In the middle of a 300-person lecture hall, a student feels his eyes get heavy as his vision blurs, and while the professor continues to mumble unintelligibly from the front of the room, the student’s head hits his chest and his pen falls to the floor.
A student sleeping in the middle of lecture is a common sight at UCLA. But how can students overcome the comfy chairs, dull professors, and 8 a.m. lectures in order to stay awake?
Though students have their unique ways of escaping sleep during a boring lecture, sleep experts said the only way to truly stay awake is by getting enough snooze time.
“The key is to be very regular in your sleep schedule,” said Christina Miller, associate director for the UCLA Center for Women and Men. Miller was founder of the Student Psychological Services sleep and insomnia workshops while she was employed by the Ashe Center.
Students need to sleep the same amount each night and at the same times in order to be most alert and awake during the day, Miller said.
She added that students with irregular sleep schedules are living in a “chronic state of jet lag because their bodies don’t know what time it is.”
While some college students survive with only a few hours of sleep at night, seven to eight hours of sleep is required to be fully rested, said Frisca Yan-Go, director of the UCLA Sleep Disorders Clinic in Santa Monica.
Students fall asleep in a quiet environment like lecture because the brain is trying to collect lost sleeping time, like a banker collecting a debt, Yan-Go said.
Though sleep experts said sufficient sleep is key, the hectic schedules of many college students make it near impossible to follow these guidelines, so students must discover methods of their own to ward off head-nodding in lecture.
Lecture halls create a perfect environment for sleep because of dimmed lights or stuffy atmosphere, but writing out notes requires both your body and mind to pay attention to what’s going on.
“I write out every word that the professor says so I really concentrate,” said Kat Nadler, a second-year art history student. “It mentally snaps me back into (lecture).”
As an art history student, many of Nadler’s professors dim the lights to show slides. It is during these classes that Nadler said she can’t help falling asleep.
“Taking all your notes by hand keeps you locked in and focused,” said Gideon Kleinman, a fourth-year philosophy student, who agreed he pays more attention by taking notes the old-fashioned way.
But when getting enough sleep is an impossible task, a latte or that Red Bull always saves the day.
Selina Sarno admitted she falls asleep in class “all the time,” and only escapes her sleepiness by drinking coffee.
Though some research suggests that drinking caffeine has negative effects, Yan-Go said students can consume caffeine in small doses if used on a short-term basis.
Yan-Go recommended that students power-nap between classes instead of resorting to caffeine because the extra rest will help them focus in lecture. “There’s no use to force yourself to stay awake because you will not learn. Your body may be awake, but your mind is not awake,” Yan-Go said.
Sitting near the front of a lecture hall, where eye contact with the professor is possible, replaces tiredness with fear that a professor will catch you snoozing during his class.
“By sitting in the front, I can hear the professor better, but they can actually see you, and I’m afraid I’ll get caught sleeping,” Sarno said.
Sarno said that, when caffeine fails her, sitting in the front of her lectures keeps her awake, especially since her chemistry professor calls students out for sleeping and will even stop class to wake them up.
Students who find that none of these methods keep their class time from becoming nap time may want to check out workshops run by the professionals at Student Psychological Services.
They offer a workshop called “The Art of Sleeping,” which introduces students to healthy sleep habits, including how to fall asleep faster and the negative impact sleep loss has on a student’s health, said Kathleen Lambird, a psychiatrist at Student Psychological Services who helps run the programs.
Trying to stay awake in lecture may be a difficult task, but taking the time to sleep a little extra doesn’t sound difficult at all.