What are you doing, Grill? Can’t talk, test tomorrow. It’s getting late, don’t you think you should get to bed? I can sleep when I die. Tests make him crazy. He thinks that if he studies all night he can make up for the fact he procrastinated all summer. Well you might be able to pull it off, but you’re probably going to run into more problems tomorrow if you stay up too late. I told you. Drink Yeet. No— no sleep. I think this warrants further investigation, for your sake, Grill. The night before your big test, is it better to get right to sleep, or cram in a few more hours of studying? It may come as no surprise that teenagers are chronically sleep deprived. Using data from 9 states, the American Center for Disease Control found that 60% middle school students, and 70% of high school students weren’t sleeping enough. The amount of sleep a certain individual needs varies greatly, but on average, middle and high school aged students need around 8 to 10 hours per night. This is worrisome, considering that adequate sleep is necessary for proper cognitive function and development. Sleep deprivation, both partial and total, negatively impacts our frontal lobes, which are connected to our working memory and attention. Working memory can be broken down into 4 sections: the phonological loop, which collects acoustic and verbal information, visuospatial sketchpad which collects spatial and visual information, the episodic buffer which integrates info from the previous two, and the central executive which controls the previous three. So when you aren’t sleeping enough, your ability to take information and organize on the fly is impaired. In addition to that, sleep deprivation also impacts an individual’s ability to maintain sustained concentration on any given task. Sleep Scientists call a momentary loss of concentration “attentional lapses”, which are triggered by short periods of sleep lasting from one to several seconds called microsleeps. Basically, it becomes more difficult to concentrate not only because one is fighting off microsleeps, but the act of trying to stay awake slows cognitive function. Since sleep deprivation impacts one’s attention and ability to recall information, test taking becomes an ever more insurmountable task than before. Okay sure, you need sleep to… To be able to pay good attention. But that doesn’t prove that sleeping before a test is better than studying longer. Well, my good friends at UCLA have got us covered! Starting in the 9th grade, researchers recruited students from 3 different high schools in the Los Angeles area to monitor their study and sleep habits throughout their secondary education. For a 2 week period once per year, students were asked to record their daily study and sleep time and indicate whether or not their experiences at school that day were negative. Generally, study time did not change over the course of the years reported. The participating students spent about an hour each night studying. Sleep time on the other hand, consistently decreased. The researchers note that by the 12th grade students were sleeping an average 40 minutes less than they were in the 9th grade. As you can see in this graph, the researchers noticed a relationship between increased study time, and increased academic problems. What? That makes no sense! You can’t tell me that studying makes you worse at school. Well, at first, the data seems to show that the more a student studies the worse they do in school, but once sleep time enters the equation, you can see that there’s something else at work. As students’ study time increased, sleep decreased. Which suggests that as students move to their later years, they increasingly opt to study instead of sleep. Well, wait… So not getting enough sleep is worse for you, than studying a couple extra hours is better for you? Like, if I only knew half of the material, staying up all night to study the other half, would just make it harder for me to remember everything, even the half that I knew in the first place? Exactly! It’s not saying that sleeping will let you ace the exam if you procrastinated all semester and never studied, but it is saying that effective study habits take sleep into consideration. Well that doesn’t help me tonight at all! Unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do this late in the game. For the most part, studying is like growing a garden, it takes time, patience, and consistency to cultivate a flourishing knowledge base. Like a garden, our brains need the right nutrients to function properly. A steady flow of micronutrients will ensure that our brains have the materials they need to perform well over a long period of time. Not only that, but our brains consist of about 2% of our total body mass, yet they use about 20% of the body’s total energy supply. So if you want to maximize your study time, then eating well is the first step. Chunking is another way to improve the efficiency of your study time. Chunking is basically breaking down a larger subject into smaller, more manageable sections, that are easier to digest and understand. For example, if you’re studying anatomy, it might help if you focused on specific locations, or specific systems. Not only does chunking help you not get overwhelmed by a topic, it also allows you to move quickly between topics, and forge connections between chunks, making it easier to recall information more accurately. Unfortunately this is a technique that will improve your ability over time, not all at once. Lastly, stress will impact your mental health, and that of course, will affect your ability to take examinations. If you’re feeling stressed out, talking with other students, family members, friends, or mental health professionals can help you alleviate any pent up pressure you may be feeling. It’s all about making sure that you give your body and mind all the support they need to make the best of every minute of your studying. Well then, what the hell am I supposed to do now? I need to study, but I need to sleep. Oh, Grill. How about I make you some herbal tea, and you know what? I’ll even run some flashcards with you, and then how ‘bout we hit the hay? Oh that… That sounds pretty good. Thank you. Like I mentioned earlier, studying is a lot like gardening. If you neglect your tomatoes all year, and then expect them to grow overnight because you left the hose on, you’ll be sorely disappointed. Eating well, employing good study techniques, and getting enough sleep every night won’t instantly make your grades go up, but it’ll keep your mind and body healthy, and that’ll make sure that your study time is as efficient as it can be. If you’re interested in more sleep science, we go into more detail in our video on Sleep Deprivation. See the link in the description. How did the test go? You know what, it was better than I expected! But hey, it was just a Lance class anyway. Ahh, so you didn’t really learn much anyway. The class was called “Architecture of Virtual Spaces” but all he ended up testing us on was his trivia about his Minecraft house. Ugh, remind me to check the structural integrity of the hall closet later. Oh that’s a good idea! We can celebrate your passing grade by organizing our room! Yeah I don’t know what part of that sounds like a celebration to you. Oh no Grill, it’ll be fun, I promise! How ‘bout you come check out my organizational skills on On The Hill? He’s always been so secretive about that door.
