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The simple way you can boost your productivity
Read from LBU Wellbeing Practitioner James Ewens about the one way we can all improve our learning, performance and memory.
On average we do this for 25-30 years in our life. When we do it parts of our brain are very active. Some of us only do this in black and white. Our brain shrinks when we do it. The longest period without it is 11 days.
So, what am I talking about? If you’ve not guessed it already, I’m talking about sleep.
Sleep is universal, and without exception, every animal species studied to date engages in sleep or something like it. If you think about it, you are extremely vulnerable when you sleep, yet nature and evolution have kept it. This points to it being incredibly important.
Matthew Walker, in his book ‘Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams’, argues sleep is the single most effective thing we can do to reset our brain and body health each day, and describes it as a democratic, freely available, efficacious health care system (Walker, 2017).
Research he shares points to sleep being vitally important to our health and wellbeing, as well as playing a significant part in our learning, memory and performance. Some key points from his writing in relation to study and learning are that:
- Sleeping aids study and learning – at night the brain cleans out unnecessary information from the day to clear space for more memory.
- If we don’t sleep, we are more likely to forget the important things we have learnt. Sleep helps move them into longer term memory.
- We problem solve when asleep. (Think about the common phrase ‘you should sleep on a it’).
A simple takeaway from reading Walker’s book is that the quality and quantity of the sleep you get is strongly related to your capacity to learn and your academic performance.
Sleep and Wellbeing
So, sleep is something we all do, but perhaps something we don’t think about too often, unless we are struggling with it. Not getting good sleep can be incredibly frustrating and actually quite debilitating. We all know we don’t feel good after a very poor night’s sleep and can often be more irritable and short-tempered, as the above quote highlights nicely.
Not only does sleep affect mood, but our mood and our mental state can also affect our sleep. Feeling anxious increases levels of agitation and arousal, which make it harder to sleep. Stress also affects sleep by making the body more awake and alert. People who are under constant stress or who have exaggerated responses to stress tend to have sleep problems (Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard 2008).
So, how do we sleep better?
Sleep Hygiene practices, which are habits and practices that are conducive to sleeping well on a regular basis, can help with this. There is a variety of suggestions out there for how to sleep better if you are struggling and a good place to start looking is Mindwell, which is the mental health website for people in Leeds.
Thrive - Wellbeing for your academic success
If you want to learn more about sleep and receive suggestions and tips to help you sleep better, Student Wellbeing at Leeds Beckett have a new ‘Sleep for Study Workshop’ launching as part of our new Thrive programme.
Alongside this we will be running a regular series of workshops all focussed on supporting your wellbeing and study on a variety of topics.
This new programme of workshops launched during the Mental Health Foundation’s Mental Health Awareness Week in May and will be a regular offer throughout the next academic year.
SESSIONS AVaILABLE
- Sleep for study – Learn the benefits of positive sleep routines for your health, wellbeing, and study.
- Wellbeing and academic stress - Managing your wellbeing while coping with study revision and exams
- Anxiety and the pandemic - Managing transitions
- Understanding and managing perfectionism
- Tackling Procrastination – Keep on track with your studies
- Managing your mood – Strategies for managing low mood and depression
- Look after your mate - A workshop to empower you to support friends experiencing mental health difficulties, while looking after your own wellbeing.
Booking details can be found on the Student Wellbeing webpages.
References
Chatterjee (2018) Why we Sleep with Matthew Walker Part 1 Podcast. Available at < https://drchatterjee.com/episode-26-sleep-matthew-walker-part-1/> (Accessed: April 2022)
Walker (2017) Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams, Penguin: UK
Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard (2008) Sleep and Mood. Available at <https://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/need-sleep/whats-in-it-for-you/mood> (Accessed: April 2022)
