The Plague of Late Nights and All-Nighters:

Can the common habit of all-nighters really be causing more harm than good, especially academically? Pulling an all-nighter is often times part of the life of a college student. Papers need to be written, tests need to be studied for, grades need to be kept high, but as it turns out the habits of striving to succeed in school is harming overall academic success. So, how much does sleep quality have on academics? Let me show you.

Researchers had this same question, so they decided to do a study on 412 students to see how their sleep quality affected their academics. The results were pretty surprising actually. Here’s what they showed:

Students who got poor sleep at night had a 2.73 semester GPA and a 2.63 cumulative GPA, while students who got very good sleep had a 3.14 semester GPA and a 3.03 cumulative GPA (1).

I’d say that’s a pretty drastic difference just from the quality of sleep a student got, so why is it that so many students are staying up late or pulling all-nighters?

I found the answer to this question from many studies I read, and, while I know there isn’t a cut and dry answer to anything, there were a few common denominators in the studies. The primary results were phone use/social media-big shocker there, and, ironically enough, studying.

I interviewed a recently graduated university student, and she said “I know sleep is good for health. But it can’t always be had due to other circumstances. It takes a back burner at times.” I think this is the epitome of the life of a student, meaning sleep “takes a back burner” in comparison to getting school work done. Yet this habit of studying over sleeping is what is having a reverse effect on student’s academics, but the effects of poor sleep quality don’t just stop there.

As students continue to stay up late, they, over time, start to “alter sleep-wake patterns”, and start to experience things like “increased sleepiness”, or “impaired attention”, or “impaired performance” (2). And, these effects don’t just come from late nights or all-nighters because of studying, no, they come from all late nights and all-nighters, including those because of social media use.

Living in the age of smartphones has given us so many advantages, but it has also affected many people’s sleeping habits drastically. A study done on a group of college students showed that phone use, primarily social media use, before bed was prevalent in ninety percent of the students. Ninety percent! The ironic thing about this statistic is that ninety-seven percent of these same students knew that sleep affected their health (2). There are many studies done on college students similar to this one, and they show a common theme: smartphones and social media are taking away sleep time from students.

I get the need to take a break from life, school, work, whatever, and I often times turn to social media to do that. It’s quick, easy, and mind-numbing, which is wonderful after a grueling day of school, but when social media is taking away from sleep, it is harmful. Staying up late to study seems like a great idea too, but again it is harmful. I get it, studying is important and it can help students succeed, but sometimes the cost needs to be weighed against the benefits.

I understand the desire to want to succeed in school and do well on tests, especially final tests, but next time you are asking yourself if you should go to bed or just study for another hour, I want you to remember the results from a study called “The Eight Hour Sleep Challenge During Final Exams Week”. Those students who decided to take the challenge and get 8 hours of sleep throughout finals week did better on their finals than those who didn’t (3).

What do you think the challenge could do for you throughout an entire semester? Just a little food for thought.

Referenced Studies:

1. Abu, Snieneh, Hana Mohammad, et al. “Relationship between Sleep Quality, Using Social Media Platforms, and Academic Performance among University Students.” Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, vol. 56, no. 2, Apr. 2020, pp. 415–423. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/ppc.12450.

2. Shahzan, Mohammed Sohaib, et al. “Awareness of Sleep Pattern among University Students.” Drug Invention Today, vol. 11, no. 9, Sept. 2019, pp. 2214–2216. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=139165796&site=ehost-live.

3. Scullin, Michael K. “The Eight Hour Sleep Challenge During Final Exams Week.” Teaching of Psychology, vol. 46, no. 1, Jan. 2019, pp. 55–63. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/0098628318816142.