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.