Eat, Sleep, Revise, Repeat: Staying Healthy Over Exam Season

 

Revising is hard work, there’s no doubt about that. The routine can often feel monotonous and can leave students feeling sluggish and unmotivated if they don’t switch things up. It’s therefore really important that your child takes care of themselves so that they get into a good routine and stay focused as exams approach. Here are a few easy ways to do just that!

 

1. Get plenty of sleep

They might be a night owl, but try and help them kick this habit during study leave and get into a good sleep pattern. Getting into bed at 10pm and getting at least 8 hours sleep will work wonders when they wake up to revise the next day, feeling well-rested and ready to go.

Be consistent and do this every day, so that when it comes to their 9am morning exams, they’ll be used to getting up at 7. The last thing they want is to be heading into school bleary-eyed on the day of the exam because they struggled to get out of bed.

Also, try and impose a ‘no screens’ rule at least half an hour before bed. Be it a tablet, laptop, TV or mobile phone – encourage them to put them down and read a book or listen to a podcast instead. This will improve their sleep dramatically by ensuring they switch off properly after a long day of revision.

You should also encourage them to try not to drink any coffee after lunchtime, as all that caffeine doesn’t do much to help them focus or relax. It is important to get to a point where your body is well-rested and balanced enough to function at a high level on its own, without the help of anti-fatigue stimulants such as caffeine.  

 

2. Eat well

The temptation when sitting revising can be to snack on lots of tasty foods that aren’t doing you any good (we can't blame them). Of course, your child does deserve a treat every now and then to reward all that revision, and depriving them of these foods completely will probably do more harm than good, but eating too much of the wrong things will slow them down and leave them with less energy to work with!

Try and encourage them to eat three square meals with healthy snacks in between to boost energy levels and bolster their immune system. We recommend plenty of vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, nuts and seeds, wholegrain cereals and bars, low GI carbohydrates (e.g. pasta, lentils, beans and porridge) and plenty of fruit and yoghurt if they fancy something sweet.

Things they should try and avoid are refined carbohydrates and processed or junk food. If you have to ask whether or not it’s healthy, it’s probably a no.

The best treat? A few squares of dark chocolate won’t go amiss, as small quantities of cocoa are in fact an antioxidant and have been shown to improve brain function. But it's important not to overdo this!

 

3. Make time to exercise

Encourage your child to find a sport that they enjoy. This is just as important as revising, as the break away from the desk will leave them more motivated and relaxed when they sit down to do some studying. It doesn't have to be too strenuous (a walk outside is fine); it’s just really important to refresh your brain, forget about revision for a little while, and get your body moving to burn off that excess energy. You can only sit and look at a page of notes for so long, so make sure they include exercise breaks in their revision timetable.