For Better Grades, Get Some Sleep
That goes double for midterms and finals!
Now that we’re roughly at the midpoint of the academic year, students across the country are studying for, contending with, and freaking out about midterms. Yet, for all the hard work they’re putting into prep, they may be inadvertently missing one of the best ways to be their best on test day.
SLEEP!
Researchers at University of Kansas observed a destructive pattern many college students seemed trapped in:
Test anxiety triggers poor sleep, which in turn reduces performance on the tests that caused the anxiety in the first place.
They found that test anxiety and lack of sleep feed one another:
“We looked at test anxiety to determine whether that did predict who passed, and it was a predictor,” Hamilton said.
“It was a predictor even after controlling for students’ past performance and increased the likelihood of students failing in class. When you look at students who are especially anxious, it was almost a five-point difference in their score over students who had average levels of anxiety. This is not small potatoes. It’s the difference between a C-minus and a D. It’s the difference between a B-plus and an A-minus. It’s real.”
So, long story short, students need to prioritize sleep before big tests.