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.
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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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.
Hot, and for some, perhaps, not very hot summer is behind us, which means that along with the autumn season, an endless series of lessons, pairs, lectures and seminars begins for all schoolchildren and students.
How to enter the working rhythm without loss and not fall asleep during the lesson, waking up to the laughter of the entire audience, we will tell you in our traditional heading "Bodybuilding".
It would seem that school and student years are the most cheerful time when energy is in full swing, when there are no impossible tasks and you can move mountains. But schoolchildren and students are also people and also get tired, and sometimes more than adults, working people. This is explained quite simply - classes, lectures, extracurricular activities, work, personal life - to have time to live in such a rhythm is almost a feat. But in fact, there are many ways to keep up with everything and feel great.
Keep a daily routine
A daily routine is the foundation of the basics for feeling good, being energetic and doing your best. If a person does not get enough sleep, then there can be no talk of any good mood and cheerfulness. A child or student will not only be tired after school or university, but will also start the day already exhausted.
To get enough sleep, the classic 8 hours is enough, but the sleep must be of high quality. It is better to go to bed at 22-23 hours, in a comfortable bed, so as not to interfere with extra light and noise. Train yourself to get up and go to bed at the same time so that your body gets used to it and knows when to work and when to rest.
Distribute your energy rationally
To use less energy while studying, you need to use it wisely. Don't do ten things at the same time. If you need to learn a lesson, solve a problem, or do your homework, you need to focus only on this goal. There is no need to be distracted by some other things, in this case the work performed will end much faster, and there will be more time for something pleasant. Business is time, and fun is an hour, as they say.
Rest properly
To have strength, of course, you need to rest, and rest properly. That is what change is for. You can walk along the corridor, but it is better to go out into the fresh air, a surge of oxygen will make the brain work faster.
Relax, get moving. Let the head rest from performing difficult tasks, and the body relax, movements will help relieve stress from staying in one position for a long time. During home preparation, also do not forget to take breaks. And not on gadgets and social networks, but on a warm-up or a walk in the fresh air.
Move as much as possible
Playing sports, active outdoor games and even ordinary walks bring great benefits to health and mood, charge you with the strength that is so needed at school. Although it is called activity, it is also a rest, especially with increased mental work. In addition, physical activity contributes to the normalization of sleep. Both an adult and a child fall asleep faster, sleep more soundly, which means they get enough sleep and feel more cheerful.
Eat right
Particular attention should be paid to nutrition, food is the main source of energy, and it is important not only what we eat, but also when we do it.
And this is an acute problem for schoolchildren and students. During the period of life, when there is active development and increased mental stress, it is important to eat regularly and varied, in addition, schoolchildren and students need vitamins for enhanced mental work. It is important to pay attention to foods rich in potassium, magnesium and B vitamins. These active substances are involved in the conduction of nerve impulses, improve the functioning of blood vessels and the heart, and help restore the disturbed balance between the sections of the autonomic nervous system. For example, potassium and magnesium are found in buckwheat, oatmeal, soybeans, beans, peas, apricots, rose hips, dried apricots, raisins, carrots, eggplant, onions, lettuce, parsley, nuts. B vitamins - in the liver, wholemeal bread, trout, cheese, walnuts, egg yolk, meat, seeds, dairy products. Meat and fish must be present in the diet. In addition to the main meals, it is important to have snacks. Between couples and lessons there are breaks that can be devoted to lunch or a snack.
Pay attention to how you work
Proper fit and comfortable body position during the working day is a very important condition for a healthy body and mind. Correct posture is not only beautiful, but also functional. The vertical posture provides the least muscle tension. When a person stands straight with his shoulders straight, he is less tired. Pay attention to the choice of chair - it should be adjustable in height and have a back so that your back is not in tension during the day.
Drink water
Yes, it really is that simple. Scientists have proven that a person should drink at least 2.5 liters of water per day for the normal functioning of the body. Drink more, and wash your face with cool water in between. It is better to ventilate audiences before lectures in order to provide fresh air access to a room where a lot of people gather, which means that by the end of the lecture there is very little oxygen.
It's not difficult for you to take a bottle of water with you, right?
Get to know aromatherapy
Scientists have proven that there are smells that awaken and promote sleep, the former invigorate, and the latter soothe. Essential oils, perfumes, colognes, lotions, soaps, or other cosmetics scented with eucalyptus, coffee, and rosemary can help you feel energized. Even inhaling the smell of ordinary fresh coffee beans, you will feel a surge of energy, and rosemary is considered an ideal essential oil for students, because it not only invigorates and saves from overwork, but also helps strengthen memory. Eucalyptus also has an awakening effect, increasing concentration and improving brain function.
Summing up, I would like to note that all these methods are very important and effective, but the most important condition is to love what you do. Look for motivation and pluses in the most seemingly boring things.
Couples and lectures are meetings with friends and an opportunity to discuss a lot of interesting topics. Homework and practical assignments are an opportunity to learn something new and find a sphere to your liking and abilities. Live, create and never stop there!
The article uses information from sites: adme.ru; kavesan.ru; shkolazhizni.ru
Material prepared by Sergey Mikhailov.
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, it is necessary to reduce the number of lessons and homework. Do you know? No, don't. It's not about lessons or homework.
If we remember 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 can 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.
