ADHD, More Sleep, Better Grades

About Author:

This article is written by 1L success consultant Franklin Sims. If you are planning on starting law school soon or want help landing a job out of law school contact Franklin for law school success tools that work.

---

Law school students don’t get enough sleep. Far fewer sleep well. Adults with ADHD are being told things about academic success and sleep which may be helpful to all law school students open to sleeping more for better grades.

What’s the science

While not getting enough rest creates an academic disadvantage for most any student, insufficient sleep can take an even greater toll on students with symptoms of ADHD.

The science behind sleep and law school is interesting. When we sleep our cells recovery from the long day before. Most importantly, our brain has a chance to heal during sleep as well. Without getting too nerdy, when we sleep the neurotransmitters in our brains replenish. Neurotransmitters are responsible for carrying signals to our brain throughout the day. The more rest we get the better the neurotransmitters perform at their job and the sharper our thoughts.

Law School is known for its complexity. Students are required to absorb a mountain of competing information and concepts and synthesize them into clear and simple ideas. When our brains go about this sort of multitasking it requires very focused attention that scientist refer to as our executive functioning skills. Since many of my clients with ADHD are stronger with creative ideas than executive functions like short term memory and organization, insufficient sleep can further derail the executive function tools they need to perform well. If you don’t have ADHD your executive functioning is also impaired when you don’t get enough rest.

Law School’s Hard On The Brain

There are two primary things that make a restful nights sleep so important for law school students. First law school requires a lot of deep and critical thought. Whether you are reading case law, attending lectures, writing a legal brief or studying for exams a law students’ brain is persistently hard at work.

Secondly, aside from the work, law school is also home to a lot of worry and anxiety. Law school students worry a lot because they are under a lot of pressure. A lot of the pressure stems from the law school environment. The competitive nature of the grading curve and the nagging reality of post-graduate employment is an ongoing undercurrent of stress for most students. Nearly every day of the semester a law school student entertains thoughts of doubt or anxiety about how well they will do on exam day and what a bad grade will mean for their future career and life.

This level of daily pressure and mental activity is draining and underscores the important role sleep plays to success in law school. Too many law school students don’t use sleep as an academic advantage. Better than caffeine, sleep will keep your mind sharper for the brain power required to be a successful law school student.

Stress and Sleep Loss

For many students the aforementioned stress is what keeps them up at night. Because the law school experience fuels anxiety, it’s important to take steps to support a better night’s sleep. Clinical neuropsychologist David D. Nowell, PhD, suggests several steps to help toward a good sleep. One of the most important for our tech savvy generation is “no screens in the bedroom.” Nowell means that you should try and keep televisions, tablets and smartphones as far away from your sleep zone as possible. For those of us that can’t do without them, experts suggest changing the program or app during sleep to something less stimulating and more soothing.

It may be hard to imagine that the way to better grades is better sleep. But if getting enough rest will help us do our work better then regardless of whether you have an ADHD diagnosis better sleep is in your best academic interest.