Is Staying Woke More Important Than Sleep?

       Every night, before I go to sleep, I go on my phone for about a half an hour, scrolling until I feel too guilty about staying up late on a school night.  Instead of looking at funny pictures or listening to relaxing music, which would be the better thing to do before I try to sleep, I instead go through political activism accounts on social media, which I have found to be very informational but not too formal, unlike a news article.  On these accounts I read about a variety of social issues that I do not seem to find much about in current news, such as the Flint water crisis and the deadly bombing in Egypt.  Along with detailed information about such issues, I learn about the systematic racism, sexism, and ableism present in American society that also seems to be ignored by many major news outlets.  While I myself am not a minority of any kind, I am able to see through the eyes of those who experience such hate in their everyday lives and choose to post their experiences online, using these accounts as outlets to educate the public about such quiet and passive aggressions.  As a white person, I feel that I am obligated to attempt to understand the privilege I have experienced since birth solely as a result of my skin color and that others are constantly in danger if they have no privilege.  I think that I need to stay educated and aware of my privilege in order to use my platform to make others aware of the systematic oppression against every person that is not a white male in not only America, but in the world.   It is easy to be blinded by such privilege; I will never have to worry about being denied a job or shot because of how I look.
       However, by staying up reading about such stressful and horrible things that I feel the need to comprehend, I don't sleep even after my phone has been off for hours.  This has a direct result on my schoolwork, making me almost unable to stay awake and attentive during my 0 and 6th periods.  I seem to be prioritizing one form of education (political and practical) over another (academic) and I have yet to find a balance between the two.  Reading such sad stories of massacres of loved ones and inexplicable hate forces me to feel as if it is my loved ones who are being murdered for their skin or religion and who experience such hate, putting me into a sad state of mind by taking their issues upon myself.  Thinking late into the night and taking on the problems, experiences, and emotions of others has taken a mental toll on me, resulting in lots of stress, sadness, and emotional exhaustion that would not exist if I simply put my phone down.  However, it is not simply an issue of staying off my phone; by putting my phone down, I would be allowing myself to stay ignorant and ignoring the voices of those who need to be heard because they make me sad.  I am lucky enough to not be affected by the issues of which they speak, so it is the absolute least I can do to read their stories, articles, and perspectives and attempt to understand the situations with which they have dealt since birth.  Though "staying woke" has affected both my physical and mental health negatively, I would much rather be educated than ignorant.  I would prefer to lose sleep than to lose my political awareness.