5 Tips to Help You Stay Awake in Class

The bane of many student’s existence is falling asleep in class. Whether you’re dozing off because you had a wicked party the night before, or you’re simply blessed to have a prof who has discovered the cure for insomnia, when you take naps in class you’re losing valuable productivity and time considering you already dragged yourself out of your warm bed at home. Here’s 5 tips to make sure your cheek doesn’t end up on the desk next time.

1. Get a good night’s sleep before

The most obvious tip comes first because if you’re not getting a lot of sleep at night the other tips here aren’t really going to help you. Although it’s possible to be productive and attentive without optimum amounts of rest, being groggy in a dry lecture will almost assure that your cheek will be on the desk in no time flat.

2. Take notes

Generally in lecture, falling asleep is more due to boredom than actual tiredness. Conquer this by keeping yourself active through writing notes. I know the novelty of college is most classes have detailed lecture notes online, but by taking down interesting things the professor says during the lecture, you’ll stay awake, remember more of the information, and be better prepared for tests and exams.

3. Take a real interest in the class

At every opportunity in a lecture you should be doing your best to take active interest in the material, no matter how boring it is. Whenever possible, ask yourself how the material you’re learning about applies to your past experiences, your daily life, and the world around you. This also leads into the next point…

4. Ask mental questions

Keep yourself occupied by asking questions in your head about possible applications of what you’re learning. Make it relevant to your daily life as much as you can. This really hit me during Social Psychology. When I was learning about how people behaved around others it was easy to think of practical applications and come up with thought-provoking questions that made the class fly by even though the professor was boring. It may seem harder for more logical courses like math or science, but think outside the box!

5. Daydream!

The average person has an attention span of only 18 minutes. This means that the average lecture period (an hour long, although some go as much as three!) is about three times longer than most people can sit and focus for! Capitalize on this bit of knowledge by taking a 2-3 minute break every 20 minutes or so. It doesn’t matter what you do — send some text messages, doodle, stare blankly into the middle distance — just so long as you’re not focusing on the class. When you tune in again you’ll find yourself reinvigorated and ready to listen! Repeat as necessary throughout the lecture.

I’m always looking for new ways to stay awake in my genetics lectures, so hit me up in the comments with your tricks for beating the bed bugs