Question asked by a student – I just feel bored and sleepy, after studying for long hours. What should I do to overcome this?
This is natural when you are taking long study sessions. If you are indulging yourself in any task for a long time at one point your brain saturates and you feel lethargic. This might be okay for some since you’ve gotten the best in the hours you were studying and now it’s just that your brain is indicating you to take a break. So, take a break.
5 Tips to Study for Long Hours Without Feeling Bored and Sleepy
For effective studying for long hours the following might help.
- Split your study sessions. Break down your study sessions into 30 mins or 45 mins or 60 mins sessions (based on how long you can concentrate) and then take short breaks of 5 mins, 10 mins, 15 mins respectively. In your break time do some stretching, get out of your study space, make some coffee etc. But do not take up anything that would stop you from getting back to study (it could be YouTube or Instagram or Netflix etc.)
- Reward yourself. Decide to complete a particular topic in a set time and then reward yourself with either a candy or a yoga stretch. Basically, this is also in a way taking a break but only after the desired task is completed without any time restrictions.
- Build interest in the subject. You can do this by active learning where you can question yourself, make flowcharts, spider diagrams etc. which will keep you completely involved and active. Just sitting and looking at the book is sometimes monotonous. So incorporate new methods of studying to make it more interesting and make sure these are effective. If you are just putting in the time to note down everything from the book on the paper you’ll end up wasting your time with an illusion that you studied for more hours.
- Freshen up. The best thing to do would be – getting up from your chair – washing your face/ taking a shower – making some coffee. It will help you restart again.
- Take proper sleep. Most of the time we get so ambitious that we do not give proper rest to our body. If you are disturbing your sleep cycle then you’ll end up feeling sleepy throughout the day. So no matter what, you need 6–8 hours of sleep to get the best out of yourself.
Stay productive!
Gazala Hitawala,
MBBS from RNT Medical College, Udaipur
Related Post : Tips to help you strengthen your concentration for long study hours
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