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With the mid-year exams upon you, sleep is probably the last on your list of priorities at the moment. Let’s talk about that.
Brain Science teaches us that physical changes occur in the brain when we learn. It is similar to when you work out in the gym – your muscles change, your body’s physical shape changes. The brain does not have muscles but neurons that physically connect with each other to form clusters when we learn new things.
We’ve spoken about retrieval practice, fetching something you have learnt from your memory and bringing it back to awareness. That is for the brain what sit-ups are for the belly muscles.
(That’s one more reason why cramming is a waste of time – five hours of sit-ups and then nothing more will only make your stomach muscles ache for days. An hour of muscle training per day for 5 days, on the other hand, will have a visible effect.)
But just as your body needs rest between bouts of exercise, your brain needs rest to consolidate your hard work in building those neural clusters and connections. It may feel completely illogical, but sleep helps you learn. You have to sleep.
In the first place, the brain chemical glutamate, which is necessary to make the connections between the synapses, builds up over your hours of study until it does the opposite: it clogs the connections, making your brain sluggish, and making it very difficult to remember anything. Sleep clears it out so you can start fresh.
But there is even more intriguing research which has only recently become available.
Prof. James Maas, former head of Psychology at Cornell University in America, has written a book called Power Sleep. He explains that research shows that during REM sleep, towards the end of the night when we dream, the brain creates what are called “sleep spindles”. A sleep spindle is a one- to two-second burst of brain waves that reorganizes neural networks essential for remembering, learning, performance and problem solving. In the process, new information is stored into long-term memory. It’s a bit like building a wall – you put the bricks in place with cement to hold it together. Immediately after, you can still push over the wall, but overnight the cement hardens and the wall becomes solid.
“Depriving the brain of sleep,” says Prof Maas, “makes you clumsy, stupid and unhealthy.”
Of course, if you haven’t put down any bricks, the sleep cement has nothing to work with. You have to put in the hours. So let’s talk about more ways to make your study hours as productive as possible.
Our brains use two different modes of thinking: the focused mode for concentrating on specific tasks and the diffuse mode for mind-wandering and big-picture thinking. The focused mode is used when you are actively studying a vocabulary list or solving a Math problem. The diffuse mode kicks in when you’re daydreaming, showering, or falling asleep. As with sleep, diffuse mode-thinking may feel like wasting time. It’s not. It allows your mind to wander and make new connections, helping you to understand new concepts.
It is important to switch between these modes when learning. Take breaks to allow diffuse thinking to work.
When we’re struggling with a new concept in focused mode we may find ourselves going back again and again to familiar (but unhelpful) approaches. Try stepping away from the problem and doing something like taking a shower, going for a walk or a jog, or having coffee with a friend, and letting your mind wander. That way you allow the diffuse mode to work on the problem in the background, often without you even noticing. This can lead to an “aha!” moment when you return to the focused mode later.
Again, like sleeping, without proper focused mode learning, taking a break won’t give you any benefit. But after a session of intense concentration and focus, a break will allow your brain to make new connections and come up with solutions. Don’t feel guilty. Just tell yourself: “I am learning by jogging”, “I am learning by connecting with a friend.”
Work regularly and effectively. Then you will sleep well, which will make your brain work better when you sit down at your desk again.
Happy studying!
From the GRAD team
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GRAD – your guide to university success is a partnership project of Ruda Landman, StudyTrust, Van Schaik Publishers and Capitec Bank.