I have 2 years left before I turn 20.
By then, research estimates that I will have slept for 6.6 years — 2409 days, 57816 hours or 3,469,000 minutes.
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fun fact: i learned this 5 years ago, during a night of insomnia.
Enticed by this discovery,
I decided to apply to IMSA, hoping to dive deeper into science.
I dove into sleep research my junior year at Northwestern's Center of Circadian & Sleep Medicine.
I published my first paper at 16.
Then came the second. Then the third.
I spoke at the Minority Health Conference, being 1 of 3 interns selected by the IDPH to recieve full funding for this conference.
Months later, I recieved the Youngest Presenter Award at both the 53rd CNS Meeting and IEEE HI-POCT 2024.
I started a nationwide campus sleep initative, encouraging students like me to reach their sleep goals.
My research and advocacy has taught me to embrace insomnia, to seek strength through our flaws.
Now, I sleep in Ann Arbor, where I study Neuroscience and Economics at the University of Michigan, hoping to change the way the world sleeps before I leave my teens.
But until then, I still have 5840 hours to sleep.