It's that time of year again …

As the last week of the quarter approaches, college students
traditionally lose sleep to squeeze in those precious hours of
information absorption before taking their final exams.

But students looking to forsake shut-eye before finals in favor
of doing some extra studying might be setting themselves up for
failure when test time comes.

Chris Miller, coordinator of behavioral medicine at the Arthur
Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center, cautions against studying
while not getting adequate sleep.

“Even though you might be able to cram during the time you
stay up, you won’t be as quick as you would be if you were
rested,” she said.

Miller, a clinical psychologist who works with student
psychological services when she isn’t at the Ashe Center,
also runs a weekly workshop called “The Art of
Sleeping.” The workshop teaches students how sleep works and
gives practical advice on how to get a better quality and quantity
of sleep.

Miller strongly advises that students plan ahead on their
studying and miss no more than one night of sleep.

“If someone loses an occasional night of sleep,
it’ll affect them the next day, but if they do it on a
regular basis, they could walk into a test and their mind could go
blank,” Miller said.

Some students still aren’t convinced that sleep loss can
have a noticeable effect on performance.

“It’s one night of not sleeping and you’ll
have the grade for the rest of your life,” said Cassie
Powers, a fourth-year psychology and sociology student.

“When it comes down to it, you have to stay up,” she
said.

“I’ve done it all,” said third-year
psychobiology student Peyman Gravori. “I stayed up all night
and aced my Life Science 3 final. If it’s only one subject, I
can manage.”

While no one knows the exact biological reasons of why people
sleep in the first place, Howstuffworks.com highlights leading
theories.

The Web site states that some scientists think sleep is used to
repair muscles and tissues, and others say it’s to give the
brain a chance to organize thoughts. Other theories say sleep is a
method of saving energy since people can’t do anything in the
dark anyway.

Gravori, like many students, doesn’t need an explanation.
He knows sleep is beneficial from personal experience.

“If you don’t sleep enough, obviously you
can’t focus as well,” he said.

Sleep researchers believe adenosine, a chemical compound in the
brain, induces sleep. Because adenosine levels in the brain rise
during wakefulness and fall during sleep, some scientists think it
is the body’s signal to the brain that it needs to rest.

Many students use caffeine to help them stay awake into the wee
hours of the morning. They ingest coffee, cola, chocolate or
caffeine pills such as Vivarin.

While the National Sleep Foundation acknowledges caffeine will
probably keep the user awake and alert for a time, the very
mechanism of the drug produces undesirable long term effects.

Science News Online explains that caffeine works by blocking
adenosine from attaching to brain cells. This gives a caffeine
user’s body the illusion that it has regained energy via
sleep by not sending the “I’m tired” signal
associated with adenosine, where in reality the user’s
fatigue is only being compounded.

Miller said students should give themselves time in the evening
to wind down through watching TV or listening to quiet music before
going to bed.

“The worst thing you can do is work right up to the minute
you fall asleep,” she said.

Michele Pearson, Director of Ancillary Services at the Ashe
Center, recommends that students meditate, saying it encourages a
higher level of function.

Pearson also said one of the most important things students can
do is plan their eating, sleeping and studying.

“If you get into a routine, your body will pay you by
increasing your comprehension, attention span and absorption of
information,” she said.

Students with sleep or other physical problems can drop by the
Ashe Center or consult its Web site at www.studenthealth.ucla.edu
for health and study tips.