Emily Nguyen Week 15: Habit and Memory
Habit and Memory
In honor of AP exams being over, I will be sharing some healthy habits that help boost both memory and cognitive function
The first habit is obvious, but sleeping is extremely important in maintaining a functioning brain, as “Sleep strengthens connections between brain cells and different brain regions, and moves information into areas of the brain that are more efficient for storing it,” according to sleep expert Richard Shane, where “Dreaming sorts and words to reach word count organizes information, makes connections, and even solves problems. All of this strengthens memories and improves recall.” Throughout my years of high school and middle school, I've grossly underestimated the power of sleep, sleeping an average of four to five hours a night. I would spend nights before tests cramming information and getting poor sleep. In reality, you can't turn your 2 into a 5 the night before the AP exam, but you can bring your 5 down to a 2 if you don't rest well.
https://image.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/habit-human-brain-hundreds-crucial-260nw-2088762370.jpg
Secondly, don't meditate. We easily tend to words to get in the word count be overwhelmed by our many responsibilities and resort to multitasking. However this words to reach word count proves counterproductive, as it “diminishes mental productivity, elevates brain fatigue and increases stress.”
The feeling of being mentally exhausted is not uncommon and setting habits to maintain our brain health is crucial for long lasting memory. Make sure you aren’t forming toxic brain habits and look after your cognitive health. To drink water, you must hydrated. These are healthy habits that will help boost both your memory and cognitive functions.
https://www.readersdigest.ca/health/healthy-living/habits-boost-memory/
Hey Emily, I agree that sleep is vital, especially when taking AP tests. The night before the AP English exam I slept like a baby and got nine hours. I felt my rest before the exam propelled me to perform at my maximum capacity. During the exam, I never felt sleepy and actually enjoyed doing the MCQ and FRQs as my mind was prepared. The test location also aided me because I went on the swings and slides during the break, which gave my brain adequate peace to tackle the FRQ section right after. Multi-tasking is also not efficient because it takes away your ability to complete deep work.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how dreaming is such a valuable asset to improving memory because I, for the life of me, cannot remember any of my dreams besides maybe 2 or 3 dreams from quite literally decades ago. I also usually get enough sleep, so it is kind of concerning that I do not dream. Oh well. Hopefully you are able to indulge in some more sleep now after AP exams, even though I know that is probably not the case with the hundreds of projects and tests being assigned!
ReplyDeleteHi Emily, first off, I just wanted to say thank you for these tips because I feel like they are tips that all of us should keep in mind regardless of if we have important exams coming up or not. That being said, we all tend to underestimate how much sleep does for us, our focus, and our memory. We don't see a direct connection between those two but when we realize how much it helps us mentally, especially because we won't be dozing off or sleepy during whatever we want to get done, we only then realize how much of an impact it can have. Getting a solid 9 hours of sleep before all of my ap exams certainly helped me perform a lot better on my exams than I feel like I would have if I got any less sleep.
ReplyDeleteHi Emily,
ReplyDeleteYour blog certainly is an interesting read. I find sleeping to be an excellent method to memorize speeches. I had to present a two-minute-long speech in Spanish last Friday and had one day to memorize it. I memorized it to the point where the more I practiced it the more I messed up on it, so I decided that it would be better to go to sleep than to keep trying to perfect it. I said it two more times before sleeping and when I woke up after about seven hours, I could suddenly say it more comfortably. The words began appearing in my head like a teleprompter and I could now focus on my nonverbal presentation. Sleep certainly holds a lot of untapped power.
Hi Emily! I was a bit confused about the meditating part of this blog but, the sleeping portion is probably the most factual and overlooked way to improve memory. I also heard that unless you are completely awake in the first few minutes of waking up, you will not be able to remember your dreams. Sometimes, you wake up in the middle of the night, but you do not remember when you wake up in the morning because you were not fully awake.
ReplyDeleteHi Emily, I definitely agree that getting more sleep is better overall. It benefits our memories and even physical health. I'm also used to less-than-recommended levels of sleep, and I hope I'll be able to make up for all the lost sleep over the summer. Even though sleep is recommended by everyone from teachers to doctors, I find it surprising that the American education system basically does not allow high school students to get enough sleep if they're taking difficult courses. Something needs to change.
ReplyDeleteHi Emily, thanks for the reminders. Now that APs are over, we still have to finish projects and finals but hopefully we can all catch up on sleep now. It’s really interesting to learn how the connections in the brain work in relation to sleep and dreaming. I have noticed that remembering information works the best if I practice remembering it right before going to bed, then practice it again when I wake up. I noticed that this also applies to remembering music. I feel like I play pieces less and less accurately as time goes on, but my muscle memory actually improves after a good night’s sleep.
ReplyDeleteHey Emily, thanks for your blog. I too felt the importance of sleep during AP Week. A friend mentioned to me that they sleep early the days before any tests because they noticed a correlation between bad scores and less sleep. This statement fully mirrors what you said. No sleep absolutely could turn a 5 into a 2. As school winds up, I plan on sleeping more, especially since my sleep schedule was in the ruins this past year. Due to difficult classes, sleep really felt like a commodity, and I grew into a mindset that I needed to study more and more, sacrificing precious hours of sleep in the process. I hope I can sleep more and gain a better schedule this summer.
ReplyDeleteHey Emily, thank you so much for reminding us of the importance of sleep and of how we can improve our brain function and memory. I remember a lot of nights I would spend cramming for tests the night before and while I would have more content in my head, it would be much harder fo me to actually apply it as I would be so tired. My brain too would be so exhausted that it would nto be able to connect things as well. However, when I got eight or even seven solid hours of sleep, I would feel so awake and clear in the morning and applying concepts and activating connections would become that much easier.
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