Sleep is very important for everyone, especially for students trying to get good grades in college. Students who get sleep, get better grades– more than those who are out partying and pulling all nighters.
Without sleep many of us would not function the same.
Former professor of psychology at Citrus College Kenneth Guttman, who recently died from thymic cancer on April 18, said in an in-person interview on March 6 that sleep is important for students.
“Not everyone needs eight hours of sleep to function, and you know that because each student is different, but it is necessary to sleep,” Guttman said.
The right amount of sleep is important so we can “recharge” our minds.
Guttman said some people can function with just three hours of sleep and a good breakfast, like him and his classmates at UCLA. Students could stay up all night, but he said he couldn’t have that luxury, he needed some sleep and a good breakfast to be successful.
Sleep helps with our daily routines. When people sleep they rest their minds.
Guttman said in his Psychobiology 102 class lecture people who don’t get enough sleep might not get as much done throughout the day.
Robert Stickgold from the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard University conducted an experiment to prove that sleep improves memory recall.
The study took in about 20 students and gave them each 60 words to remember. One group slept during the evening while the other group didn’t sleep. The results were very different.
A majority of the people in the study forgot the words because they didn’t have enough sleep. When one-third of the group that slept were asked to write the words down, the assignment was easy for them.
Stickgold’s study in an article on Nature.com said most people will forget everything they learned without sleep.
“Sleep is essential for memory, but not all of our brains function the same,” Robert Stickgold from the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard University said in his research.
Amy Adkins, known as the “sleep and dream” educator and a well-known TED-talker discusses the importance of sleep.
In Adkins’s videos, “Why we dream and sleep and why it is important for memory,” Adkins said what you watch and hear throughout the day is important to your memory.
“We dream to rehearse. We dream to heal. We dream to solve problems. So keep on dreaming.” says Adkins
If a student wants good grades, sleep can be very beneficial to them.
Guttman said visualizing obtaining a good grade before you sleep will help your anxiety and have a better chance of passing a test.
“Students receive passing grades after having a better sleep routine, healthy eating habits and a fitness routine and positive affirmations, such as visualizing and dreaming about a good grade,” Guttman said.
Sleep enhances your mind, which is why it is important to get a goodnight sleep.
“Having a balanced lifestyle improves anybody’s grade results,” Guttman said. “No matter where you come from or the intellectual abilities you may have.”
