Why you should be (trying your best to) get a good night’s sleep

If you’re anything like most university students, chances are you probably don’t get enough sleep. Especially during Easter Break, with assessment period and deadlines lurking around the corner, most students are doing the opposite of relaxing, and maybe reckon the best way to solve that is pull a good old-fashioned all nighter to really send home that paper.

But although that might be common (and usually pretty tempting) there is genuine science behind the benefits of getting enough sleep, and what happens if you don’t.

According to this article by The Sleep Foundation, young adults (stated by this website as between the ages of 18 and 25) need 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night - so if you’re waking up at 7 to get to lectures, for example, you should be asleep no later than 12 (so plan accordingly depending on how long it usually takes you to fall asleep).

Lack of sleep can also be linked to other health issues, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and in some cases, higher risk of stroke. The Sleep Foundation does advise some “positive lifestyle habits”, including setting a bedtime and making sure your bedroom is the right temperature, but obviously this isn’t possible for everyone. Studies have also been conducted about the role of sleep in memory - this medical article suggests that the more sleep you get, the better at processing memories you are, and the longer they last. It can also affect more subconscious memories, called implicit memories, such as riding a bike or tying your shoes. Baylor University, a private institution in Texas, conducted a study which found that students performed better on exams when they weren’t tired, getting on average five more points on assignments than peers who weren’t participating (which doesn’t sound like much, unless you’re just a few points away from a First!).

So by getting enough sleep, you might ace that paper - according to a 2014 study at NYU, your brain actually practises things while you’re asleep, and revisits and processes information. So if you have something important to think about, it might really be better to sleep on it. This study also concluded that sleep can strengthen your immune system, so if you get enough sleep, you’re less likely to get sick. Getting enough sleep helps the creation of T-Cells, which are special white blood cells that can detect and fight off infections. Sleeping well the night after vaccinations can actually help the immune defence response (which we all could have done with knowing a couple years ago!).

So you’ve done your yoga, turned off all the screens in your house, and gone to bed at 9pm. Except you can’t get to sleep until 1am, so you might as well have not bothered, right?

We totally know that feeling! But there have been studies done to indicate that restful behaviour has its own benefits, in what this article calls “quiet restfulness”. It’s a good way of getting the body to calm down, including lowering your heart rate, and even just meditating for 15 or 20 minutes can help you fall asleep - as opposed to actively stressing about sleeping. (If you are stressing about not being able to fall asleep, it may be better to get up and have a bit of a walk around. Just don’t use your phone - the blue light can make it even harder to shut your brain off.)

And if you really can’t sleep, according to these guys, a quick ten minute nap can boost cognitive performance (how well your brain works) for as long as three hours, so sleeping in bursts is better than not sleeping at all.

Some people have different circadian rhythms - the time in which they wake up and go to sleep might be naturally different. This is fine, but the British Heart Foundation recommends a bedtime between 10 and 11pm might be the best way to avoid sleep-related heart disease. Some articles also suggest that the circadian rhythm is partially controlled by sunlight - so the more time you spend awake after midnight, the more confused your sleep cycle gets.

So what can you do? The most popular advice seems to be to have a set bedtime and a time you wake up - even on weekends. Sleeping in on weekends can definitely be tempting, but might confuse your sleep schedule further, making it harder to wake up at the proper time on weekdays. You may even experience “social jetlag”, depending on how big the differential is - more on that here. Napping during the day might also be fine, for reasons we’ve covered, as long as it’s only for ten or twenty minutes at a time. So if you’re really tired, it might be a good alternative to sleeping in on your next day off.

So while late-night cramming might be appealing it might be time for a new Friday tradition of snuggling down in your fluffies. Fabulous!