Sleeping, when done responsibly, is good for the mind, body, and soul. But, like so many things, too much of it can get you in to a LOT of trouble. If you've ever slept through an important obligation, you know that feeling of abject panic in the pit of your stomach when you realize your failure to depart the dream world could come at a cost.
Someone asked Reddit to share their worst "I overslept!" experiences. Let these 18 stories serve as a reminder to set more than one alarm:
1.) From DirrtyMikeAndTheBoyz:
I was taking biology my freshman year of college and to this day it was my most difficult class. The professor was really great, the only thing he was ever strict about was the final. He made a huge deal about not being late. He repeated about ten times that if you were even a minute late to the final you wouldn't be allowed in and you wouldn't be able to retake it.
I made sure to be the good student that I wasn't normally. I studied early so that I wouldn't have to cram, I went to bed early, set my alarm, laid out my clothes... The whole nine yards.
Something happened to my alarm as it didn't go off. I looked at my clock and had about two minutes until the final. There was no way I could get from my dorm to the class on time but that didn't stop me from trying. I tore out of bed and just ran.
I showed up at the door in my flannel pyjamas, hair a mess, no shoes, crying, and breathing heavily from running. I was like 5 minutes late. I just looked at the professor and before I could choke out the words between sobs he just looked at me and said “take a seat and calm down, finish the test when you’re ready”. I have no idea what I got on the final but I did well in the class and now have a fear of not waking up to my alarm for important events.
2.) From SirRutherford:
Freshman year of college I was in an English class that met every day at 7:40 am (ugh). Probably such a bad time slot because it was a young interim professor teaching his first college class.The grade for the entire semester was based on a portfolio of papers you had written throughout, and there was no final test - the final was just to show up and give the professor your portfolio.
The final day arrived and I had been out the night before (because of course I was - 18 yo on finals week). I woke up to a clock that said 8:25. Class ended at 8:30.
Now I was a decent sprinter but it was about 3/4 mile to the classroom so I knew there was no hope. I got up and throw on last nights clothes and sprint downstairs to consider my options; going along the road through campus and avoiding the central quad may save time. So I turned and went all out onto the road with a hope and a prayer and there was the professor with all the portfolios under his arm, waiting for the bus.
“HEY can you take this!?”
“Uhh... sure.”
Bless your soul, interim professor whose name I forget.
3.) From DentedAnvil:
Not exactly oversleeping. Someone pulled the fire alarm in my dorm during finals. I was sleep deprived and genuinely slept through the blaring siren in the hall. The fire department goes door to door with a master key and checks every room. They found me asleep. Middle of December. Middle of the night. They me line up outside with everyone else wrapped in a skimpy blanket and flip flops (they wouldn't let me dress) until the building (of 900 people) was cleared. Probably a half hour but it felt like a week. I also got fined 50 bucks for ignoring a fire alarm.
4.) From The_Liege_Lord:
I slept in until 9:30am thinking I had an exam at 2pm. My friend turned up outside my flat phoning me and saying ‘wtf you doing the exam is at 10am!’ Panicking I got dressed in less than 2 minutes and sprinted across the campus to where the exam was being held to find out I was right and it was at 2pm. So while I didn’t oversleep I may as well have considering I lost my morning off.
5.) From IlIIIllIIIlllIII:
I woke up in a cold sweat realizing I fell asleep with a massive term paper due that morning and I didn’t even start it because it wasn’t mentioned by the teacher - just listed in the syllabus, and my ‘somethings not right’ senses decided to wake me up on the day it was due at 4am. And I legitimately threw myself out of my bed, full speed ahead...
Then my brain started to warm up and I realized that I am in a country 6,000 miles from my university. And that I graduated 5 years ago... and the professor no longer works there. (I googled it, just to be sure).
6.) From GrammerGuestAppo:
I woke up at 13:00 when I had a deadline by 12:00. It really beats me why I didn't just turn it in before, but yeah. That was an expensive nap which costed a year of tuition
7.) From Back2Bach:
I overslept because of alarm clock failure on a morning I was to play the organ for a 9 a.m. funeral.
When the church office called, wondering why I wasn't there early as usual, I scrambled to get moving - making it to the church just as the hearse was pulling up to the front door to bring in the coffin.
8.) From AllTheWeahUp:
Work from 6:30-2:30, took a nap when I got home and looked at the clock and it read 6:30 and i launched out of bed and got ready just to realize it was the same day
9.) From Apocrypha:
Woke up at 4pm for a 2pm exam. Got into the exam hall when everyone else was handing in their exams. I wasn't allowed to write.
Begged over email for a chance to write the exam. They agreed with certain conditions attached: Exam would only be worth 3/4 of what it normally is and my final grade also capped at 70%. I finished and got 70% :)
Later went on to drop out anyway.
10.) From sapphicpenguin:
At my first job, one night I forgot to set my alarm and overslept. I'd never been late to work before and was in tears, convinced I was going to be fired. My mom calmed me down and got me to work. No one even cared, so I panicked for nothing.
11.) From harleys_mom:
i was a working student at a very prestigious horse barn
we started at 7am every morning. 7 days a week.
i woke up one day and the clock said 7:56. i was literally screaming 'SHIT SHIT SHIT' as i ran down the stairs in my pyjama pants because i figured i would just wear them all day and die or something
get to the barn. NO ONE is there. i check the clock, it's f*cking 2AM i misread the 01:56 as 7:56 for some reason. big ass whew moment
i go back up to my apartment AND FORGET TO SET THE ALARM AND SLEEP UNTIL 10:30 INSTEAD
i had to stat til 8pm mucking out one of the paddocks in the pouring rain that night
12.) From Dean_Soja:
I almost missed my college graduation because I had been up for days working on my final thesis. Graduation morning I was ready and was going to close my eyes for “20 mins”.
I woke up and graduation was in 10 min. Never ran so fast in my life.
13.) From Arfman2:
My company had just merged with another company. No jobs were lost but it deemed the higher ups it would be a great idea to rent a bus and drive us all to a big expo (think European CES) to get everyone to know each other. Bus was to leave at 5:30am on a Saturday.
I had just moved out of my parents house and I am not a morning person. So out of fear of oversleeping, I set two alarm clocks, both out of reach requiring me to really get out of bed.
In the days leading up to that Saturday, I prepared as much as possible. Cleaned the whole house, made breakfast that Friday evening so I would require as little time as possible on that Saturday morning and triple checked my alarms were set. Colleague asked Friday if I could provide a ride for him as his car had broken down. He lived nearby so I told him no sweat, I'll come pick you up at 5:00 am.
Don't know how it happened but I woke up at 10:00am that Saturday morning, alarms still going off and a few missed calls from aforementioned colleague.
Not a good start after a merger. I dreaded the phone call to my manager, lol. In the end, it all worked out fine but I was really pissed at brain, haha.
14.) From TheUnknown285:
In grad school, I lollygagged in renewing my lease on my apartment. When I did renew, someone had already claimed my apartment, so I had to move two doors down. They asked me for a date, I picked a Sunday, thinking that would be when my parents could help me move. What I didn't realize was that was the day before the final draft of my master's thesis was due.
So we get everything moved. Then I work on my thesis. After pulling an all-nighter, I reached the point where I thought I was about done but also so tired I stopped thinking. So I decided to take a nap for a few hours. The alarm clock didn't go off (or I slept through it). I woke up two hours before it was due. I was freaking the f*ck out.
I actually didn't submit it until two and half hours after it was due, but they accepted it and never said anything, but the stress was unbearable.
15.) From tripy75:
I disputed a fine and was to present in front of a judge to explain it. I arrived 15 minutes late, hairs still wet and with mismatched socks. I was struggling to attach a tie too.
The judge was not impressed, rejected my dispute and gave me a sermon about punctuality.
That oversleeping cost me 600 bucks and some dignity.
16.) From dillybar1992:
I was in college and the department I was a part of decided to do a roast. It was on of the last days of the semester so finals were here. Anyway..
At the roast, someone brought homemade apple pie moonshine, made with everclear. If you haven’t had it before, don’t. Bad idea.
So we’re passing around a half gallon of the stuff and you can’t taste the alcohol. You can only feel it warm your throat which is nice on a cold winter night in the Midwest.
I decided to leave since I had a final the next morning and I wanted to get a decent amount of sleep. I wasn’t drunk when I walked out the door but as I was walking, the alcohol must have metabolized or something cause when I was about 4 blocks from my dorm, I woke up the next morning an hour after my final. Failed the class and embarrassed myself since my friends were in said class too.
F*cking Everclear.
17.) From Jhendrix37:
My gf was graduating college. She was French and so a lot of her relatives took the flight over to see her walk the stage too. Well I turned off the alarm while still sleep... i rushed to where the ceremony was and people were coming out....... terrible.
18.) From Coogcheese:
Missed a funeral after drinking a bottle of Wild Turkey with a friend talking about our old friend who had died. 38 years ago and I still feel bad about it.