Nodding off in class is common for students of any age.
Late nights studying, long hours on a job, sitting in a warm classroom after a big lunch, a long evening class, or simply finding the teacher or subject matter a trifle boring all can contribute to classroom sleepiness.
For tips on how to stay awake in class or in any setting that requires your attention, consider the following strategies.
While this may not be easy or appropriate in the middle of a lecture, walking around, jogging in place, doing jumping jacks, or any activity that gets your blood pumping can juice up your energy and attention levels.
If you’re in a long lecture that has a break in the middle, use that time to get up from your seat and move your body. And if there’s no formal break, ask to use the restroom and get a little exercise on the way there and back.
You can also try some chair stretches like shoulder rolls, seated twist, and others.
If you’ve ever seen a new parent pushing a stroller on the sidewalk with an infant aboard, they may be doing more than simply getting out of the house for a few minutes. Being out in fresh air is invigorating.
And if you’re stuck in a classroom or other indoor setting, taking a few deep breaths can help deliver a little more oxygen to your system. That might be just what you need to stay awake and attentive.
Downing a cup or two of coffee, tea, or other caffeinated beverage can be a simple but effective jolt to your senses.
But how much caffeine do you need to be alert? Well, it varies from person to person, in part, based on your sensitivity to this precious ingredient.
Mayo Clinic reports that about 400 milligrams of caffeine per day — about what you’d find in four cups of coffee — is usually plenty to keep a person awake and attentive.
Coffee can sometimes lead to higher spikes in energy and lower dips when the caffeine wears off, so caffeinated tea may have a somewhat milder, more consistent effect than coffee.
Coffee or teas without a lot of added sugar are also healthier choices than sweetened, high-caffeine energy drinks. A 16-ounce energy drink packs a lot of calories and more than twice as much caffeine as a standard cup of coffee.
Staying hydrated is a key strategy employed by long-haul truckers and others who have to put in long hours at tedious jobs.
Fluids help keep your blood flowing, which means your brain is getting plenty of oxygen and nutrients to keep working sharply in and outside of class.
Even becoming slightly dehydrated can cause fatigue, irritability, and other health problems. Having a water bottle with you in class — if it’s allowed — can make a big difference in keeping you hydrated and focused.
Being actively engaged, whether it’s taking notes or participating in a classroom discussion, can help keep you from snoozing during a lecture.
You may just need to occupy your mind more during class, so take good notes. They can be questions or comments on the lecture if there aren’t facts to jot down.
If the class allows for questions and discussions, be the student who raises a hand and keeps the conversation going.
One of the keys to getting a good night’s sleep, which in turn means less daytime sleepiness, is to follow a set schedule of bedtime and wake-up time.
By going to sleep at approximately the same time every day and waking up at the same time, you’re setting your body’s natural clock to know when it’s time to sleep and when it’s time to be awake and learning.
Try to aim for 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night, though if you’re in your teens or 20s, you may need as many as 9 or 10 hours to become fully rested.
Exposure to light, especially in the morning, is one of the simplest and cheapest ways to wake up your mind and body for the day ahead.
Taking a brisk walk in the morning can energize you for hours. If that’s not possible, open up your blinds as soon as you wake up to let the morning sunlight into your home.
Exposure to morning light helps you wake up faster, and perhaps more importantly, it sets your internal clock to be awake during the day and sleepy at night.
Sitting in the back of a large — or even a small — lecture class can put you one step closer to an unplanned nap. It’s a little tougher to fall asleep if you’re in the front row, just a few feet from the teacher.
Mint has many health benefits. One of the most useful in class — apart from making your breath smell better — is how peppermint can help stimulate the hippocampus, which is a key part of the brain involved with alertness, memory, and other thinking skills.
If you’re upset about your grades, the news, or something that happened this morning, your brain expends a lot of energy. It’s going to wear you out and make your tired.
If you’re experiencing emotional exhaustion, problems can range from daytime sleepiness to poor sleep at night, as well as irritability, poor concentration, headaches, increased pessimism, and much more.
Using meditation and relaxation techniques to help cope with stress and anger may help restore your energy and give you a happier outlook.
Even just few days of mindfulness meditation training can help boost your attention and thinking skills.
You may feel more like sitting up, paying attention, and working if you’re wearing business-like clothes as opposed to comfier outfits. It may keep you focused on the work in front of you.
If you struggle to stay awake in class once in a while, just remind yourself to get enough sleep on “school nights” and try the strategies above.
But if you’re consistently sleepy in class or other times during the day, tell a doctor. You may have a condition such as obstructive sleep apnea that’s keeping you from getting enough restorative sleep at night.
Otherwise, a warm cup of tea or coffee, or perhaps a little exercise or meditation may offer more benefits than just helping you keep up with your schoolwork.
by Morganne Darling - January 29th, 2020 - College Knowledge, Joining JSOM, Student Life
Contents
Sleeping in class.
We’ve all done it, even if we don’t want to admit it. There are thousands of different positions
to doze off in class, but I’ve compiled together a few of my favorites.
One of the most common ways students fall asleep, this occurs when the lecture is passive and you’re just “resting your eyes”.
Sometimes you just want to sleep in class but you don’t want to be seen as disrespectful, so you hide behind a notebook, computer, or folder. Anything to make it look like you’re paying attention when in reality you’re catching some z’s.
This one’s kind of rare, but sometimes, it’s hard to keep your eyes open, even when you’re taking notes. This may have happened because you wanted to watch another episode of The Mandalorian…
The “Way too comfortable” SleepSometimes you don’t care if you’re being disrespectful, you just really need some sleep and attendance. So you show up to class to get counted present, then you settle in and close your eyes.
But a question remains… Should you sleep in class?
Now seeing someone in any of these positions is pretty amusing, but imagine being that person, the one who falls asleep in class. It’s a pretty scary experience because you don’t know how long you were asleep for if the teacher noticed, and what topics they went over while you were getting your beauty rest. Make sure you take advantage of Student Resources if you are having a hard time.
Well, there’s no need to fear because I’m here to give you some tips and tricks to keep yourself awake during those long class lectures! Part of being successful in college is managing to stay awake.
Every time you get that tired feeling or you start to zone out, drink some water.
Drinking cold water helps
keep you hydrated to keep you focused. If you don’t drink enough water, your body doesn’t function as
well as it could.
Being closer to the teacher is a great motivator to stay awake in class. Studies have also proven that sitting in the front of the classroom, leads students to receive higher grades on exams. Win-win, am I right?
Interact with your professor! Even if they don’t provide engaging activities, you can make them. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
By taking deeper breaths, you raise your oxygen levels, slowing your heart rate, lowering your blood
pressure, and improving circulation.
Chewing something activates specific regions of the brain meaning your brain becomes more active and you stay more awake!
So you can wake up early and feel well-rested.
The adrenaline from working out, taking a stroll, stretch, or doing some jumping jacks before class will help you stay awake.
If you focus on sitting straight up in your seat, you won’t be able to fall asleep. You rest your head and you will crash and burn.
It keeps you active and it helps you focus on what you’re learning in class.
Even if it’s random scribbles,
it’s better than being asleep.
If you get tired, just find a spot in the classroom where you are not distracting anyone and walk about back and forth or take notes while standing.
With these tricks, you won’t end up like our friend at the beginning (hopefully)! Do you have any tricks to share with us? Leave us a comment. As about our Management Programs.
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Anyone who has ever tried to focus on a very difficult or very boring job can attest that it can be incredibly difficult at times.
Science offers us five seemingly counterintuitive ways, which, however, should help.
The internet is full of advice on how to focus when everything around you is distracting. However, many of these tips are either too far from reality, or suggest disconnecting yourself from the office routine if possible (and then you already start to be distracted by thoughts that you may be missing something important).
How many of us, for example, enjoy working with headphones all day long? Or never look at social networks, or even turn off the Internet altogether? Or maybe it's as simple as "always treat your work as inspiring and fun"?
But perhaps most importantly, a lot of this advice has very little to do with what modern psychology already knows about the human mind.
Much of what we thought was supposed to help us focus on work actually goes against the normal workings of our brains.
So, if there is a science of concentration, then what does it offer us that are not written about on the Internet?
Switch off Can't concentrate on important work? It may sound counterintuitive, but letting your brain shut down, letting it wander aimlessly is the best thing to do.
More and more psychologists are coming to understand that we all spend a very significant part of the day just dreaming and aimlessly fantasizing - by some estimates, about 50% of the time!
What prompted a number of psychologists to think that this is mind wandering - as they say, "not a bug, but a feature", not a malfunction in the brain, but an important part of the system that helps our brain to function normally.
Image copyright, iStock
Image caption,If you still spend half your time daydreaming and fantasizing, maybe you should consciously set aside some time for this?
To understand why we lose focus, just look at how the brain works.
Concentration requires concerted action, a kind of networking of different areas of the brain, including its frontal cortex, which, among other things, is responsible for counteracting distractions and controlling our natural desire to do something more interesting.
It takes a lot of energy to keep this network functioning, much more than the group of brain regions involved in our doing nothing, fantasizing and dreaming.
Therefore, at some point in the working day, we inevitably slow down, and our mind begins to wander.
In that case, if it's unavoidable, why not set aside time for it more consciously?
Paul Seli, a psychologist at Harvard University, distinguishes between intentional and accidental brain shutdowns. According to him, only those cases when it happens by accident are harmful to the case.
People who know how to turn off their brain for those moments when its participation is not required - for example, when performing some kind of mechanical work - as a rule, they cope with tasks more successfully than those who give their brain the freedom to switch off and on.
"If the task is easy, then you can deliberately turn off the brain, let your mind go where it wants, and this will not affect the result of the work," says Seli.
In his opinion, such conscious disconnections will only help at other points in the working day when deep concentration is needed.
"Think about something irrelevant - maybe a completely different problem. And after a while return to your task," recommends the psychologist.
By allowing yourself to switch off and daydream, you not only get rid of subconscious guilt about it, but also give your brain what it needs.
Image credit: iStock
Image captionOne study recommends making workplaces more casual, fun, and relaxed
Funny cat videos are often viewed as the epitome of distraction, but some psychologists believe that cat videos help us get in the right mental state to successfully complete our day's work.
The fact is that, no matter how much we love our work, we need a special effort of will and thought in order to be concentrated on a difficult task for a long time.
According to a recent study, one of the best ways to tap into your willpower and mental abilities is to laugh heartily.
In the experiments, people who were given a funny video worked longer and harder to solve an unanswered riddle than did controls who were shown relaxing but not funny videos.
The researchers concluded that humor replenishes our reserves so effectively that it is recommended to create a more relaxed, fun atmosphere in the workplace.
"A fun team environment improves productivity," says David Chen, a leadership researcher at the Australian National University in Canberra.
"Of course, this doesn't mean that everyone has to watch cat videos all day long. However, it's very useful to take a break from time to time. Especially when you're tired."
To properly concentrate on your work, you need to get rid of all external distractions, right? In fact, according to one influential theory of attention, just the opposite is true.
Nilli Lavy, a psychologist at University College London, proposed this theory, which she called the 'Load Theory' in 1955.
The idea was that there is a limit to how much information from the outside world our brains can digest at any given time.
And when all the processing capacities are full, the attention system of the brain itself begins to choose what to focus on.
Image copyright, iStock
Image caption,Is your desk so cluttered that it's hard for you to figure out what's where? Nilli Lavy's experiments show you're about to do something big
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Levy's experiments have shown that we seem to work more efficiently not at empty, clean desks and in complete silence, but in disorder and chaos.
This is because when all the cells of perception are filled, the brain focuses all energy on the most important task. Everything else is just cut off.
The problem with putting this idea into practice is to provide the right amount of distractions and not over-load.
There are already dedicated mobile apps (eg ommwriter or focus@will) that can add visual or musical distractions at your request, but none of these have yet been scientifically tested. Perhaps they are no more useful than simply turning on the radio.
The main thing here is to give your brain enough exercise so that it doesn't have the opportunity and desire to look elsewhere for stimuli.
For most of us, it will all come down to trial and error, but since this method is very tedious, we advise you to use it with caution - only when all the others have failed.
When you need to do something urgently, taking a break is the last thing on your mind.
However, there is plenty of evidence that taking a break can help you achieve more. The main thing is to decide when exactly to take it, for how much and what to do at that time.
According to a number of studies done in the 1990s, our natural lucidity cycle works so that we can fully concentrate for a period of no more than 90 minutes, and then we need a 15-minute break.
Other research has found that even a minimal break of a few seconds can work - but only if it provides a complete distraction from the current task.
In experiments, people were asked to perform arithmetic operations for several seconds - that is, to occupy their minds with something much more intense than simply looking out the window.
Image copyright, Getty Images
Image caption, For those who can get away from the computer keyboard, running in the middle of the day is a very good option. A cup of coffee will be a good addition to it before you get back to work.
Going for a run or just a walk in nature will certainly help your brain cope better with tasks that require a high degree of concentration.
Another option is meditation. There is ample evidence that those who have learned to meditate have better control of their attention and more accurately feel when it is time to take a break.
If all of the above seems too time-consuming for you, here's the good news: with or without exercise, a cup of strong coffee improves memory, reaction time and attentiveness - albeit for a fairly short time.
So whatever your break, don't forget to pour yourself a coffee when you get back to work.
Image copyright iStock
Image captionIs exercise not your thing? A dose of caffeine will provide a short-term period of concentration
And don't stress too much When you need to stay focused for long periods of time, take frequent breaks, according to a study by Joe Degutis and Mike Esterman of the Boston Attention and Learning Laboratory (Massachusetts, USA).
Through a series of experiments, they found that the most successful strategy for staying focused is to work a little and then take a short break. Those who tried to stay focused all the time ended up making more mistakes.
Christian Olivers of the Free University of Amsterdam came to a similar conclusion in his study: people's attention span does not dry up a little longer if you ask them to occasionally distract themselves and think about something else instead of constant, uninterrupted concentration on business.
And this is probably the most important conclusion of all studies of the human ability to concentrate. The more we learn about how the brain works, the clearer it becomes for us: stress is the enemy of concentration.
So try to find time for those exercises or little tricks that will help you feel calmer and more confident in yourself. And everything will work out for you.
Read the original of this article in English is fashionable on the website BBC Capital.
If an exam or session is coming up, and you don’t even smell like a five, it’s good that you got into the Internet. In this article, we will look at a step-by-step way to concentrate on studying as much as possible in order to prepare faster and better. All steps are simple, only require a little responsibility.
Contents
Before you sit down to study, it's a good idea to create a work environment for yourself.
Let it be the way you imagine it: cheat sheets pasted on the walls, a cup of coffee, a motivating screensaver on your computer. The main thing is that it is convenient to work . Below is a list of how to create this convenience in your workplace.
After you do these steps, you will have 2 advantages. Firstly, you will pick up the “initial speed” and will already start doing something, and secondly, you will not be distracted by the mess and will be able to stay focused longer.
We should talk about technology separately. Constantly checking messages and updates of friends today has become a daily habit: you already automatically go through instagram when you pick up your phone.
This is especially annoying if you need a calculator or a search engine.
To prevent this from happening while studying, either remove gadgets altogether or limit their impact. To do this, you can try:
These simple actions can sometimes save yourself a few hours. After all, it happens that you go to rest for 5 minutes, but you spend 10 times more time on it.
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After you have prepared your workspace, you need to take care of yourself. For starters, just have a snack so that the brain focuses on the lessons, and not on food. It is better to eat something light, so as not to fall down on the sofa with an obsessive desire to fall asleep.
You can kill two birds with one stone: eat and increase concentration. To do this, it is recommended to use the following products:
While eating watch some video on the topic of your subject or read a short article. So you immediately begin to join the process and get rid of extraneous thoughts.
If we are talking about thoughts, let's expand on this issue. Problems, unresolved issues, dreams and memories can also interfere with concentration, so you need to get rid of them as much as possible before starting classes. Here's how.
Or you can stop wasting time and start studying right away.
If the problem is not serious, then obsessive thoughts will gradually calm down and, in the process of immersion, will go away on their own.
Another important aspect that helps to set yourself up is visualization. In your thoughts, you prepare yourself for work in advance, constantly repeating: “now and only today”, “I will work in the evening”, “I will not get up until I do it”, etc. You scroll through the process of work in your head and let the body know that you have to make an effort. With these actions, you cause concentration even before the work begins, and it will be easier for you to get involved in the process later.
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Scientists have found that Mozart is good for health, Vivaldi for thinking and reaction speed, Beethoven for getting rid of stress. Some complex neurobiological processes occur in the body, which determine all these positive effects.
But we don't care. It is important for us that music has a calming and relaxing effect.
It helps to relieve irritability and increase concentration. Here are some examples of soothing classical music:
You can use not only the classics. Modern compositions and sounds of nature are perfect.
As Brian Tracy wrote: “ every minute spent planning saves 10 minutes doing ".
Indeed, if you plan the whole process in advance, you will notice that you will finish faster than you expected. Your thoughts will not rush from side to side , and this will allow you to concentrate on one subject.
For example, if you are doing an essay - write down the structure and subheadings, if you are studying several subjects - think in what order to read them, if you are doing homework - decide what to write off and what to do yourself.
You will spend only a couple of minutes, but get rid of the feeling of uncertainty. You will have a structure of work - a skeleton that you can rely on.
Now we come to the most important thing - the learning process. In fact, all the defining steps were taken in the past, and now we only need to learn a couple of effective life hacks.
Take breaks after 1 hour of work . Scientists have found that it is this distribution of time that helps to maintain better performance.
Give yourself a hard deadline. When you set limits for yourself, the brain automatically increases productivity. What you do in a quiet schedule in 3 hours can be done 2 or even 3 times faster.
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Only you need to set real restrictions so that there is no way to slip away. For example, arrange a meeting with a friend, promise to help parents or buy a movie ticket.
Do only 1 thing at 1 time and give it your all. Move your fingers across the table, draw figures in the air, speak out loud, in general - try to connect as many senses as possible. So you comprehensively approach the question, and thereby better focus.
If you are half asleep and tired of studying, try holding your breath. This good exercise shocks the brain and cheers you up.
Keep the goal in mind, imagine freedom and pleasure after completing tasks. Otherwise, you can slip and quickly become discouraged.
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Many people don't need all the previous reasoning at all. For them, the main difficulty is the lack of interest in learning and boredom.
But what is there to say? The quote from artist Chuck Close describes it all: "Inspiration for amateurs, the rest just come and work" .
