Studying for 7-8 hours per day: is it ok?

Sometimes, students are just so busy that studying for 7-8 hours a day is a good idea since they have a lot of information to take in. When I was a student, we have something called an exam week which would mean that we need to study a lot to pass the exams. Thus, we are going to check in this article if studying for 7-8 hours a day is a good idea.

Studying for 7-8 hours per day is a good idea if you need to take in a lot of information in the shortest time possible. However, studying at this pace can only be good if you take rests seriously. This means that you still need to consider sleeping for 7-9 hours.

There are reasons why it might be a good idea to start studying for 7-8 hours each day. There is a chance that you might really have something to finish in as little time as possible. But always remember that studying for 7-8 hours each day requires a tremendous amount of time management skills since if you studied for that long without regard to sleep or rest, your study session becomes useless.

Thus, I recommend you read another article about time management which would help you a lot in scheduling when would you start studying and resting. We’ll talk about why sleep is necessary for learning later. Here is the link for you to check out: How to avoid poor time management

Is it ok to study 7-8 hours a day?

It is ok to study for 7 to 8 hours a day. The reason is that it is not really too long to induce extreme fatigue and at the same time, would give good results in learning. However, this amount of studying only works if you also take your rest seriously.

Studying for 7 to 8 hours is a good idea especially if you’re in an exam week. This type of studying is completely acceptable.

This amount of studying is almost always sufficient to learn enough knowledge to pass or even ace your exams.

However, studying for this long requires a large amount of time management. Plus, it would be hard to do for someone who is not used to studying.

For example, if you only study for about 2 hours each day, then going straight to 7 – 8 hours is a bad idea. The reason is that we are not used to this schedule.

What we can do in this case is to gradually increase the time. From 2 hours, add an hour, then add another hour once you’re comfortable. That way, it would be relatively easier to study for 7 hours.

Another thing to take note of is that you can also work smart. Studying for 7 hours is good. But studying for 4 hours efficiently is usually better. Then if you study efficiently for 7 hours, then it would be perfect.

If you are interested in studying smart where we discussed what are the things you can do in order to learn as much information as possible with little time, then I recommend you read this article: How to Be a Hardworking Student

In that article, we’ve discussed what you can do to be more efficient in studying. Make sure to check out tips: 5, 7, 9, and 17.

Another thing we will be talking about here is sleep.

Sleep is essential in learning. It is very important in both information recalling and retention. In fact, science has proven that there is a 42% increase in learning when we have enough sleep.

The reason for that is sleep’s association with short-term and long-term memory.

We actually learn by putting new information in our short-term memory and then putting the information into our long-term memory when we sleep.

Think of your short-term memory as a warehouse. Sleep is what transports what’s inside to your long-term memory. But once our short-term memory is full, our brain can’t learn new information.

That’s why it is important to sleep. In fact, studying right after sleeping is a good idea to study efficiently. I’ve discussed it in my article on why studying at 4 am is a good strategy. If you want to study efficiently, then I also recommend you to read that article. Here is the link: Is studying at 4 AM good?

Now, let’s go to the next topic and break down the effects of studying for 7-8 hours for your grades and your body.

Will studying for 7-8 hours a day be good for my grades?

Studying for 7 to 8 hours a day is good for your grades. The simple reason for this is that you have more time to study. Thus, you retain more information from your study sessions. However, this amount of studying is too much for some and not for everybody.

Studying for 7 to 8 hours is good for our grades especially if we can study efficiently.

I am an advocate of productivity so I know that this much studying is really good especially if you study efficiently.

But you should take note that studying for that long can also be bad for your learning.

The reason is because of the short-term memory I talked about earlier. Once it is full, you’re just wasting your time.

That’s why I am always talking about getting enough rest. Also, take note that studying efficiently is sometimes better than just studying for the sake of it.

Will studying for 7-8 hours a day be good for my body?

Studying for 7 to 8 hours a day won’t harm your body if you take your rest and sleep seriously. This means that you have to be very efficient in managing your time if you want to study for this long. It is never wise to forget about resting while studying for long hours.

Some people do a stretch of just studying and not resting for the whole exam week. This is a terrible idea both for your learning and your body.

Remember that this requires a large amount of willpower and time management skills in order to be effective.

Think about this.

Your goal in studying is to learn. That’s why you’re studying. For most, it is to learn to pass the exam or test.

However, if you don’t take care of your body, then how would you expect it to learn efficiently?

Remember that there is a 42% increase in learning when people had a good sleep.

42% is very big. It can be what differentiates someone who fails or aced an exam.

So take care of your body, remember that learning is fun and optimal when you take your rest.

In fact, when I was a student which is not long ago I mind you, I only study for about 4-8 hours every day and only take 7 – 8 hours of studying if really necessary.

The reason is that I get 7-9 hours of sleep every time. I take my sleep seriously ever since.

I graduated with honors without breaking my brain or body because I took care of it even when studying for long hours.

That’s why studying for 7-8 hours per day is not ok for everyone. I want you to completely understand that.

But what if you can’t study for 7-8 hours a day? Then I got you covered in the next section since as you can see, I only studied 4 – 8 hours a day depending on the situation.

What to do if you can’t study for more than 6 hours per day?

If you can’t study for more than 6 hours per day, always remember that you can always study efficiently. This means that you can start learning how to properly manage your time in studying and learning new ways to retain more information in the shortest time possible.

There are two ways in which you can approach this.

One way is to study more efficiently. This means that we would do whatever it takes to study more information in the shortest time possible.

In fact, efficiently studying for just about 4 hours can be significantly better than someone studying inefficiently for 8 hours.

Let’s do a little math. Sleeping instantly makes learning 42% better. If you studied for 4 hours, then it can be equal to studying for 6 hours just by taking your sleep seriously.

Now, add the other productivity study techniques, then you can study very efficiently at a shorter time.

Again, here is the link on how to study efficiently: How to Be a Hardworking Student

The second way is to just gradually increase the time you study. This means that you start studying for just 2 hours a day, then after a week increase it by 1 hour until you reach 7 hours.

The reason is that studying for more than 6 hours is too much at the start. Even if you can do it, it will eventually deplete your willpower.

But if you do it gradually, you can reach the point where you study for more than 6 hours with ease since it has become your new habit.

Source:

Hu, Peter, et al. “Sleep Facilitates Consolidation of Emotional Declarative Memory.” Psychological Science, vol. 17, no. 10, 2006, pp. 891–98. Crossref, doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01799.x.