Your “Bad” Roommate Might Be Onto Something

By Skylar Dorr

As finals week slowly but surely approaches, you might look around to find that every student is preparing in their own way. The campus library becomes packed with people from all majors with their noses buried deep in their studying material, some even taking over the University Center lunch tables. The academic grind is inescapable, with the “recipe for success” usually being to manage your stress and work at your own pace. 

But what if you have it all wrong?  

Finding it impossible to stay on a strict regimen due to the annoying habits of a roommate is the reality for many Adelphi students who dorm on campus. However, new research shows that those habits that are historically considered counterproductive are actually borderline genius! 

“Staying up until 3 am is more beneficial than getting an early bedtime,” says sleep psychologist Dr. Jessica Simpson, 44. “Keeping the mind awake as long as possible actually allows for you to take in more information than getting 8 hours of sleep.”           The less time you spend resting, the more time you can get to cram in all that knowledge that you’re going to need for finals week. 

Sleep isn’t the only thing you’ve been misled about, as a new 2025 study by Blue Mountain State indicates that the messier you are in your space, the higher your IQ may be. “The more chaotic the space, the more creative the individual,” says educational scientist Dr. Will Ferrell, 57. According to Ferrell, open food containers, dirty laundry and unwashed sheets are actually very big indicators of a creative and occupied mind, as the more time you spend cleaning, the less time you spend studying. 

Ferrell also describes the newly discovered phenomenon of “Productive Volume,” which details the link between an individual's high volume and the ability to retain information.

“Those who are loud, whether it be leaving the TV on or simply speaking on the phone at a high volume actually have the ability to retain more information that they’re reading,” says Ferrell.

How does this work? Well, the more occupied one is auditorily, the easier it is for their brain to link the volume of the surrounding area with the words they’re reading. “I highly recommend turning the TV volume the highest it can go and playing some metal music when you need to cram a lot of information into your head in a short time,” says Ferrell. 

“I thought I’d have to do another semester because I knew that my roommate would be up until all hours of the night, on the phone and blasting music,” says Mammas, 22, a nursing major who graduated from Adelphi last semester. “But, as I sat in that unreasonably loud room with her laundry everywhere, smelling last week's dinner that she left on the desk, I have honestly never felt more prepared for my final.”