Studying all night for exams? Medical educator warns it may actually backfire and hurt your answer writing

Do you also skip sleep to finish the syllabus? Learn from an expert how this may affect your exam performance.

For students, staying up all night in the days leading up to an exam may appear like an instinctive response to an unfinished syllabus. By cutting down on sleep, it feels like they are gaining a few additional waking hours to study, revise and leave no stone unturned in their preparation.

While the intention is surely sincere, the strategy may undermine their efforts and produce the opposite result. Parents may then wonder why their child did not score well despite pulling multiple all-nighters.

Among students, studying longer late at night is believed to improve academic performance, as they are under the illusion that they get extra hours. But in reality, sacrificing sleep backfires on you. Let's hear from an expert about the ramifications of poor sleep and what they mean for examinations.

Dr Vaishaly Bharambe, counsellor, medical educator and founder of VB Anatomy Academy, shared her insights with HT Lifestyle, explaining why skipping sleep to study more is not recommended and may do more harm than good.

Why does skipping sleep during examinations backfire on students?

Dr Bharambe expressed concern and highlighted the irony in how students approach exams. They stay up all night to study more, cover a larger portion of the syllabus, and memorise or revise more information.

But does all this effort actually pay off? The medical educator revealed what happens to the brain when it is sleep-deprived and how it may affect a student's ability to recall facts in the examination hall.

“Science has repeatedly shown that lack of sleep actually reduces learning efficiency. Sleep deprivation affects memory retention, concentration and logical thinking. Students may spend extra hours studying at night, but the brain’s ability to absorb and retain information becomes weaker.”

This clearly means that putting in additional study hours does not directly mean you will learn better or get higher marks. While writing the exam, you may even forget information that you previously knew well and were confident in.

Weaker concentration may make it tough to understand the exam questions correctly, structure answers coherently, or avoid careless mistakes. Poor sleep also impairs logic, as the educator mentioned before. It affects your ability to assess and analyse case-based, practical questions and connect concepts you learned in classrooms to unfamiliar problems.

Therefore, you may have covered more chapters or completed previous years' question papers by skimping on sleep; sleep deprivation will give you a hard time in the examination hall to demonstrate your knowledge and preparation in your paper effectively.

Why is sleep important for your health?

Sleep helps to repair and restore your overall wellbeing. (Picture credit: Unsplash)

Sleep is the foundation of good health, both physical and psychological health. Time and again, health discussions spotlight its importance, encouraging people to follow a consistent sleep schedule and get an adequate number of hours each night.

The medical educator described sleep as an ‘essential biological process.’ She elaborated, “Sleep is not merely a period of rest. It is one of the most essential biological processes required for healthy functioning of the human body. During good quality sleep, the brain repairs itself, and improves concentration. Hormonal balances are restored. The body undergoes cellular repair. Proper sleep also improves judgment, decision-making, and emotional stability.”

Dr Bharambe also cautioned that chronic sleep deprivation can affect multiple facets of health, from heightened risk of anxiety, headaches, and depression to weakened immunity.

Then you see the effects. Anxiety makes it difficult for you to calm down before the exam. Headaches may strike your concentration and feel like a painful nuisance as you write a two-hour paper, and lastly, weakened immunity leaves you vulnerable to falling sick around exam time.

In a nutshell, getting adequate sleep should be considered a crucial part of exam preparation. When you sleep well, you write answers with more clarity.

Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.