Earn those A's by catching some Z's

New research presented in the latest Journal of Neuroscience prompted a Newsweek article entitled "Sleep Your Way To An ‘A'" is causing college students from Sacramento and Berlin to wake-up and take notice.

The latest research, conducted by scientists at the University of Lübeck in Germany, is the first to demonstrate how sleep can work its magic on one's memory.

Experiments were conducted using two test groups. Both were given material to study. Prior to a 10-hour sleep reprieve, one group was alerted that a quiz was going to be given to them upon awakening while the other group was not.

Electroencephalograms, better known as EEGs, were connected to the participants of both groups as they slept. Scientists discovered that the notified group aware of the next day's quiz experienced a deeper, slow-wave sleep cycle which showed the material studied to be better integrated into their existing knowledge and allowed for its easier retrieval.

The group not alerted about the quiz 10 hours later were shown to have spent less time engaged in deeper, slow-wave sleep cycles and fared significantly worse on the quiz than the notified group.

American River College professor of psychology, Dr. Yuj Shimizu, provided insight into the new research presented detailed in the Newsweek piece with the "catchy yet overly simplistic headline."

Shimizu, who holds a doctorate in memory research, describes sleep as "an active process during which memory consolidation occurs increasing one's ability to remember information."

"Sleep is important for memory consolidation. So get a good night's sleep after learning new material and remind yourselves that you have a test coming up before you sleep," stated Shimizu.

"A good night's sleep has to happen every night. You need to develop an actual habit of sleeping well every night," said ARC student Vanessa Ortiz who is pursuing a degree in social work.

Beyond the correlation between sleep and scholastic performance, Ortiz cited the benefits of a proper sleeping regime, "It gives you better health, you're less moody, you don't act like a b****, you're less forgetful and you're just altogether in a better body and mental state."

The research emphasized that sleep alone will not produce good test results. "Thinking about what you are going to wear tomorrow or planning what your next cleverly written Facebook status update could end up hurting your grade if done after studying prior to going to sleep," cautioned Shimizu.

During a March 10 visit to Shimizu's Psychology 300 class, 40 students were polled on the amount of sleep each regularly receives on a nightly basis.

When asked who regularly sleeps eight hours each night, only five hands were raised.

"This study also illustrates the importance of sleep in the memory retrieval process so students would do themselves a service if they were to learn appropriate studying skills so that memory can first be encoded into long term memory then get an adequate night's sleep," offered ARC assistant professor of psychology Lori Hokerson.

When questioned about his personal study skills, linguistics major Justin Pratt revealed that, "I listen in class but I usually don't study. I get A's and B's on my tests and usually get about seven hours of sleep per night. I think I'm not normal."

While Shimizu's class unanimously agreed that sleep does help memory, four students maintained that cramming for an exam is a viable way for them to get a good test score.

Still not convinced that studying, memory consolidation, and a good night's sleep are the proper remedies for receiving A's on exams?

Then along with 12 of Shimizu's students who raised their hands indicating they consistently spend whole nights preparing for the next day's test, you would be in the minority.

"If you are sleeping three to four hours a night then you need to go see a doctor. That's bad," advised Pratt.

lewismb@imail.losrios.edu