All-nighters are pointless and counter-productive, new study shows
You’ve already failed so you may as well just go to bed
Nathan CooganWe’ve all sat in the library at 6am, with no sleep and an exam on the horizon — desperately cramming your entire course into your head.
But according to scientists, staying up for an all-nighter is not only pointless, it’s counter-productive.
A new study has revealed that when you don’t get much sleep, your memory is much worse.
Sleep is important to turning what you read into what you can actually remember.
During sleep, the memory neurons work most effectively – so cramming a session in the library all night won’t help you remember vital information.
The recent study was carried out by boffins Paula Haynes and Bethany Christmann at Brandeis University in Massachusetts and suggests your brain is trying make you sleep so you can convert all you’ve learnt into long term memory.
Sleep expert Dr Andrea Grace said: “Students will always stay up all night, it’s a part of being a student and when a lot of university library’s stay open 24 hours a day it is going to happen”
She continued to say that pulling an all nighter is “not very good for you or your health over all.
“If you miss out on sleep you end up being more susceptible to accidents and to infections. Emotional difficulties such as depression and anxiety are increased.
“Being up all night in front of a screen, the staring at the light that is produced by the screen is harmful to your eyes and the light will cause your eyes to be over stimulated making it very hard to get to sleep at say three o’clock in the morning when you get to bed.
“Cramming doesn’t store any more longtime memory, its completely useless for learning anything longer than a few hours. being awake all night is really not good for you.”