Opinion: All-nighters Are a Midterm Mistake

New York City, NY — by Molly Koch

This story was originally published on New York University’s Washington Square News.

Ah, midterm season — the time of year when you can enter any study space and feel the test anxiety in the air. With Bobst Library being open 24 hours a day, students can conveniently balance study sessions with power naps while cramming for exams. Walk into any floor of Bobst during midterms and you’ll be sure to find some students intensely hunched over their laptops and others fast asleep, a half-studied Quizlet open on their desk. 

This past weekend, I unfortunately fell to an infamous midterm tradition: pulling an all-nighter. At first, I thought it would be productive. I prepared a to-do list, and I truly believed not sleeping would be worth the amount of work I’d get done.

I learned the hard way that I was wrong — pulling an all-nighter to study for exams is not worth the harmful effects on your mind and body.

All-nighters encourage procrastination and poor time management, leaving students to deal with revenge bedtime procrastination that impacts productivity for the next day. Students who put off studying may decide to pull an all-nighter to make up for lost time, making it an appealing but ill-advised option. The normalization of losing sleep to cram for a test reinforces this cycle of procrastination, keeping students from developing healthier study habits. Students’ performance also suffers when they mismanage their time —  exam results are better when students study over time and get proper rest.

Read the rest of the story at Washington Square News.