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Finals Week

By Beth Suraphel


 

With the impending finals season quickly approaching, so does the "all-nighters" season. If you're not in the UL until 4 A.M... then do you even care? Shockingly, new studies find that those who may seem like slackers for calling it a night before midnight (*pats self on the back for the rhyme*) might actually perform better than the hardcore studiers.


As we all know, poor sleep during finals season is a commonality amongst all undergraduate students. Research has shown that less than 10% of undergraduate students have the recommended minimum average of 7 hours of sleep a night. However, director of Baylor's Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory, Dr. Scullin claims that with the implementation of an incentivized sleep challenge, "we can potentially completely reverse the proportion of students meeting minimum sleep recommendations--7 hours a night-- from fewer than 15 % up to 90%."


In this study conducted by Baylor University called the "8-hour Challenge," students are incentivized with extra credit points if they averaged 8 hours of sleep for five nights during finals week. Surprisingly, those who participated and successfully met the sleep challenge, performed better than those who did not participate in the challenge. You may be thinking, well duh.. they had the extra credit points to enhance their performance grades but no, these students actually performed with an average four-point grade boost better--even excluding the extra points factor. Ultimately, this increase in sleep relates to increased productivity, cognition, attention, and therefore, better overall performance.


So the question is.. To sleep? Or to study?


sites used: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181203080319.htm


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