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September 17, 2007
Don't let the bedbugs biteRecent studies suggest that (surprise!) pulling all-nighters may not be the best way to improve grades and student performance. BoardBuzz found this article that cites two different studies, one out of St. Lawrence University and the other out of Stanford University, examining sleep deprivation and performance.
Anyone who's ever pulled an all-nighter can attest to the fact that it may not be the best way to learn (and retain) information.
"You can't do your best work when you're sleep-deprived," says psychology professor Pamela Thacher, who wrote the study. Thacher studied the sleeping patterns and transcripts of 111 students to see the correlation between sleep and their GPAs.Two-thirds of the students reported that they had pulled at least one all-nighter during a semester.
Many students believe that it's a "rite of passage" to stay up all night during college and that "it's kind of fun," Thacher says.
Fun? BoardBuzz doesn't exactly remember it that way. Thatcher goes on to point out that all-nighters "compromise sleep" and students who do so have lower GPAs than those who do not.
The second study focuses on student athletes' performance.
Cheri Mah, a graduate researcher at Stanford, worked with six basketball players, who all ran faster and made more shots over a period in which they slept at least 10 hours a night."Athletes who get an extra amount of sleep are more likely to improve their performance in a game," says Mah, who released results from an ongoing study in June. "It's not common knowledge, because if people understood how much of a difference (getting more sleep) could make athletically," they'd incorporate it more into their lives and not focus solely on nutrition and exercise.
The article also points out that while recommended sleep times vary, most adults "need seven to nine hours a night."
Zzzzzzzzz.
Posted September 17, 2007 3:16 PM | Students
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