To the Class of 2006:

I stand before you today not to talk about your bright and shining future, which is apparently limitless, or to stress the importance of setting goals like finding a cure for cancer or getting out of your parents' basement, or to wax philosophical about every ending being a new beginning, which has always seemed like a vicious circle to me.

No, the advice I offer you today as you take the path of endless possibilities that leads to the real world is this: Learn to sleep like an adult.

For the past four years, you have slept like a student. You have studied hard; you have partied hardy. And then you have collapsed into a comatose state over the weekend for 12 or 14 straight hours.

Although you may not be aware of this, most businesses do not operate on a senior year or college timetable. This means your starting time will not be 9 a.m. one day, 1 p.m. the next, with Fridays as a free day. Rather, it is very likely you will be required to show up every day at the ungodly hour of 8 or 9 a.m.

Not only that, but when you arrive at work, you will be expected to be in a state closely approximating consciousness. This means brain-wave activity, blinking and acknowledging the presence of other life forms.

Here is another harsh reality:

If, say, you have an 8 a.m. meeting, you are probably not going to be able to blow it off and then get the notes from someone. Rare is the business that has a cuts policy. What businesses do have, however, is a policy in which you are handed an empty box and escorted to your car by security guards.

Now, as alarming as this may seem, the post-college world is not as bad as it sounds if you do one thing — get enough sleep.

So how do you do that?

Did you ever notice those people you pass on their way to bed as you are on your way out for the night?

You know who I mean: your parents, the folks you often see reading the newspaper in the morning when you are on your way in.

Well, they are excellent adult-sleep role models.

What they have mastered over the years is something called a work-week sleep pattern. In simple terms, a work-week sleep pattern involves going to bed at the same time and getting up at the same time. If you do this on a consistent basis, you will develop something called energy. Energy is a major key — along with sucking up — to success in the real world.

And so, graduates of the class of 2006, as you go forth to pursue your tomorrows, remember to dream, to dream big, to dream often.

Just don't hit the snooze button.