Tomorrow, it will be the day for the candidates to go to the "battlefield".
On the last night before the exam, how should candidates adjust their sleep to better perform in the exam? If the candidate is very nervous and can't sleep, what can parents do? Here are some suggestions~
How to adjust your sleep
Let the exam play steadily
We start straight from the results. The college entrance exam is held from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and from 15:00 to 17:00 p.m. in the afternoon. If you want to perform consistently in the exam, you need to make sure that you are in the best condition during these two periods.
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You can first review what your usual monthly exam status is during this time period, if you feel okay, very good, it means that you have adjusted the state to your satisfaction, and the routine before the college entrance examination can remain the same.
What does it mean to feel okay? In the case of the exam, it is:
- The curls came down, a little nervous, and at the same time a little excited.
- When you start to do the questions, you can focus on the exam and don't get distracted.
- Able to understand the meaning of the questions well, and will not be able to read the questions.
- When encountering problems, they will not give up and have a desire to challenge.
If you find that you are not doing well during the monthly exam during this time period, then you need to assess whether you have sleep problems.
For most high school students, the biggest pain point is sleeping late at night and waking up early in the morning. This will inevitably lead to a lack of sleep time. And all this, it's not your fault.
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Because, going to bed late is not because you don't want to go to bed early, but because the inner rhythm (biological clock) in your body is in a delayed state - the night owl rhythm. Waking up early is not your problem, it is the school that requires you to get up early.
What are the consequences of these two problems? I'll show you a picture first.
This chart is called the Sleep Staging Chart. The abscissa is the time of sleep, and the ordinate is the different stages of sleep.
N1 and N2 are light sleep, and N3 is deep sleep (purple in the figure). There's also something called REM, which stands for rapid-eye-movement. As the name suggests, if you are in this period, your eyeballs will move back and forth quickly. Moreover, the vast majority of vivid dreams occur in the REM phase (blue in the picture). For your understanding, I'm going to call it the "dream period."
As you go from lying in bed until you fall asleep, and then then to being woken up by an alarm clock the next morning, you go through a cycle of alternating light sleep, deep sleep, and dreaming periods.
And you will find that deep sleep is mainly in the first half, while dreaming is mainly in the second half. If you don't get enough sleep and are woken up too early by the alarm clock in the morning, then you will lose part of your "dreaming period". As shown in the figure:
Therefore, for high school students, sleep deprivation is mainly manifested as a lack of "dream time".
Don't underestimate the dreaming period, during which your brain will help you organize the new knowledge you have learned during the day and consolidate your memory. At the same time, it also helps with your ability to control your emotions.
If you don't get replenished for a long time during this period, it will affect your learning efficiency and emotional control. It is manifested in the exam, which is easy to be nervous and anxious before the exam, the ability to retrieve information during the exam is reduced, the fear of difficult problems, and the easy to give up.
So, classmates, if your grades don't go up, it's not that you don't work hard, but that you don't sleep well.
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What to do? It's simple: don't wake up too early. Don't wake up too early and set the alarm back. Try to give yourself as much sleep as possible during the "dream period".
How does it work? Let's go back to the exam scenario.
For the 9:00 a.m. exam, arrive at the test room 30 minutes early, and then calculate the time it will take to get from where you live to the test venue, such as 30 minutes. In that case, you have to go out at 7:30 to feel more relaxed.
Then calculate the time it takes you to get dressed, washed, go to the bathroom, and eat breakfast, and determine your baseline time to wake up, such as 7:00. Then you set your alarm clock at 7:00 and go to bed until 7:00. Of course, if you wake up naturally early, then get up early, and you don't need to force yourself to sleep on the bed.
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The exam is at 15:00 in the afternoon, and if you usually have a nap habit, you can continue to keep it before the exam. There is a detail: don't sleep too long in the afternoon.
The recommended time for the American Sleep Foundation is 10~20 minutes. It's best not to sleep for more than 30 minutes, as sleeping too long can easily cause you to have "sleep inertia" when you wake up, causing your brain to become groggy and take a while to recover. This is not good news for exams.
In summary, how to adjust sleep to make the exam status better?
1. Don't get up too early.
2. Squint for a while at noon.
What should I do if I can't sleep the night before the exam?
In fact, as long as you remember the following 3 words, you can calmly deal with this situation.
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The first word: steady
The so-called stability is to calm down the mind, do not worry, and do not worry about the state of the next day.
Why? In 2019, an article was published on the official website of Nature that explored the relationship between sleep quality and academic performance among college students. It was found that the duration and quality of sleep in the month and week before the test were associated with better academic performance. However, there is no relationship between sleep performance the night before the test and test scores.
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Isn't this a comforting result? As for why this is the case, the researchers analyzed that it is more important to get a good night's sleep while studying for the test than the night before the exam. Students, you still have to spend your time on hard work.
So, if you sleep well, you don't need to worry about your sleep the night before the test.
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Word 2: Loose
Once you're settled, the next step is to relax. Always remember: don't force yourself to sleep.
Sleeping is not something you can do with effort, and you don't need to exert yourself. Sleep is a physiological need, and as long as you are prepared for it, it will come naturally.
Therefore, I would advise you to get up decisively when you find that you are more and more awake and anxious the more you lie down. Get up and do something to relax yourself.
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How to relax? There are many ways to do this, such as reading interesting extracurricular books, listening to soft music, stretching, meditation, and so on. Personally, I like to read, you can choose one you like (memorize words, practice listening). When you feel sleepy, you can lie in bed again.
Note, these 2 things don't do:
1. Look at the time.
2. Look at your phone.
Don't look at the time too much. Time can increase your anxiety and make you more anxious. You don't need to know what time it is at night, and the instrument used to record time has not yet been invented, okay?
Don't look at your phone, especially don't swipe it. In 2015, a study found that the blue light emitted by mobile phones inhibits the secretion of melatonin, and playing with your phone before bed will make you feel less sleepy before bedtime - you are less sleepy and more energetic. And, after putting down your phone, you need to take longer to fall asleep; At the same time, the next day was even more exhausting.
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Therefore, I recommend that you touch your phone less before going to bed and replace this bedtime behavior with other ways. I know it's hard, but I think it's worth it in order to get a good score on a key exam.
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Word 3: Early
No matter how long you slept last night, you must get to the exam room at the scheduled time the next morning according to the time set by the alarm clock. Don't rush the rest of your schedule because you are greedy for that little sleep in the morning, which will affect your performance in the exam.
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To sum it up. What should I do if I can't sleep the night before the exam? Remember 3 words: steady, loose, early.
- Steady: Steady mentality. If you sleep well, there is not much relationship between your sleep performance the night before the test and your test score.
- Loose: If you lie down and become more awake, get up decisively and do something to relax yourself.
- Early: Arrive at the exam room early the next day as planned, don't lie in bed, and don't rush yourself.