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Sleeping Patterns Effect on Learning | ||
Tags: Sleep | Foreign Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| NickJS Senior Member United Kingdom flickr.com/photos/sg Joined 4959 days ago 264 posts - 334 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 1 of 20 13 July 2012 at 6:20am | IP Logged | ||
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I was pondering upon something that I wrote in my language log on here and it is about the effect of a sleeping pattern upon language learning. As in this day and age it is obviously quite hard to keep a strict sleeping pattern or simply if you have sleeping problems like me it makes it even harder.
So does anyone actually stick to one on here and do you notice that there is a profound difference in your learning and memory when you change this pattern, or do you simply find that a certain amount of sleep is good enough for you? Any advice with regards to this would be very helpful. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mashmusic11235 Groupie United States Joined 5499 days ago 85 posts - 122 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Cantonese | Message 2 of 20 13 July 2012 at 8:10am | IP Logged | ||
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Sleep (or lack thereof) affects learning in general. I don't think lack of sleep has more
or less effect on language learning compared to other subjects (such as literature in one's native language, or mathematics). However, for me at least, language learning is the first thing to go when I'm tired - that is, if I'm tired I don't even bother, because I know I won't remember much. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7205 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 3 of 20 13 July 2012 at 9:53am | IP Logged | ||
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Sleep is important for learning and especially memory. If I can get in an nap during the day, I find my ability to handle a tough study session is improved.
To the original poster, if language learning is getting in the way of your sleep, you may be better off reducing your study load and sleeping more. You've got some very challenging languages in your profile. Even if you were learning one easier language, you'd still be aided by a proper amount of sleep. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 20 13 July 2012 at 10:14am | IP Logged | ||
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Luckily I'm an 'irregular' sleeper. If I didn't have to care about job and neighbours and opening hours I would probably just sleep 4-5 hours in the night, but take a nap around midday* AND 5-10 minutes of dozing off whenever I had studied 2 or 3 hours in a row - I have a hunch that dozing off briefly consolidates the stuff you have studied, and it certainly helps you to keep studying afterwards.
On the other hand it doesn't matter if I loose a few hours of sleep during the night. If I wake up in the middle of the night and can't immediately fall asleep again I simply stop trying and I do some heavy studying instead. In that way I sooner or later get sleepy again and I even get a free chance to learn something - two birds with one stone and much better than wailing about sleep problems. One reason for this anarchistic attitude to sleeping hours is that I probably have a longer diurnal cycle than astronomy and society allows for. When I wrote my final dissertation at the university (about correlative constructions in French) I fell into a pattern where I had a good long sleep each 36 hours and a nap now and then in between, and that was much more to my taste and also much more effective than the usual cycle based on 24 hours. But the world doesn't really support that kind of lifestyle. * an afternoon nap is called a 'morfar' in Danish (literally a "mother's father" or maternal granddad) - and I see forward to having those on a regular basis in a few years' time. Edited by Iversen on 13 July 2012 at 10:24am 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Kronos Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5261 days ago 186 posts - 452 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 5 of 20 14 July 2012 at 12:32am | IP Logged | ||
If you ever get the chance to become a full-time language learner, we will witness your transformation into the Emil Krebs of the 21st century. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| NickJS Senior Member United Kingdom flickr.com/photos/sg Joined 4959 days ago 264 posts - 334 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 6 of 20 14 July 2012 at 2:26am | IP Logged | ||
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I wish I was like you Iversen...When I was in university I could do those 36 hour study
sessions but I always feel like a zombie if I don't have around 8-9 hours sleep and napping makes me feel sick sadly for some reason. I've considered the fact that I could have sleep apnea due to my asthma as I think that would affect me. Does anyone have any methods to get into a pattern that I could try? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4868 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 7 of 20 14 July 2012 at 3:07am | IP Logged | ||
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I wish I had a normal sleeping pattern. I keep trying to sleep earlier, but I oscillate between 1am and 5am (I know! 5am is pretty dismal). Maybe I have to move to another time zone to get it under control (would also be beneficial for language study, I guess :D). In any case, if I get the right amount of sleep and don't drastically change the pattern all the time my memory seems okay regardless. Edited by druckfehler on 14 July 2012 at 3:09am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5556 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 8 of 20 14 July 2012 at 3:53am | IP Logged | ||
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I believe a good night's sleep is absolutely essential for consolidating memories and staying alert and motivated the next day.
Much like NickJS, I find it very hard to stick to a regular healthy sleeping pattern, and am deeply envious of deep sleepers who fall into a sweet reverie at the drop of a pillow. There are three things, however, that I find can really help me drift off at the end of the day...*wait for the drum roll*...exercise, fresh air, and a good bed! My mind is always on the go, the neighbours are relentlessly noisy at night, and unfortunately I can't afford a new bed right now either; but at least when I've put in some cardio outside in the fresh air or a bit of weight training that day, I'm able to drift off earlier and feel rested the next morning. And as the more observant readers may guess, I didn't quite get round to exercising today or getting outside, so I'm paying the price and writing this at 3am whilst piling on the calories with some cream cheese on crackers instead now (lol)! ;) Edited by Teango on 14 July 2012 at 3:55am 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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