During exam week, pulling an all-nighter is staple study technique for college students. Professors cram a semester’s worth of material into one final test, and students think the best way to prepare is to stay up all night studying and loading up on caffeine.<\/p>\n
But new research shows that it might be time to change this study method.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that students who averaged eight hours of sleep for the five nights of finals week scored higher<\/a> on their final exams than those who didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u201cBetter sleep helped rather than harmed final exam performance, which is contrary to most college students\u2019 perceptions that they have to sacrifice either studying or sleeping,\u201d co-author Michael Scullin<\/a>, director of Baylor University\u2019s Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory and an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience in Baylor\u2019s College of Arts & Sciences, said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd you don\u2019t have to be an \u2018A\u2019 student or have detailed education on sleep for this to work,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n Concerned with how sleep habits were affecting college student\u2019s grades, the researchers came up with \u201cThe 8-hour Challenge,\u201d in which they offered students a few extra points if they slept at least eight hours every night of finals week.<\/p>\n Students who met the challenge did receive the extra points toward their semester grades, but they weren\u2019t included in the researchers\u2019 analysis of the exam scores. Students who slept eight hours a night scored higher than their peers, even without the extra credit.<\/p>\n The study featured students in both upper-level psychology and neuroscience classes and students from an interior design class.<\/p>\n The students who opted to participate in the study wore wristbands that monitored their sleeping habits, ensuring that they didn\u2019t skip out on their eight hours.<\/p>\n \u201cThe students didn\u2019t need the extra credit to perform better, and they weren\u2019t really better students from the get-go,\u201d Scullin said in a statement. \u201cIf you statistically correct for whether a student was an A, B, C, or D student before their final exam, sleeping eight hours was associated with a four-point grade boost \u2014 even prior to applying extra credit.\u201d<\/p>\n The study was split into two papers. The first, which includes psychology students, is published in the journal Teaching of Psychology<\/a>. The second, which includes interior design students, is published in the Journal of Interior Design<\/a>.<\/p>\n Especially around finals week, cutting back on sleep is very common for college students. During the stressful time, less than 10 percent of undergraduate students are even able to maintain the recommended seven hours of sleep, research shows.<\/p>\nThe study<\/b><\/h2>\n
Students need to sleep more<\/b><\/h2>\n