Tips To Stay Awake While Studying

[Joe V]

How does a Nursing Student keep from falling asleep while studying? I'll bet there are 101 ways to stay awake ... power naps, turn off heater, exercise, have a snack, turn up the music. Midterms and Final exams loom on the horizon.

What healthy ways have you found to stay awake and study?

[jj224]

Coffee. Taking breaks and relaxing - napping if need be. Worked for me.

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

Frequent breaks and do not cram. You will not retain it anyway.

[imbatz, BSN, RN]

Peanut butter. Seriously. Peanut butter. and walking. Take a 5 minute break every hour and walk for 5 minutes.

[pseudomonas, BSN, RN]

Take frequent exercise breaks. It can be something small like sitting in your chair and bicycling your legs like you're riding a bike.

[RunBabyRN]

Study on the treadmill. Prop your laptop on the treadmill. Enlarge the print on ebooks, and read PowerPoints on there. Crank up the incline to really get in a workout. I could never run and study, but walking slowly is better than sitting on my butt. Plus, keeping the blood flowing helped me retain more.

[dorkypanda]

I have to agree about snacking. A light weight snack though, something like yogurt with granola, some chocolate ?

I think listening to motivational instrumental music is inspiring. Music that are background music sometimes in movies.

[KLBlowers]

I did some research on what type of music to listen to while studying and Did a report on it while attending Nursing school. Studies have shown that Baroque music is the best (Mozart is an example). Why? The beat of the music is the same as the Beta wave in our brains. It was found that the enemies had used this method during war time in order to brain wash their prisoners.

You want to play it softly while you study and you would be amazed at how much info you are able to retain.

Katlu

[steff1982, RN]

Eating...bad part is you gain weight which you loose after graduation though

[Christinajoannne]

Frequent breaks! Many, many breaks! I usually do something like 3-4 pages, then a youtube break for 10 minutes! I also don't like cramming, I remember the information the longer I study it. So I love to study with an abundance of time! And no pressure! I tell myself "It's okay if you can't study this entire chapter today. You have tomorrow." When I don't have pressure, I actually get quite alot done!

[Eddy_BSN]

Coffee and music does it for me

[springchick1, ADN, RN]

I agree with the breaks! I would study for 30 minutes and then take a 5-10 minute break. I would get up and move around during those breaks. I would take a rest room break, check text or emails, or just whatever.

When doing the HURST review and studying for boards, I studied with one other person from my class. After working all day (we also worked together) it was helpful to have someone there to help keep you focused. We would also make sure the other one didn't fall asleep listening to videos. But if you study with someone, you have to make sure the two of you can stay focused and not get distracted.