I spent 24 hours in the library

For some reason I volunteered to subject myself to 24 hours in the UEA library. 

It was harrowing.

Preparation

I knew that this would be a feat that required vast quantities of junk food, trashy magazines, pillows, blankets, a toothbrush, make-up remover and, of course, the inevitable onesie, complete with ridiculous slogan emblazoned across the front. In total, this was what I took with me:

The Beginning

I arrived at the library at 19:00 and set up my station on the first floor. The first few hours went like this:

20:01 – This may have been the most productive hour of my life. Well, maybe not my life, but I am well on the way with a work experience application which I hadn’t even glanced at before tonight.

20:03 – People are starting to leave. I’m wondering if I can eat my cheese sandwich without getting told off by the librarian.

20:08 – Nervy flatmate just rang me so that he can call ‘thief! thief!’ into the empty house and I’ll hear should the thief murder him while he’s talking to me. I guess I’m safer here.

There are still a surprising amount of people on the law floor. I checked out downstairs about half an hour ago to see if it was empty enough to hijack the sofas. It wasn’t. Why are people so keen?

Bedtime?

I tried to keep up the routine of my normal life…

Sleep?

I first tried to sleep under two desks in the law section.

But there I enjoyed the perpetual light of a 24 hour “working environment” which made it extremely hard to sleep, especially since there are, inconveniently, no beds provided.

Relocation

I went on a search mission and found rooms on the second floor were small, enclosed, and darker than anywhere else. I would later find out that these are for postgrads only and off-limits, but if anyone is trying to do a similar library marathon, I would highly recommend hijacking one anyway.

I managed to get about four hours of highly disturbed sleep, finally waking up at 6:48am to a slightly bemused cleaner coming to empty the bin.

Daytime

07:48 – after realising I was never going to get to sleep in the Law section, I moved myself up a floor into a tiny little ‘study kernel’ (number 2.09).

Curling up under this desk (because it is too small to stretch out under), I managed to get a few hours sleep on and off throughout the night. I changed out of my onesie and into normal clothes, without leaving my little nest.

The rest of the day

There really isn’t much to do in the library except work, though I did have lovely visits from people who brought me coffee and food. As the lack of sleep and fresh air became more intense, my ramblings got weirder and weirder:

13:40 – Feel sick because don’t have any food but chocolate and sweets. So just ate them. Feel disgusting.

14:15 – Kind of running out of things to do. May go for an exploratory walk. Or may not.

14:21 – just for the record I have found the third secret set of stairs, and the silent study area (which by the way is extremely creepy especially since you can see in from the outside and no-one moves). The silence here is the worst, I just want to put on music and dance and sing loudly but I cannot.

14:28 – When I told my mum I was doing this she was incredibly unimpressed. She is very wise.

15:00 – My housemate just came to visit me and said that I look “fresh” unsarcastically. Massive win for make-up. Work hard play hard. Who needs sleep?

15:32 – I’m proving that turning 20 does not mean I’m old by doing this. It’s not stupid and pointless. At all.

16:09 – Less than three hours to go. It’s starting to get dark. I feel like I really need some fresh air.

16:53 – Georgia came to visit me and brought me coffee. Yummy coffeeeeeee.

18:13 – Hovered over the Tweet button for nearly a minute so that I could tweet exactly when 23 hours were up. It’s official. I’m nearly allowed out.

I took a video of me mouthing a happy song, then realised how weird it was so decided not to snapchat it to anyone, but merely to save it to possibly use in demonstrating the effects of 23 hours in the library.

18:23 – The suspense is killing me. I need to get out, like, now.

After my stint, I can safely say I won’t be venturing back into the library for some time.