Don't hit the caffiene too much, it's often better to use water rather than caffiene. Generally natural is heaps better for you and for you to stay awake than most stimulants (including nicotine). Have little healthy snacks to munch on around you rather than away from the place you need to get work done.

Try short power naps every couple of hours. Sit in a comfy chair in low lighting with your keys in your hand. Leave your hand in a position that once you fall asleep you'll drop your keys and wake up having had just the right amount of rest without actually falling asleep. (Should be about 12-20 mins or so).

Go for a walk outside to get the blood flowing again, sitting down for hours on end will generally make you drowsy anyway.

I've found various pieces of music really put me in a study mood, but this is different for everyone (my absolute focused album is Orbital - The Altogether, though BT - Ima is pretty good for study too, YMMV)

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quote:

Originally posted by skware Don't hit the caffiene too much, it's often better to use water rather than caffiene.

I dont think that can be stressed enough. If you are constantly taking caffeine when it wears off you will be more tired at that time than if you hadnt taken it.

quote:

Try short power naps every couple of hours.

This doesnt work at all for me. Short naps dont give you any REM sleep which is what your body needs to feel rested. You can only start having REM sleep after being asleep for so long. Or unless your body is used to sleeping like that.

ive read papers which people have studied and attempted to try and sleep 20 minutes every 6 hours. Its thought that eventually your body gets used to these 20 minute naps, and whenever you take you always get REM sleep so you wake up refreshed enough to go on for 6 more hours. I searched on google for a link but cant find one, supposedly a US president did this but i cant remember his name (i think it was abraham lincoln or ben frankin, those 2 names pop up)

The method I was talking about was from churchill

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"Against stupidity the very Gods themselves contend in vain" -- Friedrich von Schiller

the best thing for having a nap would have to be these chambers they have at the AIS
basically you strip down to your swimmers and get into this pod kind of thing with just enough water to keep you afloat (you float because there is a shit load of salt in it). after you get in they close the thing and your left in complete darkness. the whole idea is to do with sensory deprivation...being afloat means you feel like your not touching anything. your meant to have a deeper sleep
2 hours in this little puppy is the equivelant to 6 hours sleep
unreal concept

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hehehe yeah i remember all nighters back in my old uni days (god i feel so old hehe). Anyways, as I did an IT degree I had quite a few of those nights in the computer labs and i found the best thing is to drink either coffee, coke or red bull. We also used to go for walks every 2 hrs outside in the fresh air. It helps a lot if you have your mates around as well. When we had our assignments due, a whole bunch of us would all work on it together. It makes it a lot less painful to get through!

quote:

Originally posted by escee This doesnt work at all for me. Short naps dont give you any REM sleep which is what your body needs to feel rested. You can only start having REM sleep after being asleep for so long. Or unless your body is used to sleeping like that. ive read papers which people have studied and attempted to try and sleep 20 minutes every 6 hours. Its thought that eventually your body gets used to these 20 minute naps, and whenever you take you always get REM sleep so you wake up refreshed enough to go on for 6 more hours. I searched on google for a link but cant find one, supposedly a US president did this but i cant remember his name (i think it was abraham lincoln or ben frankin, those 2 names pop up)

There are just as many studies that show the benefits of power napping though.....a nice lil quote from a site i found - "A nap should be about 15 to 30 minutes in duration. If you nap longer than thirty minutes, your body falls into deep sleep, which is difficult to wake from and when you do, you'll feel groggy (that's why Dali wanted to wake up before he hit REM stage).:

You don't need to have had REM sleep in order to feel rested Don't have time to elaborate rite now, and it's been a while since I studied sleeping and dreams at uni......but I'm interested again, so will have a looky around

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Originally posted by Beemer There are just as many studies that show the benefits of power napping though.....a nice lil quote from a site i found - "A nap should be about 15 to 30 minutes in duration. If you nap longer than thirty minutes, your body falls into deep sleep, which is difficult to wake from and when you do, you'll feel groggy (that's why Dali wanted to wake up before he hit REM stage).: You don't need to have had REM sleep in order to feel rested Don't have time to elaborate rite now, and it's been a while since I studied sleeping and dreams at uni......but I'm interested again, so will have a looky around

If you only power nap, or have 1 cycle of REM sleep a night, you either get very sleepy every 3 hours and can't function like you haven't slept for 2 days, or fall out of the pattern in a year and 2 months (think that was the figure).

So maybe not in the short term, but the long term REM sleep is needed

Sources from when I read about this months ago k5.org.

(Yes I nearly decided to do the michalengo (think that's who it was) styled sleeping thing).

--djway

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quote:

Originally posted by djway So maybe not in the short term, but the long term REM sleep is needed

oh yeah - course it is i wasn't sayin u don't need REM sleep at all...it's vital!! was just sayin u don't need to go into REM sleep in order to feel rested - as in, u can feel rested after power naps...precisely because u DON'T go into REM sleep, and therefore don't wake up in the middle of REM....if u have a short nap and wake up before REM, u can feel quite rested - whereas if u nap a bit too long, and are forced to wake up in the middle of REM sleep, ur gonna feel pretty crappy........

mmmm...sleeeeeeep

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so now I'm a type of sleep?

/me wants royalties

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"I played 12.30 til close at 3am at the club (Antro), following on from an Australian dj,
which seemed unusual in deepest Texas." - Judge Jules

The stuff I've read at various places (don't believe everything you read kiddies ) says that you need REM sleep for moving short term memory into your longer term memory, and all that. For the purpose of all nighters on occasion the power nap thing is ok, but definitely not a substitute for real sleep on a longer term basis. I find the worst thing with sleep is having a long sleep, but waking up in the middle of a REM cycle. I'd venture a guess why the figure of 8 hours sleep is out there is that by that time your body has actually had a chance to have 2-4 REM periods, and will likely not be in the middle of one when you wake up. You can get away with less, but you always chance that you'll wake yourself up in the middle of one which means that you feel crappy and unrested from the good sleep that you got.

Now the theory is all well and good for people with normal 9-5 jobs, but shiftwork + uni + party attitude to life blows all the theory out of the water. I think in the last couple of months I may have got the amount of sleep that you should get in under a month

grrrrrr need sleep

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"Against stupidity the very Gods themselves contend in vain" -- Friedrich von Schiller

josh you live in canberra...why not just pop into your local AIS and ask em to use the sleep pods

whats a rem?

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