Midterms are over for most of us and what have we learned? Procrastination is our best friend right up until the night before. Time is most valuable when you don’t have it. A weekend seems like an eternity.

That midterm on Monday, who cares? It’s Friday! Party! Saturday… whatever, you can study tomorrow, brownie night! Sunday morning… perhaps a trip out to breakfast, it won’t take long. Sure, hang out, but only for couple hours, then you really have to study.

Sunday, 8 p.m., between rounds of Twister you realize that your calculus midterm is tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. Suddenly everything stops. No more Twister. No more brownies. No more friends. It’s just you and that calculus book. That goddamned calculus book.

We all do this. No matter how good we are as students, everyone procrastinates sometimes and a majority of students procrastinate most of the time. Professors give you advanced warning of upcoming assignments and tests, and yet, rather than breaking it up into an hour here, a couple hours there, or even 20 minutes between classes, we procrastinate.

Sunday, therefore, has metamorphosed from a day of relaxation to a day of crunching facts into your head, making flashcards, writing and rewriting notes. Perhaps the most unfortunate side effect of procrastination is its influence on sleep.

The average amount of sleep needed to function optimally is still about eight hours. I know, you don’t live at home anymore and mom isn’t there to nag you about getting to bed-maybe you think, especially you freshman, that this means you can stay up into the wee hours of the morning whenever you want.

You’re right! You can stay up super late! But guess what, it will reflect on your grades.

There is a critical point that is different for everyone. Whether it comes at 10:30 p.m. or 1:34 a.m., it always comes: the point when studying is no longer helping and sleep would be a better use of your time.

During the cycles of sleep the activities and events of the day are rehearsed inside the brain. This is why if you play Tetris for a couple hours, you will dream Tetris. You do this rehearsal for a lot of reasons: (a) so your brain can make sense of your day; (b) so memories can solidify; (c) so you can ace tests.

Think of sleep like a study buddy. You procrastinated for two weeks, you studied for a couple hours. Now, go to bed and study with your old friend sleep.

You want to go to bed anyways. Who really wants to be awake at 2 a.m. to study? No one. There is a reason teachers and parents are always telling you to get enough sleep before a test.

How do you solve this problem? Everyone will tell you, “Just don’t wait until the last minute!” As if that’s going to do any good!

I offer the following realistic solutions. Semi-procrastinate. What does this mean? If you learn of a test two weeks before the test happens, prepare for serious studying the weekend before. That is, make the flash cards, write out some problems, do all the annoying preparatory work.

Then, in the middle of the week, go over them once or twice before you go to bed, then rehearse it in your sleep.

Then cram relatively early in the day on Sunday (maybe do a little bit on Saturday too). Studying doesn’t mean three hours of work a day for a week (unless you’re in Anatomy and Physiology). Get eight or more hours of sleep, eat some leftover pizza or an apple for breakfast and go ace it.

Having a study buddy other than the good old circadian rhythm helps too. If you work with other people, your responsibility to them will make you study.

Find your own strategy early on in your college career and carry it through every class every semester. It will save you and your GPA. But never neglect that crucial component: ZZZZZ.