Why most of the students feel sleepy while they are studying? Now this has been a huge problem for all the students who are studying, including myself. I still can remember when I was at school, I used to fall asleep right after 1 get a book to my hand. Do you have the same experience? I think yes. Well today in this article through, I'm going to be sharing with you seven tips you can practice to stay away from sleepiness while studying. So the same thing happened to a monk who lived in the Buddha's time. He was struggling with meditation, especially he was struggling with the sleepiness during meditation. So the Buddha gave him these seven advices and seven tips to practice to stay away from the sleepiness during the meditation. But these tips can be applied to our studies as well.
CHAPTER 1: CHANGE THE PERCEPTION
Tip number one, change the perception. Sometimes the reason for our sleepiness is not where we study or when we study, but what we study. Sometimes the meditation that we are doing, maybe the study, the subject that we are studying is not vibing along with our mind. At that time, we feel boring and less Interested. Once you feel boring, what is the normal reaction from your body? You feel sleepy, You feel the drowsiness within you. That is why the Buddha says, change the perception. Once you feel sleepy while studying or meditating, just change the perception, Change what you study for a little while.
Let's say you're studying a subject and you feel boring. You feel less interested. So what do you have to do? Change it to something that you feel interesting. Maybe a subject that you feel fun in studying, maybe you enjoy that subject, maybe it is your favorite subject, maybe it is your favorite meditation. Once you do that, what happens to you is you're doing something that is enjoyable and you feel that enthusiasm within you, then your body and your mind becomes active. Once your body and mind becomes active, what will happen? Your mind will open to new things. so when you spend a little while in that enthusiastic activity, maybe studying, maybe meditating, then you can come back to the same thing that you studied earlier and keep on studying because at that time we gave our mind a little jumpstart to be active.
CHAPTER 2: MEMORIES
Tip number two, memorize it. The Buddha says, recall what you have studied and memorize it and examine it with your mind. When you examine something with your mind, when you recall something from your mind and you wisely reflect on it, what happens? Your mind becomes active because you need that focus and you need that activeness in your mind to memorize it. Once you memorize it, what will happen? You stay away from that inactiveness or inactive state of your mind. Then it will help you to stay away from the sleepiness.
So,What do you have to do? Whenever you feel sleepy or drowsy, just memorize one thing that you have learned or recall something that you have learned. That is one thing that we can do.
CHAPTER 3: RECITING
Tip number three, reciting. Now, reciting is one of the best ways to stay away from sleepiness during meditation and studying. now, when you recite something or when you say something out loud, it activates your jaw muscles and your mouth and also When you recite something, you create those vibrations in your skull and it activates your brain. Once your brain and your muscles are active, your jaw muscles are active, you feel some energy within your head and then it will be very easy for you to study and also when you recite something, it gives that activeness to your body and then it will help you to stay away from the sleepiness. That is tip number three.
CHAPTER 4: PINCH YOUR EARS AND RUB YOUR LIMBS
Tip number four, the Buddha says, pinch your ears and rub your limbs. Now when you pinch your ears and rub your limbs, what happens is your muscles get a good blood circulation and your body becomes active. Once your body becomes active, then your mind's mind becomes active. Then you will be less sleepy and you will, you can stay away from sleepiness by doing this. So these are, this is something that very simple that you can do to stay away from sleepiness.
CHAPTER 5: GET UP AND REFRESH
Tip number five, the Buddha says, Get up from your seat and wash your eyes with cold water and look at the night sky. Especially if you are studying at night, maybe you're meditating at night, If you feel sleepy, you can go outside and look at the night sky. Enjoy the nature, enjoy that breeze. Once you stay in the nature for a little while, you feel so much refreshed and then you can come back to studying and meditation and keep on doing it. So nature can make our body so much and so much refreshed. Keep that in your mind.
CHAPTER 6: FOCUS ON THE PERCEPTION OF LIGHT
Tip number six, the Buddha says focus on the perception of light. Now, most of the time when we are studying at night, the reason for our sleepiness is the surrounding. Sometimes some students, some people used to study in a dark room, maybe in the darkness, while having a little light on them.
The reason for our sleepiness can be the darkness around us because when the darkness surrounds us, we feel like sleeping because it stimulates our sleepiness. Because we used to sleep in the darkness and then when there is darkness around us, it triggers our sleepiness. So what the Buddha says is just when you study, focus on something that is very bright.
Focus your mind on something that is very bright and think that you are studying. Imagine that you are studying in the daytime. When you're studying, always try to study under a good light source and also you can imagine to yourself that I am studying in the daytime. When you imagine it and when you have that perception of light in your mind, then you will feel less sleepy. So that is one thing that we can do to focus on the perception of light.
CHAPTER 7: DO WALKING MEDITATION
Here the final and the seventh tip and that is the Buddha says, do walking meditation. Whenever you are meditating or when you are studying, if you feel sleepy, if you feel drowsy, just get up from the seat and go and walk back and forth with mindfulness Focus on your bodily postures and bodily movements and go walk back and forth for a little while. It will activate your body as well as it will activate your mind because we need a good focus to be mindful. Once the mind becomes mindful, it activates our mind. So that is one way that we can do, we can stay away from sleepiness to do the walking meditation. So as students, You all can do these things.
Prioritize Sleep and Rest
Let's say you tried all of these seven tips and none of them worked for you. You still feel sleepy. Then what we can do? The Buddha says, if none of them worked for you, that means you really, really need a sleep. So that is why the Buddha says, then you can go to bed mindfully. Being mindful about the posture that you're going to sleep and you have to remember to yourself that right at this time. Maybe after one hour I'm going to wake up. When you do that when you remember to yourself that the wake up time then it is very easy for you to wake up and also remember most of the time the students enjoy sleeping. More than studying. It is all about our priorities. When we give the priority to study we can easily study. When we give the priority in our mind to sleep more than study, then you feel more and more sleepy.
CONCLUSION
So that is why it is all about what you give priority to. so remember, so if none of those seven tips worked for you, just have some rest and then go back to studies or meditating. So these are the things that we can apply to our daily life to stay away from
Sleepiness during studying and also during meditating. So apply these things and see what works for you.
Thank you for reading this article ♥️
HAVE A GREAT DAY TO ALL 🙏 Gyanalokhub
