Learning How To Optimize Your Body’s Productivity As A Student

If you are a student and you have never experienced a burn out, it’s coming soon. These are the times when nothing seems to make sense, your brain is exhausted and the pages of your books look like a continuous stream of words that do not make any sense at all. This often happens when you have not fully figured out your body’s internal time. In order to improve your learning and intellectual performance, you should learn how to optimize your body’s peak productivity and you can do so by:

The daily cycle

The body temperature goes through a cycle of highs and lows all day everyday. The temperature starts at a low and rises slowly throughout the day until it heats the wave crest in the evening and starts plunging down again in the night. The change in the body temperature occurs by just a third of a degree but this change is enough to alter the way your brain works. As the temperature increases, the chemical reactions in the body occur faster and equally brain speed and accuracy increases with peak body temperature and heart rate. Early morning and late night are the lowest temperatures and equally a decline in performance occurs.

The avian type

Do you often find yourself more active at night or at your best early in the morning. This is not a choice but an avian type that everyone is born with; the tendency to stay up late, wake up early or fit somewhere in the middle is a chronotype that is usually genetic. You can try to force yourself into another schedule but it still won’t work as best. The chronotype is affected by the length of your circadian cycle and age. Children are the earliest wakers, teens are a bit later while adults in the early 20s sleep late and wake up late. Eventually this will later shift back to early wakers with age. Being a night owl simply means you hit your cognitive peak later in the day as compared to an early bird who does so much earlier in the morning.

Maintain a fixed study time

Your memory is closely linked to your internal clock, this is why your body attaches memories to a time stamp for when you learn things. Your brain can prepare for intensive focus at the same time everyday, which is why a fixed study time can lead to better cognitive performance. You can choose your best study time based on your avian type.

Maintain a sleeping schedule

Just as you maintain a fixed study time, also get into a regular sleeping schedule. Pick a bedtime and wake up time and stick with it throughout the week and weekends. Staying up later on the weekends can lead to attention problems during the week even if you get your full eight hours of sleep every night. In case you feel tired, take a nap to power up during the day.