I already knew that if you read the thing you need to memorise before you sleep, you will know it better when you wake up.

What was interesting to discover is that the more often you do this, the better you know it, and this is regardless of how long you sleep for.

Even if it's five minutes, or if you were to press the alarm 'snooze' button several times, as long as you actually go into sleep then I found there is a benefit.

You can make the most of this by having several quick naps in a day and going through the difficult points of your material before you sleep each time.

This can be used when you need to memorise something at short notice.

If it works for you too then you are welcome to use it!



[I don't really have a proper blog at the moment so I put this here because I thought it might be useful]

Snooze and learn. I like this plan.

zzzzzzz

Oh sorry I missed that...

yeah, i've noticed this works too!!

Actually, i've also found it works the other way... the more new stuff i come across in a day, the harder it is to stay awake. even if i haven't been trying to take in much, i need to sleep for a few hours after a few hours of doing it. when i'm reading something without many unknown words, i can stay awake much longer.

anyway, after sleeping, the right pronounciation has been solidified really often, even though i couldn't remember it before sleeping.

i've also seen quite a few studies on this, so it's probably not just our imagination...

I'm thinking back to all the all-nighters I pulled cramming for final exams... oops

I learned another memory factoid while doing RTK - we don't make new memories well after drinking alcohol. (Seems kind of obvious in hindsight.) I noticed that on the evenings I had wine while doing RTK, my later pass rate for kanji I had studied that evening was abysmal. Alcohol apparently doesn't affect our ability to recall previously learned stuff, but it impairs formation of new memories. (Maybe to spare us from remembering embarrassing things we said or did?) haha

So, to all you more diligent students: no cramming and no D & S. :-)

Heh, yeah, all-night cramming is well known to be the worst thing you can do to prepare for an exam. Many universities pass out pamphlets on that point in little study guides that most students don't read until they've already graduated and are packing up their university stuff for the last time... 'Hey, I never saw this before... '

I've also had good effect from napping after studying. I also had good effect in my University days with late-night cramming -two days- before an exam so that I can sleep the night before the exam. Harder to get yourself to do it that way, but it happened once by accident and several times on purpose after I aced that exam and realized what I'd stumbled onto.

Unfortunately, outside of school, taking naps during the day is largely frowned upon by society despite the studies on the benefits of naps and the period where the 'power-nap' was a catchphrase. Since I can't take naps at all during the workweek, I find it really hard to do so on my day off, I'm just out of the habit and will have downed a cup of coffee before I stop to think that a nap would have been better...

I stay away from naps, it just screws up my sleeping pattern. I sleep well at night, so I be-careful not to screw the sleeping pattern up. I stay up late whenever I get a chance but I'm starting to get into the habit of waking up early.

I head this funny story back in Highschool about how someone came home at 5pm and decided to take a nap and they wake up the next day at 6am. It happens to some people, lucky that doesn't happen for me.

mizunooto Wrote:I already knew that if you read the thing you need to memorise before you sleep, you will know it better when you wake up.

Have you read this in an reputable source? Certainly, fatigue makes people less able to focus their attention in order to memorize new things, and sleep seems to play a role in the consolidation of memories.

But that you should read the thing you memorize before you go to sleep? I've never heard that from anything reputable. Could just be that I missed something though, so I'm curious.

IceCream Wrote:the more new stuff i come across in a day, the harder it is to stay awake.

Well that's interesting. I haven't experienced this myself, but I will look out for it. So if I do 6000 kanji per day I will get really sleepy and because I'm sleeping I will have perfect recall?? We've got the perfect method!

Thora Wrote:we don't make new memories well after drinking alcohol. (Seems kind of obvious in hindsight.)

That is useful to know. I did try beer the other day (I don't drink now since about 5 years ago) and at first the carbohydrates (=sugars; brain needs glucose, etc) helped me but after a certain point it was not good But I'm sure regular drinkers can tell you something much the same!

Thora Wrote:I noticed that on the evenings I had wine while doing RTK, my later pass rate for kanji I had studied that evening was abysmal.

I think it's important to be able to observe yourself like this, to find out what's helping/not helping your progress.

SomeCallMeChris Wrote:taking naps during the day is largely frowned upon by society

Yes, sleeping in general is not really promoted. It seems to be a sign of weakness. But it's seriously not that long since we were being recommended to take mercury to aid our health, so we honestly shouldn't be worrying about society too much

ta12121 Wrote:I stay away from naps, it just screws up my sleeping pattern.

One thing I noticed about sleeping more times per day is that it makes me more sleepy. The best would be to sleep properly and have done with it.
On a side note, if you look up about "second sleep" you can see that some people think the natural sleep pattern may not be just one solid block of sleep. Apparently the habits of other mammals tend to back this up.

Tzadeck Wrote:

mizunooto Wrote:I already knew that if you read the thing you need to memorise before you sleep, you will know it better when you wake up.

Have you read this in an reputable source? ...that you should read the thing you memorize before you go to sleep? I've never heard that from anything reputable. Could just be that I missed something though, so I'm curious.

I'm not nest0r and don't read reputable sources. In fact I DERIDE them.

I only believe things if I have tested them on myself.

mizunooto Wrote:I only believe things if I have tested them on myself.

There's a million things you could have learned or studied in life that would teach you how ridiculous this statement it: philosophy of science, epistemology, research methods, any introduction to the scientific method, psychology, cognitive science, any summary of the history of western thought.

Humans deceive themselves very easily, so it's very easy to think that a certain memory technique works even though it does not.

Millions of people have tried homeopathy and from their personal experiences have decided that it works. It does not work.

(I'm not 100% sure how tongue-and-cheek your post is, btw)

mizunooto Wrote:I'm not nest0r and don't read reputable sources. In fact I DERIDE them.

I only believe things if I have tested them on myself.

Ignorance is bliss, right? Anyway, this source should have a low enough reputation to avoid offending you. It seems to support what you're suggesting, although this and other sources (I won't mention their reputability) suggest a certain length of time is necessary. Probably somewhere between 20-30 minutes. So, basically, you should be aiming for a good old-fashioned power nap.

Wiki Wrote:Much like motor skills learning, verbal skills learning increased after a daytime nap period. Researchers Mednick and colleagues have shown that if a visual skills task [find task] is taught in the morning and repeatedly tested throughout the day, individuals will actually become worse at the task. The individuals that were allowed a 30-60 minute nap seemed to gain stabilization of the skill as no deterioration occurred. If allowed a 60-90 minute nap (REM sleep and slow-wave sleep), individuals displayed enhancement. Unlike the motor task, enhancement was not suppressed during the nocturnal sleep if the individual had napped earlier. In the situation of visual skill learning, naps have been shown to prevent wakeful deterioration and even enhance learning above and beyond enhancement occurring in nocturnal sleep.

You might want to read about/experience within yourself to the point of belief the benefits of exercise, and the dangers of stress on cognitive function and memory, as well. If you're lucky there'll be a write-up of some of the studies on the Daily Mirror site, so again you can avoid exposure to reputable sources.

Ok, let's all try tonight xd

ta12121 Wrote:I head this funny story back in Highschool about how someone came home at 5pm and decided to take a nap and they wake up the next day at 6am. It happens to some people, lucky that doesn't happen for me.

I can beat that. While in college, I stayed up all night working on something, and then at around 5am I couldn't take it anymore, and I just had to have a nap. But apparently I didn't set my clock right or something, and I ended up waking up around 6PM.
I THOUGHT that I had only been sleeping for about an hour, and I looked outside and it was kind of dark, so I thought the sun was still rising :p
I would have been much better off had I just went to sleep at my normal time! Don't try to fool your bodies, guys.

It's extremely difficult to consider that something may not work when we feel that it does. Generally, whenever someone wiser comes along and points out that we may have been fooled and it may not actually work, the first reaction is "well it works for me". Nevertheless, we are superstitious beings and when something seems to be working, we want to hang on to it and letting go is hard. There is no doubt that a good night sleep will improve your chances of succeeding in a test, but saying "I did X and aced the test, therefore I aced the test because of X" is superstition.

I wear the same boxers on the day of exams, but not because I'm worried I'll fail if I don't wear them.
No, I wear them because if the thought 'i should wear my exam boxers today' comes to me, and I purposely don't, then later during the exam I'll think 'i should have worn my exam boxers.'

Zarxrax Wrote:

ta12121 Wrote:I head this funny story back in Highschool about how someone came home at 5pm and decided to take a nap and they wake up the next day at 6am. It happens to some people, lucky that doesn't happen for me.

I can beat that. While in college, I stayed up all night working on something, and then at around 5am I couldn't take it anymore, and I just had to have a nap. But apparently I didn't set my clock right or something, and I ended up waking up around 6PM.
I THOUGHT that I had only been sleeping for about an hour, and I looked outside and it was kind of dark, so I thought the sun was still rising :p
I would have been much better off had I just went to sleep at my normal time! Don't try to fool your bodies, guys.

haha that's hilarious. It would have been worst if you had an exam that day and slept the whole day.

Zarxrax Wrote:

ta12121 Wrote:I head this funny story back in Highschool about how someone came home at 5pm and decided to take a nap and they wake up the next day at 6am. It happens to some people, lucky that doesn't happen for me.

I can beat that. While in college, I stayed up all night working on something, and then at around 5am I couldn't take it anymore, and I just had to have a nap. But apparently I didn't set my clock right or something, and I ended up waking up around 6PM.
I THOUGHT that I had only been sleeping for about an hour, and I looked outside and it was kind of dark, so I thought the sun was still rising :p
I would have been much better off had I just went to sleep at my normal time! Don't try to fool your bodies, guys.

I can beat that too. As you, I stayed whole night and at 6AM felt like I'm going to faint, so I set up alarm at 4PM - because I needed to be in college at 6PM, so I wanted to use all the time I had to rest and be fresh for the exam.

But when I got up and saw it was still dark I was pretty confused... it took me a while to realize I set the alarm at 4AM, so I slept a total of 22hrs!

I have had it so that I had a coming test in HS, was reading a textbook about history the previous afternoon, then fell asleep in like first 15 minutes, woke up at 6 AM, panicked, and went to school at 8AM, read the book during the 2 first lessons secretly, then did the test which was in the 3rd period and got about 60% wasn't very good with keeping myself interested in the textbook of history nor the subject...

Tzadeck Wrote:Certainly, fatigue makes people less able to focus their attention in order to memorize new things, and sleep seems to play a role in the consolidation of memories.
But that you should read the thing you memorize before you go to sleep? I've never heard that from anything reputable. Could just be that I missed something though, so I'm curious.

http://www.jneurosci.org/content/30/43/14356.full

Quote:Sleep seems to play an active role in integrating new words in the lexicon through spindle activity, and it also enhanced explicit recall and recognition. In the sleep group, improvements were found after a night of sleep. In the wake group, no improvements occurred after a day of wake, but improvements comparable to those in the sleep group emerged in S3, presumably due to sleep occurring after S2. Sleep seems to provide the optimal neural environment for consolidation of explicit knowledge of new vocabulary (Gais et al., 2006).

Thora Wrote:I'm thinking back to all the all-nighters I pulled cramming for final exams... oops

I learned another memory factoid while doing RTK - we don't make new memories well after drinking alcohol. (Seems kind of obvious in hindsight.) I noticed that on the evenings I had wine while doing RTK, my later pass rate for kanji I had studied that evening was abysmal. Alcohol apparently doesn't affect our ability to recall previously learned stuff, but it impairs formation of new memories. (Maybe to spare us from remembering embarrassing things we said or did?) haha

So, to all you more diligent students: no cramming and no D & S. :-)

i wonder how much of the effect of alcohol on memory is due to changes in brain processes affecting memory formation while awake, and how much is due to changes in sleep architecture? It'd be an interesting study...

Thanks for your input everyone!