Sleep affects your study routine and academic performance more than you think. Here are some tips on how you can ensure you get the adequate rest required for optimal performance!
Exam season approaches. Are you planning to burn the midnight oil again to cram for your tests?
It may seem productive (and there have certainly been cases where it works), but it’s not a good idea to sacrifice sleep for extra study time. In fact, research even shows it can harm both your academic performance and well-being over time.
Sleep plays a crucial role in many recuperative processes, including ones for the brain. Without it, you can suffer from learning and memory consolidation issues.
When you sleep, your brain processes and stores the information you’ve just gained. That strengthens neural connections that you can call on in exams to remember key information.
So what happens when your brain can’t do that? The disruption of that process can make it harder for you to recall data on demand. This can have a serious effect on your exam performance.
The recommended amount of sleep per individual is variable, but there are some general rules. At 13 to 18 years old, you should be getting around 7 to 10 hours of sleep per night.
If you think that sounds like too much, then you’re probably not getting enough sleep! Indeed, it’s normal for many students now to get much less than that.
Whether it’s due to late-night study sessions, social media, or even a trend toward “eveningness” among adolescents, many things can lead to insufficient sleep. Unfortunately, this can have a negative impact on your performance.
An MIT study published in 2019 highlights this. It concluded that there was a direct correlation between sleep and test scores for students – the more sleep the students got, the better their test scores. On the other hand, the less sleep students got, the worse their test scores.
And it goes beyond the scores or your ability to recall information during an assessment. Lack of sleep can also affect things like your mood and energy levels. People short on sleep tend to be more irritable and less focused. This can make activities like study sessions more difficult and drastically less effective.
And over time, the lack of sleep can even have physical effects on your body, such as heightened stress hormone production.
The core strategy for students here is to avoid cramming at the last minute. If you don’t need to stay up late at night, that’s one thing sorted!
To that end, start by adopting an intelligently paced revision schedule. Learn to manage your time in a way that accounts not just for the study but also your rest.
At Aspire Hub, our usual recommendation here is to make study a habit instead of a one-off. There’s less pressure to remember everything with a habitual revision, for one thing, which already eases your load. In addition to that, consistent study often has better results than cramming.
Aside from that, you can try the following tips:
Sometimes, it’s all about training the body itself. Get it used to a set bedtime and waking time so that you have an internal clock helping you. It can even improve the quality of your sleep!
As an added tip: try to avoid using electronic devices before you sleep. The blue light from their screens can interrupt your circadian rhythm. The result can be unintended wakefulness when you’re getting ready to wind down.
This one can work wonders if you find the right activity. Some people like to slow their brains a bit by indulging in some leisure reading. Others like to listen to calming music.
The idea is to find something that gives your brain a clear signal: it’s time to get ready for rest!
A lot of students try to keep themselves up for study sessions with tea or coffee. Don’t do it! It can linger in your system and keep you up well after your study session is over.
Take note that some other drinks may have enough caffeine to keep you up, by the way. A can of Coke can have anywhere from 34 to 46 mg of it!
Ultimately, it’s not worth it to sacrifice sleep for eleventh-hour revision. It’s tempting, but it won’t help you as much as having a balanced and consistent study schedule.
As a final bit of advice, consider getting help with your studies too. Our teachers can not only provide individualised revision plans but also craft structured revision schedules for you, for example.
Reach out to us if you’re interested in getting help with your exams this year. You might be surprised by the difference we can make not just to your grades but also your quality of life!
Exam season approaches. Are you planning to burn the midnight oil again to cram for your tests?
It may seem productive (and there have certainly been cases where it works), but it’s not a good idea to sacrifice sleep for extra study time. In fact, research even shows it can harm both your academic performance and well-being over time.
Sleep plays a crucial role in many recuperative processes, including ones for the brain. Without it, you can suffer from learning and memory consolidation issues.
When you sleep, your brain processes and stores the information you’ve just gained. That strengthens neural connections that you can call on in exams to remember key information.
So what happens when your brain can’t do that? The disruption of that process can make it harder for you to recall data on demand. This can have a serious effect on your exam performance.
The recommended amount of sleep per individual is variable, but there are some general rules. At 13 to 18 years old, you should be getting around 7 to 10 hours of sleep per night.
If you think that sounds like too much, then you’re probably not getting enough sleep! Indeed, it’s normal for many students now to get much less than that.
Whether it’s due to late-night study sessions, social media, or even a trend toward “eveningness” among adolescents, many things can lead to insufficient sleep. Unfortunately, this can have a negative impact on your performance.
An MIT study published in 2019 highlights this. It concluded that there was a direct correlation between sleep and test scores for students – the more sleep the students got, the better their test scores. On the other hand, the less sleep students got, the worse their test scores.
And it goes beyond the scores or your ability to recall information during an assessment. Lack of sleep can also affect things like your mood and energy levels. People short on sleep tend to be more irritable and less focused. This can make activities like study sessions more difficult and drastically less effective.
And over time, the lack of sleep can even have physical effects on your body, such as heightened stress hormone production.
The core strategy for students here is to avoid cramming at the last minute. If you don’t need to stay up late at night, that’s one thing sorted!
To that end, start by adopting an intelligently paced revision schedule. Learn to manage your time in a way that accounts not just for the study but also your rest.
At Aspire Hub, our usual recommendation here is to make study a habit instead of a one-off. There’s less pressure to remember everything with a habitual revision, for one thing, which already eases your load. In addition to that, consistent study often has better results than cramming.
Aside from that, you can try the following tips:
Sometimes, it’s all about training the body itself. Get it used to a set bedtime and waking time so that you have an internal clock helping you. It can even improve the quality of your sleep!
As an added tip: try to avoid using electronic devices before you sleep. The blue light from their screens can interrupt your circadian rhythm. The result can be unintended wakefulness when you’re getting ready to wind down.
This one can work wonders if you find the right activity. Some people like to slow their brains a bit by indulging in some leisure reading. Others like to listen to calming music.
The idea is to find something that gives your brain a clear signal: it’s time to get ready for rest!
A lot of students try to keep themselves up for study sessions with tea or coffee. Don’t do it! It can linger in your system and keep you up well after your study session is over.
Take note that some other drinks may have enough caffeine to keep you up, by the way. A can of Coke can have anywhere from 34 to 46 mg of it!
Ultimately, it’s not worth it to sacrifice sleep for eleventh-hour revision. It’s tempting, but it won’t help you as much as having a balanced and consistent study schedule.
As a final bit of advice, consider getting help with your studies too. Our teachers can not only provide individualised revision plans but also craft structured revision schedules for you, for example.
Reach out to us if you’re interested in getting help with your exams this year. You might be surprised by the difference we can make not just to your grades but also your quality of life!
