How many hours of sleep is enough for an exam if you have a lot of stuff to cover?

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JakeSill

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Have an exam and I have to cover a lot of stuff. How many hours of sleep is enough for this exam. Research says all nighters are bad that one should get some sleep.
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As much as possible. You want to retain at least some of what you've crammed, don't you?
 
Speaking as someone who crammed and pulled all nighters in college, one thing I learned in med school is that the most important thing during an exam is being fresh and sharp. Get at least 6 hours of sleep. If you're groggy you'll make stupid mistakes.
 
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JakeSill said:
Have an exam and I have to cover a lot of stuff. How many hours of sleep is enough for this exam. Research says all nighters are bad that one should get some sleep.
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This is on a individual basis. Some people only need 6, most need 7-8, some even need 9. Whatever your personal number is to get an adequate amount of rest, get that. Making yourself sleep deprived for even an extra hour is not a wise strategy IMO. Research has shown that people are not self aware of just how much they are inhibited when they haven't had a full nights sleep.
 
Sob21 said:
If you're looking for a minimum, I'd say 90 minutes or 3 hours. Go in increments of 90 minutes 'cause that's the length of a sleep cycle.

I use to stay up all night for my 7AM microbio exams and sleep for 1-3 hours for all 4 of them. My exams were quick though, no more than an hour.

Disclaimer: But I'm not a sleep doc.
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Yeah I'm looking for minimum.
 
And would it be wise to pull the all nighter now, and then get the 6 hours the night before the exam? Exam is on monday.
 
JakeSill said:
And would it be wise to pull the all nighter now, and then get the 6 hours the night before the exam? Exam is on monday.
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It would be wise to just study regularly and not need to pull all nighters. Just dont pull an all nighter right before the exam. Nothing but sadness.
 
Better than doing it the night before at least.
 
I've found that retention isn't the biggest issue

It's more that my ability to reason is a bit worse, it takes me longer to find the answers, and my work is riddled in mistakes. Then there's the issue of focusing for a long exam.

That said, I'm sure my memory is affected, but it'll take a hit less than other thing
 
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I managed to never pull an all-nighter or anything close to it with one simple trick: start studying 1 day earlier.
 
JakeSill said:
So since my exam was on monday, I should have started studying on saturday?
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Start studying one day earlier than you already started studying. That way you are done the day before and you don't need to miss any sleep.
 
ChillDawg said:
Everyone I know irl shortens it to "ochem." Is 'ochem' just a Left coast thing?
WESTSIDE!!
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Midwest calls it ochem. Never in my life heard it called "orgo" until I joined SDN haha. I once called it "orgo" at my school and got some WTF looks
 
I have terrible sleep patterns, due in part to depression and also to just being a slow studier and needing more time than most to get through material. I regularly take exams running on about 40 minutes of sleep. Organic 1 lab literally feels like something I dreamt up when I think back on it because I was always SO tired by the time we got to lab around 4 pm. I would never recommend taking exams on such little sleep (seriously don't do it...it's a miserable way to live), but it hasn't exactly ruined me academically considering I have a 3.96 with over 150 credit hours completed.
 
If it's a memorization based test, then I do fine after all nighters. But for orgo, which is much more problem solving, I would aim for at least 2 hours. However, learning the material is more important than sleep at this point so sleep only if you have time to spare or your grade will suffer worse.

(and make sure you get caffeine before the exam)
 
Doctor Dream said:
Midwest calls it ochem. Never in my life heard it called "orgo" until I joined SDN haha. I once called it "orgo" at my school and got some WTF looks
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This Midwesterner says orgo. I think it's more school-specific than regional. I thought it was weird when friends from other schools said o-chem.

Edit: OP, I'm someone that needs at least 6 hours (preferably 7-8) to do well on an exam.
 
OP, you need to figure out what your sleep threshold is. As someone earlier said, some people can get 2-3 hours and be fine, others need 6 or 7 just to function. I've found I'm fine as long as I get 5 hours. It's something you'll just have to figure out for yourself.

Doctor Dream said:
Midwest calls it ochem. Never in my life heard it called "orgo" until I joined SDN haha. I once called it "orgo" at my school and got some WTF looks
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I'm also from the midwest, and I'd never heard anyone call it "o-chem" until I went to grad school down south, and that's covering friends from 5 or 6 different schools. I've always heard east and west coasters say o-chem and midwesterners say orgo.
 
Banco said:
I've taken exams with 0 hrs and done well. Wouldn't recommend it to most people though.
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My exam weeks saw a lot of this. Did pretty decently for the most part.

I then usually spent the entire next weekend in bed.
 
I have never pulled an all-nighter and view sleep as very important. I took my Phys. Chem final on about three hours' worth, though. I did well on it.
 
frankly, I just cover a lot of lecture stuff and get to a set stopping place before taking a 3 hour nap from midnight to 3am. Then, I spend the rest of the time doing problems and by 6 am I have showered, eaten my breakfast, and out of the door with notes in hand. The one hour before an 8 am event, I place myself at a comfortable study location and study until the event starts.
 
ChrisMack390 said:
Would you take a test drunk?

Research has shown that sleep deprivation has similar cognitive effects to having a 0.1 BAC.
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FWIW this research has been highly criticized and is far from accepted by the medical community, where being extremely high functioning for 24+ hour shifts has been the norm for generations.
 
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While everyone is a bit different I think most people you can be extremely functional on just a very few hours but would want more than 4-5 hours to be optimal. But honestly who among us hasn't been unable to fall asleep before an important test? Most of us muscle through it just fine. It's getting a good nights sleep the day before that probably matters more.
 
see, it's more beneficial for me to stay up all night and hammer down the content of the exam than to sleep. I make way more mistakes on content than I do in reasoning, so those extra hours going over the content really help.
Everyone is different though.
 
At the least 4 hours. You need sleep to think logically. I almost always crammed.
 
Totally agreed with previous posts re: "it all depends on you" in terms of answering this question. For me, I absolutely cannot function for an important exam without getting at least 5 hours.
 
Law2Doc said:
FWIW this research has been highly criticized and is far from accepted by the medical community, where being extremely high functioning for 24+ hour shifts has been the norm for generations.
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I don't know anyone that functions at an "extremely high" level after working for 24+ hours. Ability to not make catastrophic mistakes is not the same as high functioning. And this is coming from someone who only sleeps 4-5 hours a night and was on call this weekend.
 
Look ahead at your syllabus. I usually start studying and reviewing for an exam the week before, and I ramp it up the weekend/couple days before the exam. I get at least 7 hours of sleep a night and I usually do not change my sleep patterns at all during the semester (including weekends). Having a regular routine/sleep rhythm I have found works best. If you plan ahead and study ahead of time, you should not need all-nighters/sleep reduction before exams.
 
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