Peking University, Dec. 21, 2010: Chinese students have a tradition of burning the midnight oil since ancient times. Su Qin in the Warring States Period pinched his own body with an awl to keep himself awake for studying. Che Yin and Sun Kang in the Jin Dynasty used fireflies and white glare of snow respectively as lights for reading. Nowadays, many PKU students often work very hard till midnight, even till early morning. Burning the midnight oil has become their habit.

To study or to sleep, that is a question.

There are few people around the school gate in the cold wind, yet KFC is full of hardworking students, whose enthusiasm for burning the midnight oil keeps up well in spite of the cold weather. Most of them choose to study at midnight to increase their learning efficiency. "Inspiration always comes at midnight." said Lu Fan from PKU Department of History. Jiang Peng from PKU School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science agreed and added, "I'm a typical night person because I am always energetic at midnight. It's a waste of time if I don't burn the midnight oil."

However, it's the law of nature for us to go to bed with the lamb and rise with the lark. Many students oppose burning the midnight oil because they believe that it is harmful to their health. Some students who always study at midnight also admit that they have no alternative. "I try to avoid it because it's not good for health." said Zhang Dakui from PKU College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering. Chang Yuxin from PKU Department of History compared it to drinking poison to quench one's thirst and added, "It's just a short-term measure. Doing this for a long time will harm both one’s body and mind."

Since there are no classrooms for all-night study on campus, many students have to go outside. Security becomes another problem, especially for girls. Liu Qiaoyun from the College of Urban and Environmental Sciences said, " It's not safe for girls to walk on the road at night even if they have companions."

Although different people have different habits, burning the midnight oil will not only cause dark circles around the eyes, acnes and excessive internal heat, but also keep our body in a sub-healthy condition, even damage organs and cause diseases. Lack of sleep will increase the level of stress hormones, decrease strength and energy and have an impact on intelligence level, concentrating ability and decision-making ability. Insufficient sleep will decrease almost half of the amount of information the brain can take in per unit time and lead to a setback in learning efficiency.

Tomorrow never comes.

Why do students burn the midnight oil? They have an endless list of things to do? Actually it is not the case. Better go to bed at midnight and get up at 7 a.m. than go to bed at 3 a.m. and get up at 10 a.m. . The former will do less harm to the body while learning time period remains the same. "In fact, it's unnecessary to burn the midnight oil if learning efficiency is increased during the day. Low learning efficiency will appear in daytime after you burn the midnight oil. I'd rather have a good sleep and go on studying the next day." Mei Yingqian said. Liu Shuang from English Department agreed, "Burning the midnight oil will make us waste more time and lead to low efficiency in the day."

Why do students still burn the midnight oil even if they are aware of the damage? Why don't they increase the efficiency in the day to accomplish tasks? Maybe it's only a question of procrastination.

"Those people are perfectionists. They are afraid of failures and believe that 'Soft fire makes sweet malt'." said a psychologist at PKU. It's called Procrastination Syndrome in psychology, which is very common among modern people, especially the students. They put off the things they have to finish today to tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, even one day before the deadline.Some people always delay things too long and finish them by burning the midnight oil. If they start early they can finish them at an early time. So how to get rid of the bad habit? According to the psychologist, first, do things as soon as possible. Second, learn time management strategy. Use 80% of one's time to finish 20% of the most important tasks, which accounts for 80% of the importance of all the things. Most pressure will be reduced in this way. Third, make strict plans about to-do things every day according to their importance and do them step by step.

Translated by: Zhang Hao
Edited by: Chen Miaojuan
Source: PKU Youth