Good grades are important. That doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice a healthy lifestyle in order to get good grades. In fact, practicing unhealthy habits can be detrimental to your school work.

According to the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, “In the short term, a lack of adequate sleep can affect judgment, mood, ability to learn and retain information,” and, “In the long term, chronic sleep deprivation may lead to a host of health problems including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and even early mortality.”

None of that sounds super great to me, I’m not sure about you guys.
Speaking from experience, I know that not getting enough sleep hinders your ability to learn or even just pay attention in class. Of course it’s going to be difficult after staying up all night working on homework and only getting a few hours of actual sleep.

If getting a good night’s sleep is difficult, you may want to consider something that we aren’t used to as adults: nap time.

According to an article by Kimberly Cote, PhD Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Brock University and president of the Canadian Sleep Society, “an afternoon nap of 20 minutes is ideal to increase alertness, mood, and to improve work productivity.”

Think about it. When humans are tired, it means they need to rest. What it doesn’t mean is buying a second or third cup of coffee to spaz your way through the rest of the day.

So next time you want to grab a coffee to get through your study session, instead try lying down, relaxing, or even catching some z’s. It’s one of my favorite activities and who knows maybe it’ll be yours, too.