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…
Sometimes 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.
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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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.
Everyone knows that learning is not as easy as it might seem at first glance.
Every day, a student has to get ready for school, sit in class, memorize a lot of new information, write it down, answer to the whole class and write tests. But this is not the most difficult thing, since in addition they have to return home, where they again continue their studies - read paragraphs, do exercises received at home, learn poems and solve complex problems. Therefore, do not say anything, but training is a titanic work.
The answer to the question "How to force yourself to study well?" you will find out by reading this article.
1. Set the task correctly! First of all, you (the student) must correctly set a task or goal for yourself. Think not about how to force yourself to study, but about how to start studying well. If you formulate a question for yourself, for example: “How to start studying well this semester?”, then you will not notice how you start looking for ways to get a good mark at school, that is, your consciousness will begin to work in cooperation with the subconscious, focusing on a positive result.
The psychological aspect is very important in the learning process, so try not to force yourself to learn, but look for a good reason that can change your attitude towards learning in a favorable direction. But more on that in the next paragraph.
2. Find motivation (reason) to study well. As we have already said, the occasion to learn is the best method in learning. Your task is to find an incentive that would work in your case. Motivations are of a different nature, for example, the following phrase applies to some: If you do not start studying, then in the next semester you will be expelled from an educational institution! Although this call will not work on another person in any way. For most, perspective is a good motivation, but for some, a long-term perspective works: If I do very well at school, I can enter a prestigious university, then I can get a job with a high salary and the opportunity to move up the career ladder. For others, the prospect should be closer and more real: If I finish the last semester well, then my father will buy a ticket to the camp, where I will go with my friends for the whole summer!
We don't know what can make you learn, but we know for sure that there is such a motivation.
Find her! In general, we would say that the incentive to study occupies one of the leading roles in learning, if it is found and used by the student, then he is able to achieve incredible success.
3. Arrange your workplace . It would seem that such a petty issue as the arrangement of a student's workplace can affect learning, but believe me, it can radically change the speed of homework and its quality. We agree that lying on the bed with a tablet or laptop is quite pleasant to do "homework", but it is not at all effective. Since in a supine state a person remembers and understands it much worse, and most importantly - more slowly. This is due to the physiological features of the structure of human organs. Try to allocate a small place in your house in which you will deal exclusively with matters related to learning.
Those who are used to having a computer on their desktop without it, the table seems boring and dull, we advise you to organize everything on the table in such a way that it looks beautiful and interesting: buy new bright stationery, replace a boring table lamp, to new and original.
In addition, it is better to place the table near the window, so that not only daylight illuminates the workplace, but also the view from the window allows you to be distracted or vice versa to concentrate.
4. Change the style of clothing . Of course, clothes cannot force you to start learning, but their style can serve as the wave of a starting flag for an athlete. Let's explain a little more: each of us knows how to distinguish a good student from a bad one. A good student is always dressed neatly and strictly (especially for guys), which cannot be said about a bad student, his style is always radically different from that which should be worn in an educational institution. So, when this “not very good” student comes to class in a strict suit, the attitude towards him changes dramatically, both among the students and among the teaching staff. And the first thought that arises among those around is “Hasn’t Ivanov (for example) finally taken up his mind and started to study ?!”.
Yes, yes, with the help of a simple change of image, you can achieve such changes in your attitude towards yourself. Naturally, after everyone has thought so well of you, it will be difficult to turn back into a quitter who goes to "sitting out his pants" classes.
5. Make learning fun (mind map method). You have probably noticed that many girls in your group take notes at lectures not in solid text, but using various markers and quotes. Their recorded lectures are often not just a few pages of the teacher's handwritten phrases, but a whole masterpiece of art: important phrases are written in a different color, the rules are highlighted in various rectangular tables. The text has a lot of underlining and highlighting with a marker or other ink. Even small sketches are made with a pencil and a ruler. Do you think that they are just doing nonsense?! Wrong, they turn a boring lecture into an interesting activity by coloring in and highlighting the main points. In addition, at home it will be easier for them to remember this information, as they memorize terms not only in meaning, but also visually, which allows them to remember information faster and better.
When it is difficult to remember any information, try to understand it not literally, but through analogies. For example: remember the name "Battle of Borodino", you can use its analogy with "Borodino bread"; remember the initials of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, you can, as "Pushkin - ace (the best specialist)". The examples may not be the best, the main thing is to learn the meaning and use it in your teaching.
To make learning even more interesting and comfortable, buy notebooks with beautiful covers, keep comfortable and bright notebooks and use multi-colored reminder stickers.
6. Reward yourself for success . It is difficult to force a teenager or an adult boy (girl) to study, but it is quite possible. Use reward methods for this, for example: You finished your studies today and did not get a single bad mark - praise yourself and allow yourself an hour or two to walk today. And if you also got a good mark in an important subject, then here you can still reward yourself with something tasty (chips, chocolate or pizza).
Passed an exam or test - a bigger prize is supposed to be here: go with friends to a club, cafe or disco. Remember that encouragement should be only if you really deserve it. If they are guilty, then there can be no talk of any prize or rest. You must realize all the sweetness of victory and the bitterness of defeat.
Evaluate yourself for success soberly and honestly, sometimes a tense four deserves praise more than a solid five. In addition to grades, you can reward yourself for learning tickets, doing homework, going to the library, being active in class, etc. That is, the results can be expressed in completely different ways. Don't get hung up on ratings. It would be better to focus on the acquired knowledge.
7. The first step is difficult to take! The most difficult moment in learning is the first step, the beginning of the process. Admit to yourself how often it happened that you delayed your homework until the last hours of your wakefulness?! Probably often - because there are always things that seem more important than homework.
Agree that starting to do homework is always more difficult than finishing it. It is so?!
The main reason for a difficult start is banal laziness. Homework can turn out to be a 15-minute matter, but after all, you need to sit down for it, start thinking, and you don’t want to do it. The sooner you overcome laziness in yourself, the sooner you will start to study well.
8. Study well from the first semester! If you decide to finish this year with good grades and show yourself in the best light in front of teachers, parents and friends, then start studying well from the first semester. Don't put things off until later. At the beginning of the year (after the holidays), all tasks will accumulate gradually, and this is a chance to solve them quickly and correctly. If you delay, then towards the end of this year or semester you will get an unpleasant situation, there will be little time left until the end, and there will be many tasks and tasks. Learn to distribute the workload evenly and then you will definitely succeed!
9.
Work more in class so you have less to go home. A tricky way for those who know how to value their time. It often happens that the teacher manages to finish the lesson before the call and, in order not to burden you with unnecessary information, offers to go about your business. We do not advise you to waste this time, you are still at school, at your desk and cannot talk loudly with friends, so use this time wisely: start doing your homework. Let not on this subject, but on another, even if not for tomorrow. Doesn't matter! The main thing is that you will save yourself time at home, which means that you can take an extra 10-20 minutes for a walk with friends in the fresh air.
10. Arrange contests. Try to negotiate with your parents for a kind of competition in which they will sponsor the prizes. For example: if you get only good grades during the year, then at the end of the school year they will buy you a new modern gadget (for example).
11.
Manage your time properly. Try to study and relax according to the schedule. For example, immediately after class, do not come and sit at the computer, but come and sit at the kitchen table, eat, then go do homework, and go out for a walk or go to a club in the evening. Thus, you will always know that at this time you need to do your homework, and not rest. Don't be afraid to experiment with your routine, as some can't be forced to study right after school, they need rest first.
12. Develop your willpower. Sometimes it happens that no competition and no motivation can force a student to start studying. In such cases, there is only one piece of advice: “Git your teeth, gather all your willpower into a fist, and by all means, start learning! Not because you want to, but because you have to! Thus, you will develop your willpower, which will come in handy more than once in the future. Good luck!
More than once during my school years I had the idea that I was ill with something serious.
No, I didn’t think so in order to scare my parents and not go to school. I had such thoughts because almost every day I felt tired. Very tired.
Now it has become a common idea - schoolchildren are overloaded, their health is at risk, the number of lessons and homework should be reduced. Do you know? No, don't. It's not about lessons or homework.
If we look back at my school years, then something strange becomes clear: being very tired from day to day during the term, I quite easily and without fatigue coped with a comparable, if not more, workload during the holidays.
A typical high school day is 7-8 lessons at school plus 2 hours of homework at home. And by the night there was no strength at all. I wanted to bury myself in my pillow and cry from fatigue and self-pity. But the holidays came and a miracle happened! I could do 10 or 12 hours a day diligently doing the same mathematics in order to catch up or work out what was not given, but at the same time I didn’t feel squeezed like a lemon by the night.
Why?
I talked about this with my former classmates and current classmates in college and became convinced that the situation I described above is not a consequence of my individual characteristics, but a very common thing.
So why is school so exhausting? I have a few suggestions that I would like to share.
The school is very noisy. Of course, we get used to and do not even really notice this constant noise during the breaks, but it affects our performance. After all, it is not for nothing that people who work in production are recommended to wear mufflers, and they consider such work harmful. Here is a typical school day. 15 minutes before the first lesson and then 7 breaks of 10-20 minutes, only 2 hours a day of existence in very noisy corridors. Students are not allowed to enter the classrooms because they are ventilated. There are 800 people in the corridors of the school at the same time. Even if they just talk, do not scream, yell, squeal and laugh, it will still be noisy.
And where have you seen schoolchildren who do not yell and squeal during breaks?
“Will they ask or not?”, “Today is a test, what if it’s a difficult option?”, “Lenka said something nasty about me again, look how they all laugh”, “Tamara Petrovna is in a bad mood, will yell again, and I'm on the first desk, so it will be on me, ”“ Igor again runs into a new one. Intercede? Then I'll screw up. Don't react? So disgusting”, “Where is my physics notebook?! Forgotten at home? Or left it somewhere? Oh!" well, etc. How many stressful moments occur during one school day? Yes, dozens! Yes, these are all trifles, but trifles that cause an emotional response, sometimes even an adrenaline rush. And when it’s like this every day, it’s clear that in a week you get so tired that you want to rub a thermometer and get sick for at least three days at home.
You are sitting in a literature class. Olga Vladimirovna is talking about Chekhov, we are discussing The Cherry Orchard, we are arguing, we are citing quotes as proof, someone is defending Lopakhin, someone is sorry for Ranevskaya, the lines of the essay that you are already eager to write are already forming in your head .
.. And suddenly the call . "Everyone, guys, we'll finish the next lesson on Friday."
And you're going to chemistry. And for the first 10 minutes of the lesson, you make every effort to get out of the cherry orchard, to stop hearing the blows of the ax and start somehow entering into what the teacher is talking about. And exactly at the moment when you are completely immersed in the topic, and even the task seems to have begun to be solved, the bell rings again. And so 7-8 times a day. Every day.
And if you come to mathematics after a physical education lesson, then you don't even try to understand what is being discussed - it's useless. The brain begins to function normally only by the end of the lesson.
And these constant swings, when you sometimes understand, sometimes you don't understand, when you are either in a cherry orchard, or up to your ears in logarithms, they are also exhausting. And in the head there is porridge, which in the evening you have to disassemble into its component parts, put it on the shelves.
I may be told that this is how they always studied, and lately the children have not begun to shout louder, the teachers have not been called to the blackboard more often, and the lessons have not become shorter. Yes, it's all true. But 20-30-50 years ago there was no such information field in which we are constantly immersed. To our school noise, to our school stresses and sudden switches, there is a huge array of information that we receive from the Internet on a daily basis. And we cannot but receive, because this is the requirement of today - to be in the know, to be in the subject, to eat statuses, tweets, posts, comments and news with a big spoon. This is something that can no longer be abandoned.
I don't know how right I am in my assumptions. Now I'm in college where there are no small children, so there is no noise, where the teachers see us as adults, so there are very few moments of stress, where we do not have lessons, but couples lasting an hour and a half, so there are no abrupt switches.
