Illustration: Lu Ting/GT
Most Chinese students have probably heard the legend about Harvard Library. It says that even at 4 am in the morning, Harvard students can still be found studying in the library.
There is even a Chinese-language book based on this legend, titled Harvard Half Past Four, published in 2014 by Zhu Wenping, to encourage Chinese students to stay up as late - or later - than their Western contemporaries if they want to get ahead.
Tragically, this popular legend is contributing to the skewed mind-set among Chinese students that the only way to do well in university is to stay awake. And while extra pre-dawn hours may achieve the desired short-term academic results, in the long run it is also resulting in a generation of listless, unhealthy youngsters who are destroying their bodies just to get good grades.
Recent polling data of students from 10 universities in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, revealed that 43 percent go to bed after midnight, 27 go to bed after 1 am and 16 percent after 2 am. Among those 43 percent, 50 percent stay up that late at least four days of the week.
Ironically, however, only 36 percent of them said they stay up to study; the rest admitted that they are either playing computer games, chatting or watching something.
As a postgraduate student, even though I have been burdened with heavy studies for the past six years of my university life, I pride myself on never staying up late and always getting a solid, good-night's sleep.
Many students, however, tend to relax at the end of a long day, and as a result are easily distracted by phones or gossiping. Hours later they suddenly realize how much precious time was wasted, which means burning the midnight oil to catch up.
The downside to this is that they will feel exhausted the next day, which causes them to nap during lectures or even miss class because they couldn't wake up in time. It's very easy to fall into this vicious cycle, which is why there are so many students staying up until dawn.
But the real mental and physical harm of staying up late is far from just feeling drowsy or operating at minimal efficiency. Staying up late contributes to decreased immunity against illnesses and, even worse for vanity-conscious females, bad skin complexion.
The global medical community has also proven that fatigue and sleep deprivation can lead to cardiovascular or cerebrovascular diseases, which can trigger sudden death. Which begs the question: if staying awake all night is so detrimental to our health, how do all those Western students at Harvard manage to stay up until half past four? Are Americans really all superheroes?
An overseas Chinese student surnamed Li Zheyuan who recently started his postgraduate studies at Harvard took time out of his busy schedule to disprove this meme.
What Li found is that there are in fact 80 libraries scattered around the Harvard campus, but only Lamont Library is open 24 hours per day while all the others close before midnight.
However, among Li's random polling of Harvard students from different fields, none said they ever stayed up after late midnight.
Li also found that, compared to the average Chinese students, Western students (at Harvard) rarely or never skip classes, attend numerous extracurricular activities and campus clubs and even intern for local companies.
This was verified in the Chinese-language bestseller Harvard Girl, written by student Liu Yiting in 2000; sadly, her eye-opening book is unknown among today's Chinese students, who will have to learn the truth the hard way.
The conclusion from Li's investigation of the "half past four myth" is that Chinese students place too much value in study hours as a measurement of their academic diligence.
What really matters, and what Chinese students should focus on, is productivity and efficiency. As numerous scientific studies have proven, the best way to be productive and efficient is to be an early bird, not a night owl!
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Global Times.
