Nessun Dorma

AUC has a strict mandatory attendance policy for every class, and so far, I have not missed any classes nor have I been tardy. I showed up yesterday and surely I will show up tomorrow, but today, even though I signed the attendance sheet and sat through all my classes, I was in practice absent. After studying til 2am every day this week, I’ve only been averaging 5-6 hours of sleep per day the past three days. This accumulated, and now, by Wednesday, it has become unbearable, and no matter how hard I kept my eyes and ears open, nothing was going through, even though the subject matter of the lectures I’m sure is very interesting. This gets me to Three Rules:

• Get sleep. Stop studying after 10pm. Everything else you try to learn after that time won’t stick. 7-8 hrs of sleep with shorter, but more-focused study time is better than 5-6 hrs of sleep with longer, but less-focused study time.

• Eat a hearty, carb-filled breakfast. Glucose is your brain’s primary source of energy, and you can’t run a car without fuel!

• Eat a protein-filled dinner before sleeping. Your memories of the day get sorted during sleep. The significant details get stored while the insignificant details are tossed. What material is needed to build the neurological connections? Protein.

Remember it’s about quality of studying, not quantity. With these rules, there won’t be another morning where you’re tempted to sleep in, thinking to yourself that you can study better on your own anyway. The work will pile up and you won’t get to it. Do you really wanna eat 10 pancakes for breakfast? So since your brain is part of your body, eat, sleep, exercise, and treat your body well, and your mind will follow.