Paula is a senior in high school. For Paula, getting the ideal eight hours of sleep a night is a luxury. Paula is really dedicated to her family and currently holds an after-school job as a waitress at a restaurant to bring some extra cash home. This usually results in her getting back home late. Paula then ends up staying up all night studying for her exams and finishing up her assignments—sacrificing really important hours of sleep.
Many students like Paula are often faced with the struggle of having to balance attending school and extracurriculars, showing up for their work shifts, completing schoolwork, and caring for their health and well-being. When more important things are on the line, it is not uncommon for health and well-being to take the backseat. In this article I will provide some reasons as to why sleep is important for education and offer practical and conscious strategies to get more hours of sleep.
Memory
When students study for their exams, they usually try to memorize important concepts to be able to select the right answers during the test. Most students have been in a position where they can’t seem to remember the specifics of the content they studied the night before. This can be due to their not having a restful and complete night of sleep. When you go to sleep, your brain is able to take a much-needed rest from most of its daytime duties. It is during this period of “deep sleep” when your brain is able to “engrave” some of the memories you have made throughout the day—including those of the material you studied for your exam!
While this might not be directly related to the purpose of this article, I want to say that these memories are not permanent and can be changed. Imagine your memories having the composition of Play-Dough. Making shapes out of it with your hands is like forming memories. If you leave the Play-Dough out for too long, it might dry in one of those shapes, which is like the process of “engraving” memories in your brain during sleep. However, if you grab the Play-Dough again soon enough, you will be able to reshape it and let it dry.
Attention
Sometimes, teachers notice that their students’ eyes begin wandering around during class time. Obviously, struggling to focus while in class can hurt a student’s ability to learn. This can cause them to miss out on important course content, including instructions for successfully completing their homework assignments. It has been found that not receiving adequate and restful sleep can contribute to a person’s inability to pay attention. This means that if a student is not sleeping enough, they might struggle to focus in class, and in turn, might have poorer academic performance.
Making Decisions
The decisions students make impact how and what they learn. For example, a student might or might not choose to take notes in class, which might impact how effectively they will be able to study and, therefore, how well they will do on their exams. The decisions we make may either improve or worsen our ability to learn. It has been found that people who don’t sleep enough don’t make decisions as well as those who get a full night’s rest. This means that if you are not sleeping well, you are more likely to make careless decisions that could negatively affect your education!
Motivation
Motivation drives the decisions we make. For example, being motivated can encourage you to meet with your professor and ask questions about topics you don’t understand—bettering your learning. It has been found that people who don’t get enough sleep have less motivation. This means that skimping on valuable hours of sleep can decrease your motivation to successfully complete school assignments and meet other responsibilities.
Practical Recommendations
As mentioned, some students have difficulties balancing all of their responsibilities, and in turn, their sleep suffers. One practical piece of advice is to try to work on organizing your tasks and activities around a minimum set of hours during which you hope to get some sleep. Start by writing out your schoolwork to-do’s for the week at the start of every week. Create a calendar of your classes and work shifts. Try to schedule small blocks of study time in between your other commitments. Some students might think that 10 minutes of studying might be unproductive, but you would be surprised by what you can achieve in short periods of time. Practice efficient study techniques, through which you time out study sessions along with short study breaks in between to avoid burnout. Communicate with your work boss and your professors and explain to them everything you are attempting to juggle—they might be more understanding than you think and may help by accommodating some of your deadlines and shifts. Lastly, be sure to set boundaries with other activities and prioritize!
References
- Gutiérrez, M. L., et al. 2024. Sleep and learning: A systematic review. International Archives of Otorhinolaryngology, 28(04):e657-e661. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0043-1777294
- Jurgelis, M., et al. 2022. Sleep restriction reduces cognitive but not physical motivation. Nature and Science of Sleep 14:2001-2012. https://doi.org/10.2147/nss.s368335
- Rodrigues, T., and Nadia Shigaeff. 2022. Sleep disorders and attention: A systematic review. Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria 80(5):530-538. https://doi.org/10.1590/0004-282x-anp-2021-0182
- Saddoud, A., et al. 2022. One night of total sleep deprivation impairs decision-making skills, anaerobic performances, mood states, and perceptual responses in elite kung fu athletes. Biological Rhythm Research 54(1):102-116. https://doi.org/10.1080/09291016.2022.2090673
