How Sleep Deprivation Is Hurting Your Grades

One of the most important benefits of sleep is that it repairs the body. A lack of sleep is directly correlated with a lower immune system; sleep-deprived you is at a higher likelihood of falling ill. What good would be studying long nights if you are too ill to concentrate on the studying or, even worse, unable to perform well during the exam? Along with this, if you are not well-rested, your memory recall and ability to concentrate will be significantly lower. All the effort, time, and energy you put into studying all-night instead of sleeping will not benefit you during your exams. Those are only short-term effects. The long-term effects are far more scary. Prolonged sleep deprivation causes irritability, low energy levels, dissatisfaction with life, overly emotional, and low concentration levels. It can also contribute to mood and stress disorders. This will definitely affect your academic performance. But more importantly, long periods of sleep deprivation can contribute to the development of long-term diseases. And while it is not a direct cause, sleep deprivation is also correlated to numerous cases of depression.

Let’s discuss some of the long-term diseases and effects. First of all, sleeping less than 6 hours regularly increases your chances of having a stroke by 4 times. Second, sleep deprivation decreases your ability to produce white blood cells and metabolize sugar, leading to weight gain and lack of energy. It also increases the production of the hunger hormone, ghrelin, and limits leptin, which helps you balance your food intake. This causes you to crave junk food in larger quantities. This leads to unhealthy eating habits. Third, less sleep causes an increased insulin resistance in the fat cells, increasing the risk for diabetes. Lastly, too little sleep causes the body to increase production of the chemicals and hormones that can lead to heart disease. Those who sleep for six hours or less regularly have a 48% higher risk of developing or dying from heart disease.

Sleep is a clock driven process. Changing when you sleep or how long you sleep for will cause extra-sleepiness and feelings of jet-lag. This is why students who sleep longer than usual on weekends find it extremely difficult to wake up and function on Mondays. Setting a constant sleeping pattern allows the body to recover and wake up refreshed instead of groggy and tired. Now that we've discussed all these scary consequences of not getting enough sleep, it is good to also remember that pulling an all-night occasionally is not hazardous to your health. But when it becomes a regular occurrence, you need to re-evaluate how you’re spending the rest of your time. Not sleeping enough will cause you far more problems than not doing the work you would be able to do if you study all night. Especially for the two nights before an exam, make sure you get a minimum of seven hours of proper sleep. This will help you be more prepared and focused for your exam and be healthier overall.