Good sleep is the main secret of excellent preparation for exams. Along with some little ‘tricks’ that help our memory, such as regular schedules, little breaks after 2 or 3 hours of concentration on books, a bit of sport in the late afternoon and no more phones, tablets and PCs after dinner. These are some tips for all the kids who are starting to prepare for the exams, for the eighth grade as for the high school diploma, of the child neuropsychiatrist Oliviero Bruni, Sapienza University of Rome, Sant’Andrea hospital.
“Today – explains the expert to Adnkronos Salute – the quality of life that children have, with particularly uneven schedules, does not guarantee the right amount of sleep. But having a regular sleep-wake rhythm has many advantages on studying. If we alter this rhythm also modifies hormones: melatonin, growth hormone, cortisol, etc. Another element to consider is the fact that memorization processes occur mainly during sleep and during the first phase of falling asleep. we go to bed very late and wake up early, we don’t ‘use’ that part of our sleep that allows for a solid acquisition of the information gathered during the day”.
An important problem for the quality of sleep “is the intrusion of technology. During the day – recalls Bruni – the brain collects a series of information which, at a certain point, reaches a saturation level. For this reason, beyond a certain limit, we are no longer able to learn otherwise we would all be geniuses. But if we turn on the cell phone before sleeping and continue to store inputs, we end up remembering the latest information more than what we have laboriously studied during the day. Hence the need to turn off the mobile phone in the evening, after dinner, otherwise the data studied will not move to the short-term memory” (continued)
