Final exams are almost here, and for many University of Virginia students, that means late nights, copious amounts of caffeine and sacrificing sleep. But according to Dr. Scott Schecter, a pulmonologist at UVA Health’s Sleep Disorders Center, that tradeoff may be costing students more than they realize.
“(Students are) going to try to fit in more studying than they have time in the day,” he said. “And I think for a lot of people, that kind of starts to cannibalize their sleep time.”
Sleep is when the brain does the bulk of its memory work. Schecter explained stage three sleep, or deep sleep, helps consolidate declarative memory – the kind needed to recall specific facts and dates – while REM sleep supports more complex learning, such as understanding processes and making connections between ideas.
Dr. Scott Schecter is a pulmonologist in the UVA Health Sleep Disorders Center. (Contributed photo)
“Without good sleep, a lot of research has shown that people aren’t able to retain things to the best of their ability,” he said.
Here are five tips Schecter has for sleeping well during final exam season.
Set a caffeine cutoff. Students who rely on coffee or energy drinks to push through long study sessions may not realize how long the stimulant stays in their bodies. Schecter said caffeine has a half-life of five to six hours, meaning coffee consumed at 4 p.m. would still be roughly half present in the body by 10 p.m.
“Hammering that late into the night can have some negative effects on sleep because it’s not going to be completely out of your body,” he said.
For students hoping to keep a normal sleep schedule, Schecter recommends stopping caffeine intake by noon to give the body enough time to clear it before bed.
Don’t study in bed. It might be tempting to review course material from the comfort of your bed, but Schecter advises against it.
“You don’t want your brain to associate the bed as a place where you’re spending time awake,” he said.
Over time, studying in bed can blur the mental boundary between work and rest, making it harder for the brain to switch off when you want to sleep. Schecter recommends using your bed only for sleep, so the brain learns to wind down when you get in it.
Skip the all-nighter. Cramming through the night can create a false sense of confidence, Schecter said, because students may recognize material on the exam, but lack the mental capacity to fully apply it or connect it to other topics.
“The lack of sleep makes it so you don’t have all the pieces to put together,” he said.
Schecter acknowledged cramming isn’t completely useless. It’s better than nothing if you’ve never read the material at all. But for knowledge you need to retain beyond the exam, there’s no substitute for consistent sleep leading up to finals.
Take short naps, not long ones. For students who aren’t sleeping well at night, short daytime naps can help. Aim for 20 to 30 minutes – long enough to be refreshed, but short enough to avoid the grogginess that comes with disrupting deeper sleep stages.
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