Breaking the Habit: Dozing off at Class

It is said that nearly 95% of students all over the world have the record of dozing off in classes. Needless to say, I am one of them. Since I became a junior high student, I had felt drowsy in many classes thanks to the hardworking last night. However, after I took some advices from others, I have broken the bad habit thoroughly. Therefore, if you also want to quit the bad habit to get more efficiency during the lessons, you can follow my steps.

First of all, there is one thing to do before going to school—preview. Maybe it does not sound it has much to do with the issue, but it does help you to stay awake in class. All you have to do is spare about fifteen minutes before going to bed briefly flipping through the textbook, preview the lesson which will be conducted tomorrow. Previewing the material which will be covered the next day would let you better understand the teacher’s lecture and keep you interested in the lessons, thus it would in some way to help you stay conscious during the class.

The next thing to do is get good and sufficient sleep everyday—at least seven hours a day. To do so, of course you have to go to bed early every night. Still, there are some ways to prevent you from the awkward situation that you cannot fall asleep even though you have already been tucked in the bed for a long time. One is that you should not do drastic exercise before bed time lest you get over excited and cannot cool down easily. Another one is that you should be aware of not to watch too much TV before going to sleep because the program would linger in your head keeping you thinking. When you try to sleep in the bed, you should keep your thoughts plain; just relax your mind and body. By doing so, you can have bigger chances to get good sleep. Inadequate sleep, in the contrast, would easily cause the desire for sleep in classes, making you hardly concentrate on the teaching.

After previewing the lessons and having a good sleep, you may not easily feel drowsy at class anymore. But everything has exceptions. At times some courses are just too boring to stay awake. Hence, here are some tips for you to fight with the Hypnos (the god of sleep) in classes. When you feel like sleepy during the speech, you can drink some water to take a rest; you can hold a candy in the mouth, or even chew gums to distract the attention from sleepiness. Chewing is a way to exercise the muscles which can prevent the mind stop working. Moreover, having a taste in the mouth will give you another thing to feel besides the possibly boring lecture.
Nevertheless, you have to be careful—some teachers do not like students eating in class.

Another tip to remain conscious in class is to think something interesting. For example, you can look through the text book to find sentences or pictures which is interesting or scaring. Or you can observe others’ motions when they feel sleepy as you do. It may give you a lot of fun by seeing classmates’ action when battling against drowsiness. If these all fail, you can just look out the windows daydreaming: what to eat after class, which basketball team won last night; or you can even think about something serious like “live and dead” issue, etc. Just isolate yourself from the lesson for a while. It would help you regain the energy for the address.

What if the tips above all fail to work—you can no longer prop up the heavy eyelids and about to faint? A timely tap on the back would certainly wake you up. It is said that being shocked when drowsing would give the person the most strength to stay awake. Consequently, you can ask your friends to help to arouse you by a pat on the back, a note to alert, or a voice of your name. According to my personal experience, this method works the best. A sudden stimulus can send you all the vigor you need in a class which makes it effortless to regain the concentration to the course.

The last step to follow to cut out the bad habit is to take a good rest in the break time. Get some fresh air outside the classroom. Go to the sink using cold water to wash your face. Or go to the canteen to buy a cold drink which you can use it to ice your forehead during the class. These motions can not only rest your mind and body, but also give you power for the next class.

Once you take all these steps, you will find out that you are not the person who always dozes off in class anymore.