How To Pull An All-Nighter Effectively (And Still Do Well On Your Exam)

Cramming weeks of biology or accounting material into the 12 hours prior to the exam is a prevalent trend on college campuses. It is amazing to me how many students are able to stay up all night and then take an exam. Our sleep and wakefulness cycles are governed by the circadian rotation of the earth, and overriding these cycles is extremely difficult, and so I guess you deserve kudos for that in a semi-backwards way!

According to Dr. Charmane Eastman, director of Biological Rhythms Research Laboratory at a medical center in Chicago, what makes interrupting these cycles so difficult is that they exist even in the absence of time cues such as sunlight and clocks.

Unfortunately, there is no way to beat the clock completely as staying up all night takes a toll on both your physical and mental performance. However, Penn State undergraduate studies say that understanding exactly what is happening to your body's natural rhythms throughout the night can help all the night owls out there maximize brain power.

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