Last week, we began discussing how students can prepare themselves for graduate school, with an entry on how to most efficiently plan their relocation. Today, we’ll continue our tips for making the most out of their first year by covering a topic that’s also relevant long before the semester begins (and long into their post-grad school careers): getting enough sleep.
The website gradhacker.org recently published an article on the benefits of getting sufficient rest, and the pitfalls of sleep deprivation. The risks of not allowing oneself enough rest include:
-Decreased quality and accuracy of work
-Diminished memory of important details
-Reduction of daytime alertness (reducing nighttime sleep by as little as one and a half hours for just one night could result in a reduction of as significant as 32%)
-Heart problems (a common result of long-term sleep deprivation)
Now contrast that with the effects of getting the sleep that the body needs:
-More attention and focus (pretty important when students are trying to perform research or analysis)
-Less procrastination –in the words of the gradhacker.org article’s author, “I’m more tempted to random internet surfing when I don’t have the energy to study or think”.
-More time on the weekends (or on any free day) – if students don’t have to sleep their free mornings away in order to catch up, then they put hours back into those days.
When weighing the two options against each other, isn’t it obvious what the better choice is for short- and long-term well-being? Balancing school, life, and health is a challenge, but the payoff for students is worth the planning and commitment. The full gradhacker article can be found here – the rest of the site is also replete with resources for students who are heading to grad school or who would like a snapshot of what life in grad school is like.
