By Steven King
Correspondent
The semester is coming to an end, which means one thing: finals. But as all of us prepare for our final exams, we should not forget about one of the most important aspects of our health: sleep.
Getting a good night’s rest is immensely important to a person’s ability to function the next day. So before you decide to pull an all-nighter to study, remember these reasons as to why sleep is incredibly important for your mental health and academic success.
Getting a decent amount of sleep helps protect your mental and physical health. Various studies have shown that sleeping helps you improve your problem-solving skills and learning skills, which will be needed for final exams. Sleep also plays an important role in your physical health. It can help reduce high blood pressure and keeps your immune system functioning properly. Sleep allows you to have a strong and healthy immune system that protects against common infections — giving you an opportunity to do well on final exams.
While getting a decent amount of sleep can bring about positive benefits for your mental and physical health, not getting enough sleep can be detrimental to you. Mentally, lack of sleep makes it harder for you to solve problems and make good choices. Your ability to handle yourself emotionally is also negatively affected.
Now that you know how important sleep is to your ability to function, Lions’ EMS has a few tips for you to help you get the most out of your sleep.
First, try to go to bed early. It’s common to hear that we need seven to eight hours of sleep, and it’s true. Getting this full amount will help ensure that you are getting the most benefits out of your sleep. If you are having a hard time getting to sleep, get out of bed and walk around or do something to relax yourself. Also, only use your bed for sleep. Try not to study in your bed. Try to keep your sleep schedule the same by waking up and going to bed at the same time each day. Finally, try to relax and wind down 15 minutes to half an hour before going to sleep.
We hope that you are all able to recognize the importance of sleep toward your ability to do well on your finals. Try to keep those tips in mind as you get ready. Finally, good luck on finals everyone, and stay healthy!
