I should have listened to my mother when she constantly told me to close the books at midnight! The hurricane Midterm has already passed but we are still dealing with its aftermath. There are still grades we need to secure therefore nights full of cramming for chemistry, calculus or any other class await; which means a whole lot of late-night study sessions. But losing precious hours of sleep, should we?
Our typical sleep cycle consist of five stages, where the body and the brain recover and repair themselves. During deep sleep, the cortex- the section of the brain that plays a key role in thought, language, attention, memory and consciousness- disengages from the senses to be able to recover itself. A normal sleep cycle is completed in 90 minutes and it’s vital for healthy body functions. As if menstruating every month is not enough of a curse for women, research has proven that we also need longer sleeping periods than men. The research was conducted in Duke University Medical Center; the lead author of the study, Edward Suarez stated:
“We found that for women poor sleep is strongly associated with high levels of psychological distress, and greater feelings of hostility, depression and anger. In contrast, these feelings were not associated with the same degree of sleep disruption in men”.
Sculpture depicts overhead view of brain’s cortex (copper) and white matter core (Copyright unknown)
That sure explains why most of us are not morning persons or the fact that we are on PMS three weeks a month! Another discovery about the effect sleep deprivation has on women has been brought to light by Britain’s sleep expert Prof. Jim Horne. He indicated that because of our usual multitasking, we use more of our brain than men do during the day, needing a greater lapse of recovery- at least twenty more minutes of sleep.
If all-nighters are inevitable because of your academic load be sure to me conscious about the facts listed below.
Experts agree that in order to minimize all of these dangers you should take strategic naps. Usually power naps are not very effective but that’s because naps that are not 25min. or 90min. long usually leave you feeling worse. The cubicles at the library are a great spot for taking a quick power nap or if you have a pair of shades on, you can lie in just about any bench on campus. It has taken me twenty years and more than a few all-nighters to realize that mothers know best. If mothers intuition does not convince you, scientific facts should, so next time think twice about that all-nighter.