Dear Harlan,

My roommate consistently wakes me up every two hours every night SNORING. I can't sleep and I'm not doing well in my classes as a result. She's also an international student who's never shared a room, so I want to be polite, but it needs to stop! She won't take medicine for congestion or anything, preferring to rely on her own homeopathic remedies she brought with her, but they're obviously not working. What do I do?

"Lisa"

Dear Lisa,

Sleep is too precious to be polite. You don't win anything by being shy about this. You just lose sleep and get bad grades. When I snore, my wife isn't shy about it. She wakes me and tells me to turn over to my side. Then I turn over to my side. Part of living with someone is being direct and honest. You need to be able to wake her up and ask her to turn over on her side. If you're unsure how to approach the international student, find someone in the international student department who can give you advice on how to approach your snoring roommate. Learn "Wake up, please turn over" in her native tongue. She might not even be aware of how bad it is. If nothing works, you can try some white noise and wearing headphones quiet enough to be able to hear a fire alarm, should it go off. Nighty night.