How To Study When Tired
My 5 hacks for studying in medical school even when I'm tired
Over the last few years, medical students and colleagues seem to always ask me:
“How do you still have energy to study after a long and tiring day at the hospital?”
“How do you get things done even when you’re exhausted from trying to balance work and life responsibilities?”
“How do you prepare for an exam even when you don’t feel like it?”
But in answering these questions, I couldn’t give just 1 piece of advice.
So below you’ll find the 5 things I usually do to still find the energy to read or study even when I’m already dead-tired.
These are by no means hard-and-fast rules and might not work for everyone.
I’m just sharing the things that worked for me and hopefully might also work for you.
So with that, let’s dive in:
I also created a YouTube video on this topic breaking down all the things in this post if you prefer to watch and listen instead of reading.🚿 Take a cold shower
The first thing you can do is to take a cold shower.
I know this sounds crazy.
But if you’re already exhausted and you still have things to finish on your to-do list such as:
Read the last chapter in your textbook
Answer a few more practice questions
Finish creating powerpoint slides for tomorrow’s case presentation
Taking a cold shower will immediately help you feel more alert and give you more energy.
Because the jolt of taking cold showers will give you an extra boost of energy to wake you up so you can find it in yourself to finish what you need to get done for the day
❌🍚 Don’t eat a high-carbohydrate meal
The second one is to avoid eating a high-carb meal.
Examples of this may include:
Eating 2 cups of rice
Finishing off a whole box of chocolates
Chugging a whole bottle of Coke
The reason to avoid eating a high-carb meal is you may experience something called postprandial somnolence or food coma.
This is a phenomenon of feeling sleepy and unmotivated that some people experience after eating a large meal.
It’s why after consuming a big plate of pasta, you end up taking a long, 4-hour nap on the couch leading to a very unproductive afternoon.
I’m not saying to never eat carbs at all.
All I’m saying is to practice moderation and to watch how much portion of your meal is made up of simple carbohydrates like a lot of sugar.
So you can have more energy to be more productive in the afternoon.
😴 Take a 15-20 min. nap
When taking naps, it’s important to not exceed this 15-20 min limit.
Because if you do, say you overslept for 40min to 1 hour, you may enter what’s called deep sleep.
When you wake up from deep sleep, it can lead to feelings of grogginess or what some people call sleep inertia.
This is why some people will still feel tired after a long nap.
But, if you take power naps instead, which is around 15-20min, you will wake up with more focus and alertness and it will definitely give you more energy and make you more productive.
☕️ Study outside in coworking spaces or coffeeshops
This will sound controversial and some students might disagree with it.
For me, personally, I also wouldn’t want the distractions of people walking by, espresso machines whirring, and the occasional loud music in the background which you will experience in coffeeshops.
But the point is, the distractions, themselves, may actually be useful if you’re already dead-tired and exhausted from a long day at the hospital and you still have deadlines to meet and things to finish.
Because if you’re working alone in your room, it’s way easier to just crawl into your comfortable chair or your cozy couch to sleep and forget about your deadlines.
But when you’re studying or working in coffeeshops, surrounded by other people who’re also studying or working, it will motivate you to do the same.
🚶♂️ Stand up while studying
And finally, one of the things I just discovered recently, which helped me find my second wave of energy to push through what I had to finish studying is alternating sitting with standing.
There were a lot of times when I also felt like I’m running out of steam to continue studying.
But, when I tried standing up from long hours of sitting, it somehow gave me a second burst of energy.
I felt more energized and ready to tackle my tasks again.
I actually bought myself a standing desk to see for myself if it really does the magic.
After a few days of using it, I think I’ve gotten a lot more things done with the standing desk instead of just sitting on my office chair for hours on end.
Aaaand that’s it!
If you made it until the end, I highly appreciate you for reading.
Also, hit reply or leave a comment with your go-to hacks for studying even when you’re tired.
Over the next few weeks, I will be writing on some of the best study strategies, tools, and methods I’ve used over the last 10 years of studying in medical school and in residency training.
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great article sir!