As exam time or deadline day approaches, it seems that there is no better time to be studying at you two year community college.
Everyone has different ways of studying: some people learn visually through mind maps whilst others may prefer speaking aloud.
However, no matter what study technique is used there is one study method that is common to all students: the all-nighter.
The all-nighter means exactly what it says - staying up throughout the night studying.
Many students tend to study through the night because they believe that the more hours that you study, the more information you will retain and learn.
This is true, but you can overdo it and do a little too much studying - to the point of diminishing returns.
Substituting study time for sleep can have some really detrimental side effects and actually have adverse affects when it comes to learning.
You won’t be able to concentrate well
If you study all night and miss out on sleep, your cognitive process can be severely impaired.
If you don’t get much sleep then your attention span will become much shorter than when you a fully rested.
This means that you won’t be able to concentrate on your revision as much as you would be able to if you had a good nights sleep.
So although you may think that you are doing a lot more revision by staying up all night, the actual amount you will be learning will be minimal.
It will be hard to retain information
When you are sleeping you pass through a number of different sleeping cycles.
One of the stages that you will enter is known as REM sleep.
REM is important as it carries out a number of vital roles.
One of which is solidifying all the memories that the brain creates throughout the day.
If you are studying all night and missing out on REM sleep then your brain will have no time to solidify your memories and organize them.
This means although you will be reading a lot of information and trying to take a lot in, it will be impossible for your brain to store it correctly.
This means that the time spent studying through the night will be useless as it will be very difficult to remember what you have read.
Is Studying All Night Really Worth It?
The answer to the question “Is studying all night really worth it?” is no.
The extra hours that you will stay up will be extremely unproductive.
You won’t be able to concentrate as long, meaning from the hours that you stay up studying, not many of them will be actually spent studying.
Also as you are not allowing your body REM sleep retaining the information you are trying to learn will be impossible.
It is a much better option to just get some sleep as studying will become so much easier.
About The Author
Guest post by Sonia Meehan. This article is for Zen Bedrooms, a great place for the best sleeping matresses.
