So we learned something new this week. Did you know that the times you go to bed and wake up can have different impacts on how well you perform on tests, musical performances or sports?
If you’re prepping for an exam, working on your Klingon language fluency to impress everyone at parties, or seeking to become an uncontested trivia champion, you should: 1) avoid the temptation to browse the Black Hole that is Facebook and 2) go to bed at a decent hour.
Why? Because the first half of a night’s sleep is when our brains consolidate facts, figures and new words. So getting to bed early and getting up early for one last study session is the best test, trivia or language prep.
However, if you want to become a star tightrope walker or learn a new song on the ukulele, consider going to bed later. The second half of a night’s sleep consolidates motor memory. So if physical activities are your cup of tea, it’s better to ensure you get the full allotment of Stage 2 sleep later in the night.
Math tests are a little trickier. If your test is about memorization, you need lots of early-night sleep and can get up early to study. But if it’s about comprehension and finding solutions to hard problems, you need more REM sleep—the dreaming stage, which tends to happen later in the cycle. In cases of the latter, getting up to study might not be so helpful.
We often think about sleep as just “taking a load off,” “getting some shuteye,” “sawing Zzzs” or insert-your-favorite-idiom-here. But seriously, sleep is about learning consolidation! It helps to make the things we—and especially younger folks—experience, learn and do during the day stick.
This doesn’t apply only to sleeping at nighttime. Naps are great, too. That feeling of exhaustion that sometimes rolls over you while studying or working is the brain saying, “OK, you’ve learned some stuff; now it’s time to rest, take it all in and finish the job!”
This new info we’ve come across (recently published in the New York Times) is particularly advantageous to students—especially all of you overachieving scholar-athlete-artist-musicians out there.
So in a nutshell, here’s how to be strategic about your sleep: Want to be the most excellent, nerdy scholar you can be? Get to bed and rise early. And if you aspire to become the ultimate jock or DDR prodigy, you might stay up a bit later but avoid early wakeup times. (Just what every student wants to hear!)
And if you want to do it all? Get a full night of good sleep, period. Who knew achieving could be so restful?
Sleep tight, Urbanites!