The best strategy for working and studying well
Hudson High School in Ohio, USA, delayed starting school from 7:30 to 8:30 by 30 minutes. It gave students more time to sleep in the morning. Everyone knows how “honey” it is to be able to sleep 30 minutes more in the morning in high school without even mentioning it. However, the fact that the school delayed the starting time was not simply for a good night’s sleep. After Hudson High School delayed school hours in 2012, students’ overall academic achievement improved, rising to second place in Ohio. Getting enough sleep improves academic performance.
However, cases where students’ academic achievement was improved by delaying school start times are not limited to Hudson High School. A study by the University of Minnesota found that delaying the start of school to 8:30 in 9,000 students at eight high schools in the United States increased their average grades by 6 points out of 100. However, similar research results were obtained not only in the United States but also in Brazil, Italy, and Israel.
Some might ask, “Why don’t you go to bed earlier?” But that’s what I’m saying because I don’t know the inside of the brain of a teenager. Adolescents who have entered puberty undergo rapid physical changes, especially melatonin, a sleep hormone in the brain, begins to be secreted later than adults. This phenomenon starts at the age of 15, peaks at the age of 20, and then slowly descends again. At peak, melatonin is secreted 1.5 to 2 hours later than adults. This is about 10:00 at night. If so, teenagers can know that sleep comes in earnest only at 11:00 p.m. Hormonal changes at certain times make it impossible to go to bed early. Of course, it cannot be said that there are no individual differences, but for most teenagers, going to bed late and waking up late is the most compatible with the body’s physiology.
American psychotherapist Stacey Symera says: “Adolescents secrete melatonin an hour and a half later than children and adults, which is why teenagers do not go to bed until 11 p.m. But if school starts at 7:00 in the morning, you have to wake up at 5 or 6:00 in the morning. A student waking up at 6 a.m. is like a 65-year-old adult waking up at 1:30 a.m. every day.”
Lack of sleep also lowers IQ. In one study, one group was allowed to sleep normally and the other group stayed up all night. And in the morning, when IQ tests were done on these two groups, it turned out that IQ scores dropped by 13 to 14 points when they stayed up all day, compared to when they didn’t. Average IQ: Excellent (130 or higher), Excellent (120-129), Average (110-119), Average (90-109), Below average (80-89), Borderline (70-79), Mental retardation (69) ), and a score of 13 to 14 is a significant number that can raise the average to excellent or go down to the borderline. There is nothing more inefficient than studying in the morning without sleeping at night.
Similar experiments were conducted in Germany. When people who did not sleep and those who slept normally were asked to solve various math problems, those who did not sleep were twice as likely to solve the problems than those who did not sleep. The same goes for work. Several papers have revealed that sleep-deprived office workers are less motivated, make more mistakes, and lose focus on their work. In a word, productivity declines.
Perhaps most of the readers who have read the book have had the experience of studying for a test with so-called “cramming” without sleeping well. And what I studied like that is that I hardly remember it after a test and time passes. There is a reason.
Recently, scientists have discovered two genes related to memory: CREB activators and CREB inhibitors. CREB activators are genes that promote new connections between neurons, and CREB inhibitors are genes that inhibit the formation of new memories. In fact, according to a study conducted at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, it is usually necessary to learn about 10 times to induce a specific action in a fruit fly. However, when the CREB inhibitor was injected, even after 10 training sessions, they could not remember any specific behavior. Conversely, when CREB activator is injected, it is said that a specific action is remembered with just one training session. Similar results were obtained in experiments with mice.
However, in the case of CREB activator, there is a fixed amount per day. If you cram, the CREB activator is quickly depleted. The problem is that CREB activator must be rested, especially a good night’s sleep, to regenerate. If you study crammed while reducing sleep, you will be able to get a good grade when you take the exam the next day with the power of your short-term memory, but you will not be able to study properly because you hardly go to your long-term memory. Even for the regeneration of CREB activators, good quality sleep is essential.
Also, when you sleep, your brain also recharges and rests, but that rest doesn’t mean doing nothing. During sleep, the brain integrates new memories with old memories and analyzes the merged memories again. In other words, you need to get a good night’s sleep so that what you studied today can dance wonderfully with the long-term memories in your existing memory. In fact, according to research by Dr. Stickgold’s team at Harvard University, quality sleep improves memory by more than 15 percent.
Although sleep is closely related to study, both teenagers and adults in Korea lack sleep. According to the survey, elementary school students in Korea slept an average of 8 hours and 19 minutes, middle school students 7 hours 35 minutes, and high school students 6 hours 27 minutes, all of which fall short of the sleep time recommended by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF). The American Sleep Foundation recommends 9-12 hours of sleep for elementary school students and 8-10 hours for middle and high school students. The same goes for adults. According to a study on the sleeping hours of adults in 15 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, Korean adults recorded 6.3 hours of sleep, the lowest among 15 countries. The American Sleep Foundation recommends 7 to 9 hours of sleep for adults.
After all, all learners in Korea are in a state of lack of sleep. Elementary, middle and high school students will lack sleep due to studying, and office workers will have the world’s best working hours contributing to their lack of sleep. Although it is not without these structural problems, sufficient sleep is necessary to study and work efficiently. If you studied hard today, don’t be afraid to get enough sleep. Getting a good night’s sleep is also an important study strategy.