For most college age people, there is no definitive "bed time" anymore. Those years of mom and dad tucking us into bed at a specific time have passed, and now we have to be responsible for our own sleep schedule...well, throw yet another responsibility on top of the million of things that are on a college student's mind, and it makes sense that sleep isn't necessarily priority. When you have two essays due, a quiz, and four dozen cookies to bake for your next sorority event, the last thing on your mind is your own personal health. And coffee helps slow the spinning of one's head after many sleep deprived days, so it doesn't seem like a problem, right?

WRONG.

Recent experience, throwback to Sorority recruitment weekend, taught me a lot about what life is like functioning on minimal sleep. For two weeks, I got roughly 6 hours of sleep every night as we prepared for recruitment. Then recruitment weekend swings around - I got roughly 12-14 hours of sleep TOTAL that weekend. Safe to say that I was far from a high functioning human. After this experience of near delusion and double vision, I realized that my mentality of "sleep over studying" has been right all along.

There have been multiple studies that support my mentality. It has actually been shown that getting a good night's sleep before a test helps you retain the information and get better grades. (http://www.jstor.org/stable/1132351?seq=1#page_sca...) (http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matter...) The above links are a pair of articles that talk about these statements I've made.
I've never been a late night person, but I think that has always been to my benefit. So instead of staying up till 3am to study for a test that you have at 8am, shut your book, put on your jammies, and get those few extra hours of shut eye that you need. Trust me, your grades (and your wallet since you won't have to buy as much coffee) will thank you.