AITA for not waking up my roommate on the day of his final med school exam?

A med student (23M) faced backlash from his roommate, Justin, after failing to wake him for a crucial med school exam. The user woke Justin at 2:30 AM instead of the agreed-upon 3:00 AM, told him to set an alarm, and went to sleep.

Justin overslept, blaming the user for not ensuring he stayed awake. The user believes responsibility lies with Justin for not setting an alarm. read the original story below…

‘ AITA for not waking up my roommate on the day of his final med school exam?’

I (23M) and my roommate Justin (23M) are med students. We’ve been living together as roommates for two years, and we live in a hostel. Last week were our final year exams, and it was absolute hell. We were surviving on 2-3 hours of sleep daily, fueled by coffee and energy drinks (I know it’s not healthy but there’s no other way to pass lol).

On the last day of exams, Justin was unusually exhausted. Around 1 am, he decided to sleep and told me to wake him up at 3 am. I agreed. However, by 2:30 am, I was dead. My brain was shutting down, my notes were getting blurry and I knew if I stayed up any longer, I’d pass out.

I decided to wake Justin up early. I woke Justin up at 2:30 am and told him the time and suggested he set an alarm so he wouldn’t oversleep. Justin sat upright, rubbed his eyes, and nodded and said ‘alright’. I was like ‘don’t forget to set the alarm’ and then almost instantly fell asleep.

We both woke up at 8 AM. (I had set my alarm for 6 but I kept hitting snooze). Justin freaked out, accusing me of not waking him up as promised. I reminded him that I did wake him up at 2:30 AM and suggested he set an alarm.

Justin said that he was too sleepy to comprehend what’s happening and insisted that I should have stayed awake to wake him at 3 AM or at least made sure he was fully awake before sleeping. Justin’s exam didn’t go well, and now he’s blaming me. I understand his frustration, but I think he’s being unfair.. AITA?

Take a look at the comments from fellow users:

Wolf-Pack85 −  Is there a reason Justin couldn’t set an alarm, or several? Also, is there a reason Justin thinks you’re his mother?

beefcurtainpercs −  NTA, it sounds like you were both exhausted and burnt out from studying. At the end of the day you are both adults and can do for yourselves. It was nice of you to let him know at 2:30 that you were going to sleep and to set an alarm.

I understand the frustration of not being coherent to comprehend information though. As someone is in the medical world, and has studied like you all, ultimately you are responsible for your exam grades. I learned that studying at that level of exhaustion doesnt help.

If I didnt know the material by then, I wasnt going to. His blame appears misplaced due to not doing well exam.

LuneJean −  Nta. Plus the extra sleep was what his body needed more than studying. He most likely did better than he would have if you would have woke him up at 3.

Rosie3435 −  NTA.  I hope he never becomes a doctor.  He does not need a roommate to wake him.  I do not want irresponsible doctors in the future.  He can just blame himself.

Inevitable_Bit_9257 −  NTA. It’s cool you and Justin are able to support each other to study but that doesn’t extend to being responsible for each other’s performance in exams. Hope you can both rest once exams are all done

Vast_butt −  What would getting up at 3am have achieved?! You will have done way better in the exams having an extra 5 hours sleep (and would have done having a proper sleep every night). So you probably did yourselves a favour. And yes I know about medical exams!

AncastaOfTheRiver −  NTA. You did wake him up. What would’ve been different half an hour later? Quite likely nothing, and now he’d still be saying you didn’t make completely sure he was awake. If he’s giving himself a pass for being too drowsy to comprehend what was happening, you – similarly exhausted – should be getting one too.

cloistered_around −  We were surviving on 2-3 hours of sleep daily, fueled by coffee and energy drinks (I know it’s not healthy but there’s no other way to pass lol). Actually the brain works better on sufficient sleep than it does on sleep deprivation. Surely that was covered in a med class?

Anyway NTA for waking him up as asked and he forgot to set an alarm.

mybadluver −  NTA! you did wake him up to set an alarm, & ultimately it is his responsibility, not yours.

Anothershad0w −  I’m a current neurosurgery resident and this dude is not going to be a good resident if he’s this quick to blame others for his own incompetence or unreliability. Not to mention – you did wake him up.

He fell back asleep, presumably the same reason he doesn’t rely on an alarm because he will snooze it. Definitely NTA. Also stop staying up late cramming… a good nights sleep will be better for your performance than a couple exhausted hours of s**tty studying that you don’t retain.

Was it unfair to shift the blame? Could the user have done more? Share your opinions below!