deadline the fun started, she said.
spray-painted on a window and a Christmas tree stands on top of an air duct.
"People get pissed off and stuff starts to fly around the room," she said. "It's funny to see how people react to frustration."
Since she quit smoking she relies on coffee and exercise to stay up.
"I try to go to the gym, even in the middle of a project," she said. "It lets me come back refreshed. But once I leave this place I don't want to come back."
Arjun Bhat, Chesterfield, Mo., sophomore, has spent as many as 50 consecutive hours awake when he took No Doz with a can of Red Bull.
Silchenko said that when she stayed up all night she couldn't think straight the next morning, and it caused her to skip classes.
"It was the worst day of my life," he said. "It was a ride of waves and crests, but I was okay the next day."
"There are some weeks when I won't get more than four hours of sleep," she said. "I just try to take naps when I can and sleep all weekend."
She has a boyfriend, but busy schedules can get in the way.
"We fight a lot because we don't see each other enough," she said. "It's really hard. We try to make time to see the other, but it's the time when I just want to sleep."
Her boyfriend is a graduate student in architecture, he shares
her lack of time and odd hours.
reationships between architecture students are common in the Lindley Annex.
"Lots of people hook up in the studio," Silchenko said. "We spend so much time here, and we don't see anyone else."
Evenings at the Union
One of the few buildings on campus open 24 hours a day is the Kansas Union. Students studying late at the Union sometimes wander into the Hawk Shop for a cup of coffee or a sugar-packed treat to maintain energy. Students come in and out to use the computer lab, or for a quiet place to study. From inside the Hawk Shop, you can barely tell it's dark outside — with the bright neon signs illuminating the room like a supermarket.
Evenings at the Union
Jeff Eisenbeis, Leavenworth post-bachelor student, works there on Sunday and Wednesday nights from midnight to 5:30 a.m.
While it's quiet most of the time, occasionally he has someone cause a scene. He once had an elderly woman begin an argument about politics. She became so upset she slammed her water on the counter and began cussing at him.
"I thought I was gonna have to throw down," he said. "That was a rare angry person, I mostly just see the few night owls that are here all the time."
When he gets bored he rolls a cigarette. When he gets tired he drinks coffee. He drinks an average of five cups a night, but he's not worried about the possible effects of caffeine or lack of sleep.
INADEQUATE SLEEP SYMPTOMS
Dozing off while engaged in an activity such as reading, watching TV, sitting in meetings or sitting in traffic
Slow thinking and reacting
Difficulty remembering or retaining information
Narrowing of attention missing important changes in a situation
Depression or negative mood
Frequent blinking, diffi-
culty focusing eyes, or
heavy eyelids
National Sleep Foundation
He admits that the late hours are bad for his grades.
"It's detrimental," he said. "When I go to class I'm not as mentally sharp as I should be, and I don't get as much out of class as I should."
Eisenbeis said he could work days if he wanted, but he remained on the night shift because of the $1 per hour better wage that came with it.
"I don't have a lot of fore-sight, it makes me take crappy jobs," he said. "I don't think I could take working here longer than a year. The hours are starting to get to me."
Edited by Erin Chapman
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