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Sleep Deprivation and Studying | ||
Tags: Sleep | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Silvance Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5292 days ago 57 posts - 81 votes  Speaks: English*, Pashto Studies: Dari | Message 1 of 27 01 August 2013 at 7:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm going to be spending the next 64 weeks in an environment of intense schooling and studying (The Defense
Language Institute.) I know a lot of people here end up staying up late into the night studying and wake up early to do the same. I'm curious at what point depriving yourself of sleep to keep studying actually becomes detrimental to your ability to learn and retain knowledge, because as far as I know, our brains can only handle so much information in a single period without sleep. I'd prefer to manage my time where I never actually have to deprive myself of sleep, but I am curious about this subject. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Universum Diglot Newbie AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3941 days ago 9 posts - 25 votes Speaks: English*, GermanB2 Studies: French | Message 2 of 27 02 August 2013 at 1:05am | IP Logged | ||
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The good Dr Piotr Wozniak (of SuperMemo fame) wrote an interesting article on this a
while back. You can find it here: http://www.supermemo.com/articles/sleep.htm. (Remove any spaces from the URL). 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4501 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian | Message 3 of 27 02 August 2013 at 1:28am | IP Logged | ||
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Work smart. Sometimes people brag about pulling all-nighters, but that doesn't mean
that they're necessarily doing better than you. They might just be being inefficient. When I first entered college, I was overwhelmed by how competitive my program was and reacted by working myself to the bone. I was pulling 3-4 all-nighters a week. There was something exhilarating about rocketing ahead at that pace, but it was not sustainable. I lost 10 pounds simply because I was glued to the studio and wouldn't leave to eat. After that first semester I had to step up my time management game. I would map out how many hours an assignment would take, build my activities around 8-hour or 10-hour blocks of work, and then try to stick to the schedule as best I could. There would be inevitable run-overs, but all-nighters were still reduced to only one every week or two weeks. Now all-nighters are quite rare, while I am still productive and active. Your specific strategy will vary but it should still prioritize planning and setting boundaries. To me it's not so much about memory but about the bigger issue of your long-term health. 3 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 5354 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 4 of 27 02 August 2013 at 2:36am | IP Logged | ||
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A healthy sleeping routine is essential for maintaining focus whilst studying during the day, not to mention consolidating and reintegrating any memories into long-term storage over the many nights that follow. In my experience, sacrificing quality sleep to the gods of past papers and caffeine has helped me survive last minute exams in the past, but it's proven to be a recipe for disaster in terms of long-term memory and attention.
This subject reminds me of Abazid's controversial brainwashing experiment posted here on the Forum back in 2011, where he set out to learn Russian using just Michel Thomas and Pimsleur and tried to forego any sleep. I recall he made it all the way to 25 hours before crashing from sheer exhaustion, and it was estimated that he may have reached a passive A2 level after 3 days (although we haven't heard from him since as to how much he retained in the days that followed the experiment...perhaps he's still sleeping it off). Edited by Teango on 02 August 2013 at 2:39am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6501 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 5 of 27 02 August 2013 at 11:35am | IP Logged | ||
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When I wrote my final dissertation for my degree in French and literature I dropped the idea that a day-and-night ("døgn" in Danish) has 24 hours. But instead of doing allnighters - which I see as deeply detrimental both to your mental and your physical health - I went to a system with one long sleep each 36 hours hour PLUS a good solid nap around midway between those long sleeping periods. Or in other words: it was a compromise between a 36 hour 'døgn' and a 18 hour 'døgn'. I had 6 months to write the thing, and I think I spent at least the last couple of months on this rhythm - and it suited me like a glove. I felt energetic and efficient all the way through. If I didn't have a job I would return to such a scheme ASAP just to get some more studying done. Edited by Iversen on 02 August 2013 at 11:45pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4626 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 6 of 27 02 August 2013 at 3:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm absolutely convinced that sleep deprivation is very bad for both health and
happiness, and I've noticed that the effect is possibly worse as I get older (in spite of the supposed fact that we need less sleep as we get older). Put another way, one can get away (at least for a while) with abusing one's own body in many ways when young, fit and healthy, which is not to say that one should do so. There is also an old saying that "an hour of sleep before midnight is worth two after midnight". I am sure there is no scientific evidence for this (and probably evidence that it is not literally true), but nevertheless, for most people who are not having to work shifts, I suspect that it's not a bad rule to live by. (If I would only take my own advice...). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4626 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 7 of 27 02 August 2013 at 4:10pm | IP Logged | ||
Clickable link: Good sleep, good learning, good life Edited by montmorency on 02 August 2013 at 4:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6395 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 8 of 27 03 August 2013 at 4:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah, I have a feeling that there's a limit. I used up most of mine when juggling between high school, preparation for uni and learning Finnish (and also some Ukrainian).
I still LOVE all-nighters but for me this now means a lot of sleep before and/or after. I used to think my 'døgn' cycle lasts 36 hours but then I read that artificial lights mess with that, and I suppose that's true. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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