Avani Abraham | Contributor
Featured Image: Sacrificing sleep for a little bit of extra studying has adverse effects on exam scores. | Courtesy of Pexels
As university students, we struggle to balance extracurricular activities, work, and studying on a daily basis. This becomes particularly challenging during exam time, when it starts to feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day. So much so, that we resort to caffeine-fuelled all-nighters that enable some extra study hours—albeit at the cost of getting a good night’s rest.
Aswah Rabbani, a first-year communication studies student, agrees that it’s fair to say she sacrifices sleep to study during exams. When asked how much sleep she gets during exams, Rabbani says, “per night, I would say three hours.” Regarding how she thought more sleep would affect her exam performance, she noted “I‘ve never slept more before an exam because I don’t have the time. But if I did get more sleep, I think it would help my performance.”
On the other hand, some students find that their ability to focus and retain information is impaired when they’re sleep deprived.
“I would rather not sacrifice sleep to study, because I can’t study when it’s very late—I can’t understand anything,” says Alireza Milani, a first-year political science student. Milani estimates that she sleeps five to seven hours a night during exam time. Regarding her test performance, she says: “if I sleep more, I perform better.”
While it seems logical that the more time you spend studying, the better you perform, research on sleep actually indicates that insufficient sleep has negative repercussions on stress levels, response times, and memory.
Research conducted at Ghent and KU Leuven universities in Belgium surveyed 621 first-year university students about their sleep habits during exam period. Accounting for differences in the students’ study habits, as well as their health and socioeconomic backgrounds, researchers found that all else equal, students who generally slept well the night before performed better on exams. On average, students who extended their sleep from six to seven hours saw a 1.7 point increase (out of 20) for each exam they wrote. This effect is attributed to the fact that sleep is needed to consolidate new information into our existing memory base.
Sleep, or lack thereof, also has a significant impact on our emotional, and physical wellbeing in the long-term.
“Sleep plays a vital role in the overall health and well-being of individuals,” says Helen Lee, a registered nurse and manager of Well-being and Health Promotion at the York University Student Success Centre.
“According to the National Sleep Foundation, the recommended duration for sleep varies across ages however, sleep quality is essential for all. The quality of sleep arguably relates more strongly to overall health than sleep quantity. Many studies have indicated that the benefits of sleep are improved physical and cardiovascular health, improved memory and learning, and improved mental health in the areas of stress management, improved mood and reducing the risk of depression,” elaborates Lee.
To improve sleep quality, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S. recommends that a regular sleep schedule is maintained, that electronic devices are put away half an hour before you try to sleep, and to refrain from studying in bed, so your brain associates the bed solely with sleeping.
York University also offers resources for learning more about establishing healthy sleep habits and other behaviours to optimize academic performance.
“At various times of the year, Health Education and Promotion offers tabling on sleep habits and tips for healthy sleep. During exams, Learning Skills and Health Education partners to provide student strategies on nutrition, sleep, stress management and studying tips,” Lee adds.
