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身心状态 · Mind & body · 4 min

Sleep during senior year — the non-negotiables

You cannot outwork sleep debt. The math has been checked.

The temptation in senior year is to trade sleep for study hours. The trade is very bad. A tired brain encodes less, retrieves less, and produces more careless mistakes on timed papers.

Aim for at least seven hours a night through most of the year and at least eight in the last month. If you cannot make this work with your current schedule, cut something else — not sleep.

The exception is not 'the night before an important test'. That is exactly the night sleep matters most. A well-rested student outperforms a slightly-better-prepared exhausted one on almost every measurable dimension of exam performance.

Naps of 20-30 minutes in the afternoon are a real study tool, not a luxury. They restore attention and consolidate what you learned in the morning.

Coffee helps for two hours and hurts for eight. Time it deliberately. Do not drink coffee after 2 PM in the last month if you value your sleep.

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