Why Your Brain Needs Sleep to Learn — Reading Comprehension — Answers
Answer sheet with model answers and success criteria for the 8th Grade reading comprehension comprehension exercise.
Why Your Brain Needs Sleep to Learn — Reading Comprehension — Answers
Part A: Finding information
Answer: About an hour and a half.
Answer: Lighter sleep, deep sleep and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.
- Asix to seven hours
- Baround eight to ten hours
- Cat least twelve hours
- Das much as they like
Answer: around eight to ten hours
"Sleep experts generally recommend that teenagers get around eight to ten hours of sleep a night."
Answer: It is a hormone that helps us feel sleepy.
Answer: Any three of: going to bed and waking at similar times each day; putting devices away before bed; keeping the bedroom dark and quiet; avoiding caffeine later in the day.
Answer: False
The article says "the brain stays busy during sleep".
Answer: True
"During the teenage years, this clock naturally shifts later."
Part B: Understanding and inferring
Use evidence from the article to support your answers.
Answer: Because sleep is when the brain strengthens and stores what has been learned. Cramming all night gains a little study time but takes away the sleep the brain needs to remember the information.
Answer: It is the sleep a person owes their body after regularly getting less than they need, for example when teenagers fall asleep late but still have to wake early. Like a debt, it builds up over time.
Answer: It compares the sleeping brain to someone filing papers, sorting the day's information and putting it in the right place so it can be found later. It is a simple, memorable way to explain memory storage.
- Athe brain is a criminal
- Blosing sleep unfairly takes away something valuable
- Cstudying is against the rules
- Dsleep can be bought
Answer: losing sleep unfairly takes away something valuable
"Rob" means to take something that belongs to someone else, so missing sleep is presented as stealing something the brain needs.
- Aboring
- Bclear and lifelike
- Cshort
- Dfrightening
Answer: clear and lifelike
Vivid means bright, clear and full of detail.
Part C: The writer's choices
- Ateachers of young children
- Bscientists who study sleep
- Cteenage students
- Dparents of babies
Answer: teenage students
The writer addresses "you" with a test tomorrow and messages buzzing, and discusses the teenage body clock.
Answer: Any two of: direct address ("you"); a relatable scenario (a late school night with a test and a buzzing phone); a rhetorical question ("Or does it?"); a short, punchy sentence that challenges a common belief.
Answer: The opening asks whether anything useful happens during sleep; the ending answers it by saying that "your brain will keep studying without you". It returns to the night-time study scene and reverses the idea that sleep is wasted time.
Answer: They show the writer is being accurate about the science: researchers have strong evidence but are still learning exactly how sleep works. Careful modality makes the article more trustworthy.
Part D: Extended response
Model answer: The writer means that sleep should not be treated as something we earn only after all our study is done, because sleep is itself part of how we learn. The article explains that during sleep the brain "seems to replay and strengthen" what we learned during the day, linking it to things we already know. It also points out that people who sleep after learning remember more than people who stay awake. This means that cutting sleep to study longer can actually undo some of the benefit of studying. I agree with the writer. Students often see sleep as the first thing to sacrifice when they are busy, but the article shows this is a false saving. Because the teenage body clock shifts later, it is also important to protect sleep with habits such as putting devices away and keeping regular bedtimes. Students could apply this by planning study over several days instead of cramming the night before a test. In this way, sleep becomes part of a study plan rather than an afterthought.
Success criteria:
- Explains the meaning of the final lines accurately
- Uses at least two relevant pieces of information from the article
- States a clear personal view and supports it
- Suggests a practical way students could apply the advice
- Organized logically, with accurate sentences and punctuation
Marking tips
- Give credit for correct method even when the final answer slips — the working shows where the thinking went right.
- For open-ended tasks, use the success criteria as a checklist rather than looking for one "right" answer.
- Celebrate what went well first, then pick one thing to work on next.