brain- sleepy- very annoying!!!

lunapark

hey all,

so i'm really starting to knuckle down at college, hittin the library and all, and i'm havin a serious problem with study. first 20 mins, grand, i'm focused, 20-30 mins and i'm startin to yawn, and about 40 mins later i am KNACKERED!
It's really worryin me that I can't do 40 mins work without yawning away ad feelin really sleepy:mad:
I have some probs at home, but they have been around for a while( i'm almost immune at this stage), and i know its easy to point the finger at that, but this hasn't happened before...and i really need to work hard this semester.
I do sleep a normal amount of hours, in general( i am a student!),
has anyone any ideas???? any concentration training tips/tricks? etc?

cheers!

AARRRGH

I have always found studying is like anything else - practice makes perfect! For example, initially I would have no concentration, then there would be some small improvements, and eventually it would be no bother. So I would keep at it and see if things improve.

How good is your diet? Could you try drinking some coffee before you study?

r3nu4l

Take breaks every 20 minutes, open the window a crack to let in fresh air every so often, make sure you have enough light and turn off any computers in the room if you are only using your books.

Quite often the hum from computers can make you feel sleepy/tired without even realising.

Also, drink enough liquid, preferably cold water to ensure that you are hydrated enough.

When you do take a break, don't use it to watch TV or play consoles or computer games. Don't surf the net. Get off your ass and go for a 5 minute walk.

If you eat well you should feel more alert so ditch high sugar foods and big plates of pasta and rice. Eat loads of veg, some fruits and make sure you get good quality protein in every meal, fish (tuna, salmon,sardines etc), chicken and even nuts (not salted peanuts) are all good sources of protein as is lean mince beef or steak

trout

From personal experience, I'd be careful about drinking too much coffee or sugary drinks too.

It might give you the illusion of alertness, but it's transient.

I always found myself jittery and agitated if I drank coffee while studying.

If you find you work better in short bursts with regular breaks - what harm ?

Don't add more stress - you'll know yourself when best to push on, and when best to take a break.

Mr Magnolia

When your eyes are feeling tired, pick a spot high on the wall and stare at it for 15 seconds without blinking, then close you're eyes for 10 seconds. Open them and repeat a few times. It gets the blood flowing around the eyes apparently, works for me anyway.

gagomes

I used to have similar stuff occurring to me as well. After going through dozen of tests, blood samples, possible gigantism tests (I am 6"7, by the way) the doctors concluded that I suffered of a rare (back then) disease called Sleep Apnea. It's basically a disease that you have hundreds of breathing breaks during your normal sleep, you wont notice them but the outcome is that you wake up very very tired. I used to fall asleep everydays in school, I could not sit on a couch for longer than 5 minutes. Consider visiting your doctor, the solutions available aren't great but you get used to em, but remember that this disease is sorta dangerous, especially if you have other heart-related problems as you may not awake from a break in your normal breathing. Do you know whether you snort or not and how intense it is? that would possibly help identifying the problem easily. You may be submited to a sleep resonance test (not sure how to say it in english as I am portuguese myself).

Good luck with the situation!

EDIT: for more info, I just found this site of the "Irish Sleep Apnea Trust" http://www.isat.ie