Morning or Night, which is a better time to study? Apple CEO Tim Cook and PepsiCo former CEO Indra Nooyi wake up by 4 am, but Barack Obama would reply to email messages and prepare speeches till 2 am and likewise JK Rowling, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, were all night owls.
Remember that everyone is different and each one has their own internal prime time.
So, in this article you will find
- 5 best techniques to study effectively at night without feeling sleepy
- 5 Things to avoid while studying late at night.
- A perfect time table for late-night study.
Hey everyone, this is Chetna and you’re watching ChetChat. Did you know that the brain tends to get the best insights when it is most sleepy. Research has shown that you should save your creative work for when you are most tired. JK Rowling will vouch for this one. Creative work is best done at Night
However, the best time to solve “analytical problems” is when you’re most awake, especially in the morning hours. Analytical work is best done in the morning
So, depending on your own bio rhythm and the nature of your work you can pick morning or night. But these days, with everyone at home and unless you live in a soundproofed box it’s too noisy to concentrate through the day.
Let’s make a quick time table for our night study first. Say you start studying by 10 or 10:30 pm and sleep by 4 am. With a half an hour break in between this will give you 5 hours of study. You can split them into two sessions of 2.5 hours each and cover two important subjects or two big chapters in one night.
And here are the 5 best techniques to help you avoid feeling sleepy while you study through the night.
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Light – Light – Light
Light food –
I have just had a huge feast for dinner, and now I’m lazy and sleepy. So, have some low grain, low carbs, high protein dinner perhaps with a cup of warm soup and some salad. Show images of this food
Light Tools –
Our second Light indicates the tools and resources we arrange in our study table. The choice here should be minimalistic. Only just the book, notebook and the required stationary. The idea behind here is to avoid switching from one book to another, one stationary to another and hence more distraction and lethargy. So, stick to the basics.
Bright Lights –
And by third light, we literally mean the lights. Light is super important. And the ideal lighting resembles the colour of daylight. Keep your room brightly lit instead of using dim focused light. This way you will not only keep awake but it will also prevent stress on your eyes.
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Energy and Sleep
By Sleep-Bank, I mean the total amount of sleep in a day and the balance should never go below 6-7 hours. So, if you have planned to study the whole night, keep three things in mind
- Cover your 7 hours of sleep during the day.
- Take a half an hour power nap before starting the night marathon
- Preserve your energy and avoid too much laborious activity throughout the day like
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Warm up and keep warm
Start with practical sums ,sets the right rhythm for the whole night like a warm-up for the race. Also, while reading theoretical subjects, try to make handwritten notes along with. This way you remain focused and don’t fall off to sleep.
Also build-in some physical movement breaks during study. Every hour drink water, move about and stretch your legs. This not only keeps you awake but improves your memory power as well.
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Midnight Cravings
Our brain consumes about 20 percent of the total body energy and when you are playing brain-games the entire night, most probably you will feel the hunger. Now the trick here is to pre-arrange some healthy and tasty snacks which keep you excited about the midnight break. This gives you the motivation to stretch longer to enjoy your favourite snacks.
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Regularity
One Harvard study of undergraduate college students found that those who had a regular sleep schedule had higher academic performance; the interesting thing is that it was sleep regularity, not sleep duration, that made the difference. So whether you study in the morning or at night, the important thing is to maintain regularity in your sleep and wake cycles.
So while this is a good time table to follow for night study, we also have some excellent time tables for day time study and I will provide links under this video for them
5 Things to Avoid
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Don’t climb a mountain at night
Basically “Don’t try to solve serious matters in the middle of the night.” Sticking with some of the bugging concepts for too long can make you lethargic and distracted after a while and ultimately make you fall asleep. So, take up easy, routine tasks and not more than 15-20 minutes for difficult concepts at night.
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Beware of the Melatonin hours
For everything that we eat, our pancreas produces insulin to regulate our blood sugar levels. Heavier the food, higher the insulin and higher insulin secreted. And insulin tells the body to release a sleep hormone called Melatonin. It simply commands the body to prioritize digestion over other tasks.
So, have dinner by 8 pm, and take a nap for an hour and let the body digest your food. Then begin your night study routine at around Start studying by 10:00 / 10:30 pm. This way you will not feel sleepy while studying.
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Don’t wait for the Sun
When you are studying all night, sometimes the temptation to see the sunrise and have a cup of tea is hard to ignore. But the sunrise will re-energise your body and make you feel much active.
So, try to sleep by 4 am and you can wake up at 10 am if you don’t have school / college to go to the next day.
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Don’t Multitask
The best way to study at night is in silence. Focus and concentrate on your chapter, solve questions, make notes and avoid keeping your phone next to you. Anyway, who is going to message you in the middle of the night. Keep the phone out of your room or switch off all notifications on your laptop or phone if you really have to use it to study and you will make huge progress
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Don’t eat the whole Pizza in one Bite
Set realistic targets for yourself, so that you are not stressing. We have 2.5 hours to do one chapter. Read the chapter, underline important points, make notes, answer some questions and do a quick revision of the main points.
Take a half an hour break and come back to repeat the same process for the second chapter. Don’t try to finish the entire book in one night, it will only stress you out.
‘It’s not about what time you work, but how much you focus on the work’
Related Videos
10 Smart Self Study Tips | How to Study Effectively at Home? | ChetChat Study Tips
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