You’ve probably all been there: it’s 2 am, your eyes are heavy, but it can’t be yet shut because there is an exam tomorrow. You’re cramming for an exam, flipping through hundreds of notes and flashcards, or trying to search on YouTube a certain concept that your brain does not understand. After you sleep for about four or five hours, one hour even, and wake up, somehow feeling oddly sharp- maybe even more energized as usual. Perhaps sleep doesn’t matter anymore and you found a way to cheat the system. 

Students are all told about the golden rule; the average human needs 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night to function optimally. Their parents, teachers and surrounding people all emphasize how important sleep is and ask students to sleep before 11. But let’s hold on for a minute and be more realistic. Student life often runs on deadlines, late-night grind sessions for exams, group projects, maintaining extra curricular activities and much more. With their good friend, caffeine, sleep becomes the last priority. They squeeze time for a little sleep and wake up next morning- mostly feeling less sleepy and awake. Why? 

First of all, sleep happens in a 90 minute cycle- light sleep, deep sleep and REM. If one wakes up during deep sleep, they will feel like every object with mass in this world is pushing their eyelids down. But if their 3 hours of sleep just happen to end right as they enter light sleep, they might wake up feeling more refreshed than when they slept for 8 hours and got pulled out during the deep sleep session. That’s why sometimes 3 hours of sleep doesn’t wreck you. The timing was just on spot. 

Then how about an hour of sleep? Why do we feel more energized than ever if we sleep for only 60 minutes? When we are sleep deprived, our body senses stress. This stress triggers a release of cortisol and adrenaline- our fight or flight hormones. For students, especially during finals or a week that they are dumped with assignments, this gives them a temporary ‘high’. Those hormones increase alertness, concentration and even better wiring. However, this can  be our tired brain potentially masking the initial fatigue from sleep deprivation. Being energized after little sleep is just temporary- a short coping method of the brain. Soon enough, fatigue due to sleep deprivation would hit you hard. 

Here is the problem: hustle in terms of academic life can give students immense rewards and satisfaction. Students would pull an all-nighter, get 7/8s. It feels life, those hard grinds and locking-in time paid off. However, stacking enough of those nights, and the long term effects starts to task control over the brain- lower focus, mood swings, burnout and even memory problems. This means that short-term gain (of the grade) would likely sabotage a student’s long term performance. Feeling okay after a short sleep is not the same as being okay. Come on- is it really worth it that your grade is higher than your 2 days of sleeping time combined? 

While it may be impossible for students to consistently get 7 to 9 hours a sleep a day, having sufficient rest throughout the week is important. Students often confuse the use of the emergency energy with rest. Being energized after short rest is just their brain and body trying to protect them in the short-term. Students can feel sharper after a night of bad sleep but they should not make that a consistent routine.  It may be ego-boosting when they talk about how they have only slept 3 hours to grind for the test- is it really worth it after 3 or 4 years from now on? So if you are a student grinding late, just know you have found a way to cheat the system. Try to return the favor when you can so that your brain and body can be restful and healthy.