My hands are shaking pressing the submit button, and my heart is pounding in my ears as my whole life depends on the split of a second.
My eyes are following the blue circle on the screen like it is an Olympic runner, because whether or not it makes it to the finish line before the deadline is the only thing that matters that day.
And when it does, I can finally breathe, feeling the rush of the blood flooding away from my heart, delaying the heart attack for the next 20-something hours, just until the next assignment is due.
But that is not the end by any means. The magnificent spiral only begins. The spiral that is going to keep me wide awake in self-doubt practices for at least an hour, and certainly is not a good prerequisite for great sleep anytime before dawn.
Well, on the other hand, I can spend this time checking in with my friends who went to the salsa social without me, because I refused to exit the dorm in an anxiety attack until my assignment was submitted.
And that is just how life goes every weekday for me.
Late deadlines are an essential factor contributing to students' poor health habits and overall state, affecting sleep quality and its duration.
The importance of sleep is not a new piece of information to anybody.
A 2019 study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology tracked 100 MIT students using wearable activity trackers, finding that better quality, longer duration and greater consistency of sleep all correlated with better grades.
College students tend to have delayed circadian rhythms, which means they go to sleep and wake up later, according to a 2024 study published by Psychiatry Investigation.
Late-night deadlines do not create this biological tendency, but they reinforce it by giving students an external reason to stay up.
Connor Sheehan, a professor at the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, wrote in a statement that he did not realize that 11:59 p.m. deadlines could hurt students' sleep.
"I am a huge hypocrite," Sheehan stated. "I always tell my students the importance of sleep and also have 11:59 deadlines."
However, he also stated that these deadlines might be better than even later ones, such as 4 a.m.
The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about a 4 a.m. deadline is that it would drag my submission to 3:59 a.m., and all my ambition for a health-benefiting schedule with it.
READ MORE: How puzzles and procrastination impact academic life
Tyler Finger, a junior studying history, said the idea of an earlier deadline, such as 9 p.m., could be something he could to get use to.
"From a broader point of view, if you are forced to get your assignments done by 9 p.m., that would ideally increase your ability to get some rest before classes start the next day, and basically just help everyone have a bit more of a normal schedule," Finger said.
He said there are nights when he is specifically staying up trying to finish assignments by the deadline.
If they were due by 9 p.m., instead of waiting until midnight to go to bed, at least, he could go to sleep earlier and still have a healthier sleep schedule.
This might not sound like a good argument to those who have the opportunity to sleep in and compensate, but for Finger, whose shift at Dutch Bros Coffee starts at 4:45 a.m., that is not an option.
A 2025 study published by the National Library of Medicine, which monitored university students for two to four weeks, found that when students did plan a specific bedtime, they overran it by an average of 46 minutes.
Study and work obligations were among the most common reasons for missing that target.
So, which deadline is worse to overrun? In my opinion, the one that doesn't make you go to sleep almost at 1 a.m.
Another issue is blue light.
The majority of us like to indulge in screen time before sleep, but if you are a procrastinator who wants to make the most out of the time left for sleep after a midnight deadline, you simply don't have another choice but to go straight from the illuminating screen of a laptop to the pillow.
Blue wavelengths, while beneficial during daylight hours because they boost attention, reaction times and mood, are disruptive at night for the same reasons, according to Harvard Health Publishing.
Blue light suppresses melatonin for about twice as long as green light and shifts circadian rhythms by twice as much, according to the article.
A student submitting a paper at 11:58 p.m. is, by definition, staring at a screen at the worst possible moment for their body's sleep chemistry.
But there are people on the other side of the story.
Carlos Hernandez, a freshman studying mechanical engineering, said the option to do an assignment later is necessary, because one is always able to do their work early if they so please.
He said it's more an innate drive to want to do assignments early, rather than a teacher setting due dates.
Hernandez said he usually finishes his assignments roughly an hour before the deadline to feel better about himself.
While I agree that people deserve to have this option, I would argue that some reinforcement toward healthier habits should be considered by institutions.
Let's abolish 11:59 p.m. deadlines universally! This small shift in time has potentially significant consequences for students' health.
Editor's note: The opinions presented in this letter are the author's and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
Edited by Natalia Rodriguez, Senna James, Sophia Braccio and Pippa Fung.
Reach the reporter at dkovalen@asu.edu.
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Diana reports on ASU’s diverse community and culture for The State Press. She is pursuing a degree in Journalism and Mass Communication with a minor in Political Science. In addition, she is a reporter for The Cut Network and a radio host at Blaze Radio.
