Studying vs Sleeping

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hogfan12

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Okay so I hear the majority of my fellow pre-meds talking about how they are always tired and complaining that they haven't slept and been up so late, the typical pre-med reputation. I personally don't understand why anyone would be trying to study anything when they are that tired, even with tests coming up.

Do many of y'all give up sleep on a regular basis for studying? IMO in undergrad if you ever have to give up very much sleep for studying is because you were not preparing adequately ahead of time. Unless of course you have another large time commitment. Is it a bad sign that I have trouble learning anything when I am sleep deprived for when I will hopefully be in medical school? 8 hours a sleep a night isn't too much to ask for. And there is a difference between working and studying, running rounds at the hospital is much different than trying to sit down and learn an organic chemistry mechanism.

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I typically go to bed around 10-11 and wake up around 6...unless I'm out drinking with my friends :D

I fail to learn anything productive (sure I can cram information in my head, but I don't learn it properly) after 8pm. If I needed to do some extra studying in college, I would stop working around 8, relaxed for a bit, went to bed at 9:30, woke up at 4-5 and studied until my morning classes.
 
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No. I schedule my day according to my priorities.

Sleep and studying come first and second in terms of priority, then clinical work and research. Then comes eating reasonable food and exercising, then socializing with other humans.

In a given day I can only rely on getting as far as the clinical work/research part. Nothing else is certain and frequently the rest doesn't happen.
 
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Wow, so many sleeping thread on SDN lately.

I can only recall maybe a handful of times where I felt like I couldn't get enough sleep because of school work. Some people (pre-meds in particular) just like to make others think that they are soooo busy and overwhelmed. The average student, assuming they aren't also working a full time job or something similar, shouldn't be that sleep deprived. Ironically, the only time I tried to stay up all night to study, I ended up doing awful.
 
Wow, so many sleeping thread on SDN lately.
I know right.

I've learned that if I need to stay up to study, then I'm screwed anyways. So I just go sleep. At least I can fail the exam without feeling like s***. It's my fault anyways for procrastinating.
 
Okay so I hear the majority of my fellow pre-meds talking about how they are always tired and complaining that they haven't slept and been up so late, the typical pre-med reputation. I personally don't understand why anyone would be trying to study anything when they are that tired, even with tests coming up.

Do many of y'all give up sleep on a regular basis for studying? IMO in undergrad if you ever have to give up very much sleep for studying is because you were not preparing adequately ahead of time. Unless of course you have another large time commitment. Is it a bad sign that I have trouble learning anything when I am sleep deprived for when I will hopefully be in medical school? 8 hours a sleep a night isn't too much to ask for. And there is a difference between working and studying, running rounds at the hospital is much different than trying to sit down and learn an organic chemistry mechanism.

Are you an engineering major? Even in hard sciences, studying shouldn't take long that you're sleep-deprived. You need to organize yourself better. Engineering shouldn't be an all-nighter.

If you're a bio major... yeah you definitely need to prioritize.
 
I definitely don't sacrifice sleep for studying. If I've procrastinated quite a bit on a test, I will go to bed early and just wake up at 5 or so to study because my brain functions much better in the morning than in the evening. Also, sometimes when I study a lot when I go to sleep I start dreaming about the material and essentially "study" in my sleep, and wake up feeling much more prepared. At the very least, it gives my brain time to process the information and categorize it.
 
Are you an engineering major? Even in hard sciences, studying shouldn't take long that you're sleep-deprived. You need to organize yourself better. Engineering shouldn't be an all-nighter.

If you're a bio major... yeah you definitely need to prioritize.
I am a bio major, and I am never sleep deprived for the most part. I was meaning I just hear other classmates saying it all the time.
 
I am a bio major, and I am never sleep deprived for the most part. I was meaning I just hear other classmates saying it all the time.

I wouldn't worry. Your classmates are probably gonna be weeded out soon. ;)
 
All the premeds I knew who were always staying up late to study together did it because it made them feel badass or hardcore or something. It was basically just a pity party. They didn't usually do as well as normal people who got enough sleep. I never sacrificed sleep or exercise for studying in college, you just have to plan ahead.
 
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I'm taking 20 credits of 400+ level science, and it certainly feels overwhelming at times. During heavy exam weeks, I may only sleep 4-5 hours a night, but that doesn't happen very often. I typically have to sacrifice sleep only when I go out the weekend before an exam week, which I don't recommend...

The majority of people who take a normal course load (i.e., 2 or 3 science classes with 1 or 2 gen eds.) will find that they have plenty of time to pursue extracurricular activities, sleep, party, or whatever.
 
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During exam season, I did. I'm not a very disciplined person when it comes to studying unless I'm under a healthy level of stress (i.e. I need to be busy). So there's been times where I've had very irregular sleep schedules/sacrificed sleep to cram for exams. Power naps are key.

I got by just fine grades wise, but I don't doubt I could've done better if I was more disciplined/slept on a regular schedule
 
It's scientifically better for one to learn as much as one can before going to sleep, since your brain consolidates everything you learn while sleeping. That's why it's better to cram the night before than on the day of. Of course, it's even better to have studied consistently weeks before the exam, but many people don't do that. ;)

As for staying up late every night, it might be their time commitments, it might be bad habits, it might be a combination of many factors.
 
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I have found that my performance in class has improved significantly since I started forcing myself to go to bed at midnight Sunday-Thursday.
 
One of my favorite quotes is, "If you sleep now, you'll dream, but if you study now, your dream will come true."
TBH, I prefer to sleep because if I don't rest, I start losing focus and all the studying I do just goes through one ear and out the other. Although I don't listen to the quote, it's still motivating and everyone seems to love it when I tell it to them
 
I've always had a very unusual relationship with sleep, but I've found that I can get through at least 4 days a week on 4 hours of sleep or less without any real negative repercussions, as long as I rest up the other days. So in college, staying up most of the night studying wasn't really a problem, as long as it was only done occasionally. On test days, as long as I got one sleep cycle (about 1.5 hours), I would be fine.
(I just noticed I said "as long as" in every single sentence above...)

I know plenty of people who need a regular amount of sleep every night, so it's definitely more of a personal thing. I'm sure that's a lot healthier than my way.
 
I've always had a very unusual relationship with sleep, but I've found that I can get through at least 4 days a week on 4 hours of sleep or less without any real negative repercussions, as long as I rest up the other days. So in college, staying up most of the night studying wasn't really a problem, as long as it was only done occasionally. On test days, as long as I got one sleep cycle (about 1.5 hours), I would be fine.
(I just noticed I said "as long as" in every single sentence above...)

I know plenty of people who need a regular amount of sleep every night, so it's definitely more of a personal thing. I'm sure that's a lot healthier than my way.
I have a similar situation when it comes to sleep. I am quite functional for a 5-day week with a minimal amount of sleep(<5 hours/night), but at some point I need to catch up and refuel. This usually happens over breaks or absolutely free weekends where I'll sleep for 12 hours 2 nights in a row.

That said, I'm the one who actively deprives myself of sleep, not studying. I get all my priorities handled throughout the day: homework/studying, volunteering, research. I try to eat decent food and ultimate practice keeps my exercising regularly and also is an outlet to socialize. But after everything is all done (usually by 10pm) I like to relax and watch movies/TV shows or play video games...have fun. Sleeping is fun too, but I'll have plenty of time to do that when I'm dead.
 
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Damn lets end all the threads about getting x amount of hours of sleep. BORING
 
But after everything is all done (usually by 10pm) I like to relax and watch movies/TV shows or play video games...have fun. Sleeping is fun too, but I'll have plenty of time to do that when I'm dead.
yep...all this.
 
I am a night-owl. I cannot stand being awake before 11AM. I will do it, but even with caffeine or 12hrs of sleep I feel just crappy before 10-11AM. On the other hand, I don't begin to feel particularly tired until 2AM most nights, even if I didn't sleep well the night before, and my studying super-hour is 4AM (you know, that time of day when your brain just kicks into high gear and you are 8x more productive than any other time). I would rather be awake UNTIL 6AM than wake up AT 6AM. Unfortunately, classes are during the day, so if I want to get some serious work/studying done...I would usually pull an all-nighter because it just felt better than trying to make my brain work during the morning or (god forbid) on weekends. I scheduled all of my classes late and then had sports everyday, so I usually wasn't free until 7PM at the earliest. Weekends were shot due to tournaments. And mornings are best enjoyed without sleep. So yeah, I pulled plenty of all-nighters. Then again, I pull all-nighters in the summer when there is nothing due, just because it's something that I enjoy and that works well for me.
 
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I'm in graduate school, work about 20hrs/wk, commute about 10-12 hrs/wk, and run probably 7-9hrs/wk, and I manage to sneak in about 7-8hrs of sleep every night and a bit more on the weekend (I'm usually up by 4:45/5am). The key is to learn how to study efficiently. Lots and lots and lots of hours of studying doesn't necessarily equate to learning lots and lots and lots of material. Also, put down the phone, close Facebook, Twitter, SDN, and study alone. You will be amazed at how much you can absorb in 3-4 uninterrupted hours!
 
I'm in graduate school, work about 20hrs/wk, commute about 10-12 hrs/wk, and run probably 7-9hrs/wk, and I manage to sneak in about 7-8hrs of sleep every night and a bit more on the weekend (I'm usually up by 4:45/5am). The key is to learn how to study efficiently. Lots and lots and lots of hours of studying doesn't necessarily equate to learning lots and lots and lots of material. Also, put down the phone, close Facebook, Twitter, SDN, and study alone. You will be amazed at how much you can absorb in 3-4 uninterrupted hours!
Ah, sure...right now I've got 65hr/wk of work, 12hr/wk commute, 6hr/wk of class, and 3hr/wk of volunteering, so I don't pull all-nighters anymore (except for an actual shift) because I can't afford to...but I miss it. It was way more enjoyable to study all night and relax when the assignment was in and the sun was just coming out.
 
Ah, sure...right now I've got 65hr/wk of work, 12hr/wk commute, 6hr/wk of class, and 3hr/wk of volunteering, so I don't pull all-nighters anymore (except for an actual shift) because I can't afford to...but I miss it. It was way more enjoyable to study all night and relax when the assignment was in and the sun was just coming out.

Don't know what to tell you about your week. Sounds terrible! You enjoy all-nighters? Never did one before as I usually crash by 10pm! Good luck finishing the semester.
 
Don't know what to tell you about your week. Sounds terrible! You enjoy all-nighters? Never did one before as I usually crash by 10pm! Good luck finishing the semester.
Haha, I'm making it through reasonably well and enjoying myself.
And yes, absolutely. In the absence of scheduled classes/work shifts my sleep pattern reverts to 4 or 5AM ->2PM and it's WONDERFUL! I pulled my first all-nighter in elementary school reading HP and my mother spent the next 5yrs trying to force me to sleep before she gave up. I used to think caffeine was bad for you, so in HS (the first time hw took time) I trained myself to be able to pull 3 all nighters in 1 week without any coffee or tea.

I'm not saying I had good time management (I didn't; it was and continues to be my biggest flaw, though I am working on it)...I'm just saying that all-nighters aren't SOLELY the bastion of the irresponsible, the inefficient, or the neurotic!
 
Can't study if I don't sleep. I can live with 6hrs/day but 7-8 works best for me :)
Also I think many people rely too much on caffeine and energy drinks. I was a huge caffeine consumer back then. After I quit caffeine for just a week I felt much more productive. The withdrawal effect makes people more tired once they stop drinking coffee even for a day.
 
I used to always cram at the last minute
One semester, I was pulling an all nighter 1-2x a week on average
 
Can't study if I don't sleep. I can live with 6hrs/day but 7-8 works best for me :)
Also I think many people rely too much on caffeine and energy drinks. I was a huge caffeine consumer back then. After I quit caffeine for just a week I felt much more productive. The withdrawal effect makes people more tired once they stop drinking coffee even for a day.
Yeah, I no longer avoid caffeine (ever since I looked up the research on it), but I try not to make it a habit. As in, I'm more than happy taking 1 or 2 caffeine pills, especially when my schedule gets a little hectic (sometimes I have less than 6hrs before I get home from one 12hr shift and I have to leave for another), but I try not to take caffeine every day in a given week. I base it on how much sleep I've gotten rather than letting myself run to it every morning.
 
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