REM Cycles.

I've always been a proponent of all-nighters. "Sleep is the cousin of death," "I'll rest when I die" were two quotes I lived by whenever procrastination got the best of me. Whenever I reached that fork in the road where I had to decide whether to stay up all night or to get some sleep, I always chose 'stay up.'

I've always been told that getting a good nights rest is essential for studying, but I always neglected that advice.

Until now. Taking BioPsych 110 has provided me w/ scientific evidence as to why sleep is undoubtedly better than no sleep. When we sleep after learning, there is an increase in your REM (rapid eye movement) cycle, and during your REM... information is consolidated into long term memory - increasing your ability to retain information. This is opposed to staying up all night, where information can easily be flushed out of memory as you continually attempt to fit more of it into your brain.

My BioPsych final was at 8am this morning, and at around 3am last night... I once again reached the dreaded crossroads where I had to decide whether or not to continue studying or to get some sleep. While I tried my hardest to feign off those thoughts of sleep, I decided to take the advice of scientific research and just went to bed. And, although my sleep only lasted a mere 3 hours, that was enough to make me feel replenished and energized for the exam. If I could redo my decision, I'd definitely choose sleep. It works, truust me.

Conclusion: REM sleep is important; make sure you get some during finals, fool!