Sleeping & Studying

You did not wanna sleep because you had a test tomorrow, but you never read your textbook or reviewed your note until you have to. Finally until 11:30 pm, only 100 pages were left, and you were tired and sleepy. Should you give up and sleep or keep reading? This question only stayed in your mind for few second before you dismissed it and guzzled another cup of coffee.

Sounds familiar? It happens to many students or people who were students. Today I am not here to appeal you to stop procrastination and live a happy life, since I actually don't know how to do it. Of course, it will be much better if you can plan your time properly. But when you decide to burn the candle at both ends, there is a better way to burn it.

According to an article from Harvard Medical School website, sleeping is important to memory. Sleep deprivation reduces your ability to study. This fact is known by many people. So let me tell you something you may not know.

If you are studying for a test, stop cramming to midnight. Here is a better way: study until 11 pm and sleep normally, then wake up early in the morning, depending on how many hours you need. The reason is that different types of memory are related to different stages of sleep. Formation of memory of basic fact knowledge happens in early stage, which is the stage that you need to consolidate what you study for a day.

Maybe next time you should go to bed earlier and get up earlier.

Nonetheless, this trick doesn't really work that well, according to my experience. Studying a little bit everyday is much better than cramming a huge chunk of information, which you can go to my last post for information about spacing study.

For more information and specific explanation, go for this video.