Midterms are brutal. You stay up all night (sometimes into the next morning) studying for an exam that makes up a quarter or more of your overall grade. You saved it all to the last minute because you were too busy watching multiple seasons of Gilmore Girls on Netflix. While you’re up at 1 a.m. studying, you are absolutely starving- so you call OHOP and order pizza.
Good news: you are not alone. This is so common among college students during exam weeks.
Bad news: it’s negatively affecting your health.
You’ve heard it before and you’ll hear it again. The number one reason why you feel like complete crap? You’re getting 6 hours or less of sleep every night. According to the University of Georgia Health Center, students who got 6 or less hours of sleep had lower GPAs than students who slept 8 hours or more. This is because sleep plays a key part in learning and memorizing information. If you wait until 8 p.m. to start studying for your 10 a.m. final the next day, you probably won’t be able to memorize enough information in that amount of time.
Not only does poor sleep affect your grades, but it negatively affects your body’s health. According to the November 2014 issue of Prevention Magazine, when we don’t sleep enough, our brain gets damaged and this could be permanent. This damage can raise the risk of cognitive problems such as Alzheimer’s disease and memory loss. Sounds like a pretty scary statement, right? On the bright side, you can prevent this by simply getting a couple more hours of sleep every night.
One big thing you can change that will help you get enough sleep during midterms is time management. It’s not that you choose to stay up all night studying, but you did bring it upon yourself by not planning ahead. Here’s what you need to do:
· Get a planner and map everything out. You should even write down how long you’ll spend studying on the certain subject.
· Give yourself outlines on what to study so you don’t try to read every word of every chapter that will be on your midterm. Sometimes professors hand these out before exams- if you’re lucky.
· Flash cards are a big help for studying key terms. Focus on the bold words in your textbook and write those down on the cards. You can try quizlet.com which is the online version of flash cards.
· Start studying way before you think you should. Try not to wait until the night before the exam. You will be absolutely stressed to the max and you definitely won’t get much sleep.
Now go out there and ace those midterms, collegiettes!