10 Facts on Studying That Will Help You Survive: Part 1

Here is the first part of the article about 10 scientific facts that will help you survive during studies.

• 1. Just One Sleepless Night Pulls You out of Course for 4 Days

  Yes, one sleepless night spent with friends or books can make you a zombie who walks through the city streets to the university, sits there for a while and then comes back home to sleep more. It is proven by Saint Lawrence University scientists. The lack of sleep makes PDE4 ferment more active. This ferment slows down the process of gaining new knowledge.

  

  Maybe, a healthy sleep seems to be a luxury for students. But neurophysiologists discovered that names, faces and other similar facts get “recorded” into one’s memory only during the phase of deep sleep. A healthy sleep includes five such phases which last for 80-90 minutes and come after fast sleep phases.

  During one of the experiments, students who had a normal sleep completed a computer test faster than they used to do on the previous day.

  Plus to this, it is better to read the most complicated paragraphs before sleep. Experts say that this makes it easier for you to remember the material in the morning.

• 2. Do Not Sit in a Library for Too Long

  This works not only for regular libraries which are regularly empty in our time of gadgets and devices but for dormitory rooms where students traditionally lock themselves for the whole session.

  The point is that human’s mind often associated the learnt material with the environment. The more often you change the environment, the more associations appear. So, it is possible for you to read paragraphs easier and to memorize facts better.

  Researches show that students who studied certain materials while moving between two different rooms from time to time completed the test better than those who stayed in one room all the time. So, it is fine to walk through the park with the book, to sit in a cafe, or to prepare for session together with your “brothers in arms”.

• 3. Get Rid of Markers, They Are Useless

  Notes of many hardworking students are all highlighted with markers. This looks beautiful but doesn’t help in practice. The same thing is for different mnemonical tricks like sticky notes. They all help you memorize separate facts but make you feel more difficulties in understanding connections between them. Many teachers demand students to be able to orient on their knowledge logically, not just to answer direct questions.

• 4. Get Up

  Physical exercises improve your learning abilities. Runs, strength exercises, teamplay games, and even simple pushups stand against cognitive abilities’ decrease and support neurogenesis: the process when new neural cells are formed.

  Lab animals who were made to run in a wheel regularly demonstrated better cognitive abilities than their passive comrades.

• 5. Sing or Play Music

  

  Adults who used to play musical instruments for 10 years while being children, demonstrated better memory and cognitive abilities than people who were non-musical. Researchers think that playing any musical instrument helps to strengthen neural connections in human brain, just like foreign language learning does. If you don’t know how to play, borrow the guitar from your neighbor or sweep out dust from your grandma’s piano!

Read more facts in the second part of the article!