SA 1 : Late night exam preparation and its effects

Everyone encounters a situation where sleep must be sacrificed for the sake of success. Exam season is here and most of the students pull of an all-nighter frequently during this time.
According to a research 20% of young students have significantly poor quality sleep during examinations bringing it to an average of 7.9 hours on week nights. But the more startling news is that waking up the whole night can not only affect your health but can also negatively impact your grades too!

Many people prepare themselves by drinking coffee, listening to music, midnight snacking and the likes to keep them going (see info graphic below). But according to experts, the effect of all night studies doesn’t go away so soon. Chronic sleep deprivation can cause a few imbalances in the body and in severe cases can cause irreversible damage to your health. For instance
1. Lack of sleep reduces memory.
2. Lack of sleep is a leading cause for attention deficit amongst pre-teens and adolescents.
3. Sleep deprivation makes it difficult to digest glucose from the body causing irreversible damages like diabetes and blood pressure.

So the question arises, how to study effectively, take a break and still manage to ace the exams?? Here are a few tips recommended by experts that may be followed during exams:

A.  The most important, try to get 8-9 hours of sleep every night.

B.   Try Chunking: A method to learn and improve memory by splitting content into short and easy bits and use of mnemonics to prepare quick revision notes. This method is effective when the body is tired.

C. Take a break during early afternoon (12 noon- 1:30 pm), as this is the time of least alertness.

D. Power naps: Another effective way to break the fatigue spell, so that a student can remain alert and concentrate on learning , without suffering a memory blackout.

Hope these tips would help you keep energized, refreshed and help you ace those examinations with ease. If you liked what you read then do spare a moment to share your examination blues with us in the comments below.

Good Luck
Team Meritnation

(* source- sciencedaily.com & dailyinfographics.com)