Medical App & Medical Advice with Hello Doctor

Sleep your way to higher marks

Exams, exams! Time for writing them is getting closer and you need to prepare. Reading, studying and tutorials all play a major part in getting test-ready, but there’s one secret weapon you may be missing: sleep.

No-one escapes the too-little-sleep curse

OK, you know that too little sleep leaves you cranky and red-eyed, with no energy, but that’s not the end of the story. Staying up until 4am to get through those last few chapters seems like a good idea, but you’re going to retain less information. Sorry, but it’s the truth.

Dramatic results in a discussion paper from a group in Belgium showed that students who slept more got better grades. They looked at 621 first-year university students and showed that the best sleepers scored close to 9% better than the worst sleepers.

Sleep is your superpower

Sleeping isn’t just lying there with your eyes closed: there are different layers of sleep and each one does some magic deep inside your brain.

  • Deep Sleep. This is the start of your sleep cycle. During this “knocked out” stage your brain consolidates figures, facts and language.
  • Stage 2 Sleep. In the second stage of sleep, your brain strengthens and fuses motor memory. This helps with physical skills important for mastering musical instruments or your moves in sport. So, if you have a music or dancing exam coming up, this is when your brain is doing the rehearsal.
  • REM Sleep. This is the stage of sleep when you actively dream, and it helps with comprehension and memory. REM sleep is critical in solving complex problems and figuring out patterns, so it’s vital for skills that need problem solving, like science and maths.

Catch up the smart way

When it comes to exams, your brain needs to understand, store and replay information on demand – healthy sleep is critical for being sharp. If you still have some work to cover, rather go to sleep at a reasonable time and wake up early to get that reading done. Then eat something and hit your exam with fresh eyes and a rested brain!

Sources:

https://explorecuriocite.org/Explorer/ArticleId/436/sleeping-your-way-to-good-marks-436.aspx

https://thinkgum.wordpress.com/2014/06/23/sleep-your-way-to-good-grades/