With exams in full effect and schedules crazier than ever, sometimes it seems like there really is not a minute of the day to just sit down and study. With that being said, sleep generally
gets compromised for a few extra hours of studying. But hey, what’s a few hours of sleep if it means you will be able to retain more knowledge, right?
I want to take a closer look at the benefits of sleep and whether not pulling an all nighter is more or less beneficial than getting a good night’s sleep.
It is about 11:30 P.M. You just got done a long day of classes and work, but you have an exam at 8 AM. If you go to sleep now, you can get just the right amount of sleep for your exam, but you have yet to find the time to sit down and study. You swing by Starbucks on your way home and grab some coffee to keep you awake for the night. Seven hours later, after a night of slaving of the books, the sun starts to rise and you realize you have to go take your exam soon. Too bad you are so exhausted you can barely keep your eyes open anymore let alone take an hour and half long exam.
Let’s compare this situation to another one. Say you are going to run a marathon the next morning, but you have put off training for a while. Are you going to stay up and run the whole night to prepare yourself for the next morning? Probably not. And if even if you did, chances are you would not do well the next morning with tired muscles and a fatigued body. You mind if the same way. You can not work it the entire night and expect it to produce quality results on an exam the next morning.
Sleep is crucial to producing solid results on your exams. In class, we discussed with Andrew the difference between observational studies. and experimental studies. At Harvard, in 2001, an observational study showed that 89% of students don’t sleep well at night. Another observational study was done by American College Health Association. They felt that 60% of students did not feel well rested without the proper amount of asleep. That means that almost half the amount of students at Harvard are used to feeling unrested.
Understanding how we learn: Learning is made up of three brain processes:
- Acquisition- (Receiving Info)
- Consolidation- (strengthening memory over a period of time to make it stable)
- Recall- (accessing store information)
The first two of the processes, acquisition and consolidation, show the most noticeable changes. This happens because generally a person can’t concentrate when they are tired, so they simply have troubling recalling anything. Many theories support the claim that no sleep=poor memory. Lack of sleep can effect your recollection of not only information, but other things you knew how to do before such as how you drive your car or ride a bike.
Many studies suggest a person retains the most information after studying right before bed, but sleep is still critical afte
r the study session. If you pull an all nighter, it is too hard to catch up on sleep, and you’ll find yourself being drowsy and tired for days until your body catches up on sleep.
It is proven that lack of sleep with lead to poorer test results. The best advice given is to NOT procrastinate and manage your time. But obviously that’s not always possible. In which case, researchers suggest aiming for 8 hours a night regardless and study your information before you go to sleep. Study sessions right before night’s worth of a recommended amount of sleep will lead to the best results.