How often do you find yourself staying up until 3 a.m. to cram for a test you forgot about? Or waiting until the last minute to complete a summative project that’s half of your grade? Each time you do this, it negatively impacts your focus and critical thinking skills.
A significant aspect of how we function is related to our circadian rhythm. Mr. Van Deren, a psychology teacher, explains it in simpler terms: “Throughout the day, your body and mind go through a cycle, which can be affected by the sleep schedule you maintain.”
“As it gets later into the day, your brain starts to produce melatonin because it’s trying to get you ready to sleep. And it ultimately is going to slow down your processing at night, which is going to make it hard to retain information the longer you stay up.”
Sleep is essential for consolidating the memories and information you have gained over the course of a day. Van Deren makes the point that “your brain is also working while you’re sleeping.” So as you study during the daytime, all that information becomes locked into your brain as you sleep.
“In the scenario that you do stay up all night, there is a possibility that you could produce some of the information you studied at night on a test, but it’s not very common.”
Many students stay up all night studying, but one in particular does it almost every night. Jack Levesque shares, “I do homework until 2 AM on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and then take a break for 30 minutes and start again until 5 AM.”
“And on Monday and Wednesday, I stay up all night studying for tests. And if I know I’m going to be up late, I’ll sit in the living room or at the table where it’s uncomfortable so I don’t fall asleep while studying.”
Jack says his method of studying does not have the most effective results, and he ends up forgetting a lot of the information the next day. Therefore, his hours of sleep deprivation gave him zero progress and dug him a deeper hole than he was already in.
Van Deren suggests that the best way to study is to spread it over 3 to 5 days before a test, dividing your sessions to allow time for processing. But most importantly, don’t forget to get a full night of rest to retain all the information.