It's the night before your final. You have a coffee in one hand and an energy drink in the other. You have a massive headache from staring at your laptop for the last five hours, and you're determined to learn an entire semester worth of material in just one night.

Is that crazy? Yes. But impossible? Not for you.

This is all familiar territory to you. It seems as if each time finals week rolls around, your motivation increases and your social life slowly diminishes. However, that doesn't matter because you can celebrate once your finals are over.

Do you know what else you can finally do?

Sleep.

It seems as if sleep is at the absolute bottom of your priority list this week. You need to stay up all night in order to retain all information and learn as much as possible before you sit down to take the exam. Sleep is for the weak, but are you really benefiting yourself by depriving yourself? It's quite possible that sleep is your best studying tool.

In fact, according to SleepBetter.org, sleeping is actually when your brain starts to retain memories from throughout the day. They even stated that staying up all night may do more harm than good. This is because, when you're sleep deprived, you're not allowing your brain the rest and time that it needs to store the information as memories, and you may even forget things that you already knew.

So, while you may think being hyped up on caffeine and studying until the wee hours of the morning is beneficial, the only thing you may be hurting is your chances of acing those finals. Maybe focus on waking up earlier to study with a cup of coffee a few hours before the exam and eat a good breakfast.

It almost feels like it's a habit or "cool" to pull all-nighters in order to get good grades in college, but it is definitely not necessary. While it may work for some students who swear by it, it may not be best for you. Personally, I know I perform best on tests when I get a well-rested night of sleep than when I stay up until 3 A.M. before my 8 A.M. final.

Finals week may not be the best time to experiment with your sleep schedule, either. If you're really curious to see how all-nighters may affect you, do it the night before a quiz or project... just not before a final that could determine your fate in a class.