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How to not fall asleep this exam season

By Manasvi Kadian July 29, 2022

Know that the exam season has begun when your sleep cycle changes from sleeping from 5 AM to 7 AM to sleeping from 10 PM to 10 AM. Welcome to the cursed woes of sleeping too much….

To all the people who have a (very) messed-up sleep schedule, functioning on 2 hours of sleep every day, know, that with the beginning of the exam season, sleep schedules have a tendency of going off-track in the absolutely opposite direction, blessing you with the menace of too much sleep (if that is even a thing).

And when you haven’t studied anything throughout the semester, relying with your heart and soul (and hopes of passing) on that one-day-before-the-exam studying, “sleep is for the weak” starts making perfect sense.

So here are some ways (tried and tested. Failure rate≠ 100%) to stop yourself from inevitably falling asleep…

(Disclaimer- might leave you feeling like the Grinch).

1. Cold Showers

As much as this sounds like an innuendo, it’s not. If nothing, school has taught us one thing— everything else might be temporary but “go and splash water on your face” to wake up is permanent. All we are doing is taking it up a notch and asking you to move beyond just the face. It helps…. Even if for just 5 minutes.

2. Get Caffeine Infused Foods

AKA get coffee-infused toffees. Making coffee is probably (definitely) the better option but when you have achieved unfathomable levels of laziness and have been diagnosed with the couch-potato syndrome, anything is better than nothing.

3. Do Not Sit and Study on your Bed

You. Will. Fail. There is no way to actually get yourself to study when you can feel that soft bed closing in around you. “Ab toh fail hona bhi chalta h, bas sone do” is all you can think about and when a I-am-just-resting-my-eyes-for-5-minutes turns into a full-fledged 4-hour nap, you wake up regretting everything (including your existence).

4. Power Naps are the Biggest Scam

If someone told you that power naps work, hunt them down. A power nap is one of the biggest scams to exist in this universe, only working out for people who have dedication, determination, and a real will to get themselves to study, and clearly, you have none of these.

Give up convincing yourself with all the 1,000 excuses (itne excuses toh mummy ko nahi diye aaj tak) that you can actually complete everything in one night while sleep comes and goes (more comes and less goes). 10 years uthao aur baki sab bhagwan par chhod do.

Manasvi Kadian

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Arts & Culture

6 Things to Do While Travelling in the Metro

By Sakshi Arora September 16, 2019

Time spent travelling back and forth from college in metro is perhaps, the worst waste of time as a student. Here are a few suggestions to utilise that time better.

It is not new knowledge that students at the University of Delhi (DU) travel from far off places. We all have a friend (or are the friend) who comes from the peripheries of Noida, Gurgaon, Dwarka, and Ghaziabad in metros. Unfortunately, that also means that there’s almost a three-hour long travel waiting every day. The hours in the metro almost all go to waste. However, here are a few ways you can use your metro hours better-

Read books:

It is rightly said that books are everyone’s best companion. Reading is not only a form of entertainment but also, an exercise for the brain. There are books on everything under the sun, be it on romance, or on how to become the next billionaire. Small book shops can also be found near Metro Stations, such as the one in front of the Vishwavidhayala metro station, where books are usually available at a much cheaper price.

If carrying heavy books in your already heavy bag isn’t your thing, you can also invest in an E-Book reader, or download the various apps that are available to read on your phone. Not only are they convenient to use, but also usually provide books on heavy discounts.

Watch a TV show:

Through the various apps available for your phone, watching shows has never been easier. One of the easiest forms of entertainment, watching TV shows is a perfect way to pass your time and get into something new. Travel time provides the perfect opportunity for you to finally watch Sacred Games and shut up all the friends who’ve been asking you to watch it only to hear you say, “time kaha hai.”

Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, all provide a wide variety of content to download and binge on. Depending on how long your travel is, you could catch up on (or re-watch) the twenty-minute episodes of Friends or the hour-long Game of Thrones.

Listen to podcasts/audiobooks:

If you would rather prefer to gaze outside the window or observe the funny kid in the metro, you can do so while listening to podcasts. Recently gained popularity, podcasts are audio episodes which are recorded as a part of a series. There are podcasts on history, food, comedy, news, fashion, and practically everything else. Usually available for free, you can download apps specifically meant for podcasts or listen to them on music apps like iTunes or Spotify.

Image Credits: — *Image Credits*: Lopscoop

If you are into reading but don’t have the patience, you can also explore audiobooks, that has your favourite books read to you by someone. Takes less energy and can also make the story come alive, if read well.

Learn a new language:

You’ve perhaps been planning a backpacking trip in France and need to brush up on your French, or want to learn Japanese to understand your favourite anime better. What better time to finally learn a new language than in the metro? Apps like Duolingo have daily 10 to 20-minute tutorials where you can learn any language you want. Travel hours provide the perfect space for you to learn and practice new languages. And being multilingual is always an attractive trait!

1 (1) — *Image Credits*: Indian Institute of Legal Studies

Finish your assignments and reading:

Contrary to popular opinion, hours in the metro can be used to finish your assignments and readings. It gives you an extra edge over your procrastinating self and you don’t have to slog much when you get back home. Use the travel time in the morning to finish the assignment you have to submit that very day and haven’t started yet. it can even be used to revise the morning before your exams. Not to forget, also leaves you feeling accomplished and productive for the day.

Sleep:

When nothing works out, sleep! Use this time to catch up on your precious sleep before you go back home and get back to work. Be mindful of your surroundings though, lest you end up missing your station, or worse, your wallet!

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Satviki sanjay

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Flicks

Five things that are messing with a DU student’s sleep

By Kriti Sharma August 21, 2016

If you ever find yourself in a Campus-bound metro, particularly on a week day morning, you are sure to notice one common feature on every student’s face: sleep. This apparent sleep deprivation manifests in all forms. Some can be seen sleeping with open mouths while others tend to perpetually yawn, quite contagiously. A few others can be found nodding off every now and then. One category that deserves a special mention here is the ‘martyr’, representing someone who is extremely sleepy yet bravely fights off the urge to doze, via mental engagement (like reading, listening to music or talking).

What baffles me about my observations is that I am yet to find a concrete cause for this trend. I haven’t been able to completely comprehend why DU students are so sleepy in the morning! Most of us are used to waking up early, courtesy – ungodly school timings. Further, you can rule out late night studies, as a majority of us bank on last minute ‘feed your brain all you can before the exam’ study tactics. Then what on Earth is turning DU students into zombies? Here are possible reasons:

A. Endless streaming of series

In the era of Torrents and Netflix, who waits for per day episodes? Most of us just download the entire series and guzzle down 10-12 episodes in one go. The typical scenario: we sit down with season 1 at dusk and reach season 3 by dawn.

B. Social media

I usually switch my phone off after 2200 hrs. Sure, you can call me a prude. But I learnt my lesson when I got extremely addicted to Facebook, Instagram and BuzzFeed during the holidays. It started with a desire to just sift through my NewsFeed post dinner. But then, one link would lead to another and I would end up spending hours pouring over nonsensical updates, thereby, jeopardising my sleeping pattern. I managed to break the cycle, but a lot of us are still caught in it. No wonder our sleep is in such disequilibrium!

C. Parties and outings

Oh yes! Just one (although extremely dear to us) among the many perks of being in college- extension of curfews and new-found independence! How can one get the prescribed 8-hour sleep if one is often partying or clubbing away, that too on week nights?

D. Social calls and commitments

We usually tend to make all our important phone calls during night, because college, society work, tuitions, etc. keep us occupied through the day. So latest gossip, deep and emotional conversations with the best friend, love talks with the better-half or catching up with a school friend is usually done after 2100 hrs, when everyone is taking a breather from their busy schedules. But when the chit-chat turns into a routinely-nightly-mega conversation, we pay a hefty price. Not just in money to the phone company, but also through our heavily compromised sleep.

E. Insomnia

Some of us are just plain unlucky. Because at the end of the day, how does one defy insomnia? Popping pills is not just scary, but also futile. Counting sheep (or the number of times Rihanna, ironically, says ‘work’ in her song ‘Work’) doesn’t soothe the mind either – the catastrophic result? Well, living through the first half of your next day without any sense of consciousness.

I don’t wish to sound like your family doctor, or mother. But the hard fact of life is that 6-8 hrs of sleep for an adult human being is imperative, if one wishes to keep their mental and physical faculties alive and kicking. So I advise all of you sleepyheads out there to fulfill your quota in the method and manner that fits you the best. I’m a morning person, and one thing I can tell you with certainty: mornings are the most peaceful and productive periods of the day. Don’t miss out on them because of erratic and silly habits.

Feature Image Credits: www.everydaypeoplecartoons.com

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5 Ways to Transform Your Fitness This Summer

By Sidharth Yadav June 28, 2015

Surfing the internet, one would easily find a ‘30 Day Challenge with Trainer Chintu’ to transform fitness or a ‘Get Your Summer Body in just 30 Days’. Anecdotes, on offer by the ‘summer fitness market,’ don’t offer much when practically put to use by a college student who has to balance social media, TV shows and academics. It seems as though Whatsapp has set the lower limit to ‘last seen’ as 2 AM for every collegiate. Alas, it is actually the latter that doesn’t sleep before that. Putting the ‘challenges’ to use therefore doesn’t reap anything. Here are five ways in which a collegiate, whose routine fluctuates with mood and engagements can transform his/her fitness this summer:

1. Water: The primary fat burner

Believe it or not, but water, if consumed sufficiently burns fat at a great speed even when the body is at rest. No matter how much you exercise or don’t exercise at all, dehydration can lead to storage of fat in the body. A study done by the University of Tokyo reveals that a hydrated body burns fat three times faster than a dehydrated body. The best way to check the sufficiency of water in your body is to check the colour of your urine, which if yellow hints at the dehydrated nature of the body and if colourless signifies the sufficiency of water in your body. Remember, the next time someone says that they have been exercising for a while but don’t lose weight or that they are fat although they eat very less, tell them that either it’s genetics or lack of water in the body. The latter can always be mended.

2. Don’t starve yourself, rather eat frequently

Starving is the most imbecile custom to stay fit. Not only will the body lose strength and immunity; you’ll also lose fat at a pace slower than a person who eats frequently but clean. Stupid as it may seem, but researches have revealed that eating clean meals frequently (after every three hours) helps in building a better metabolism and constitution. Eating frequently would help those of you in need of some ‘toning’ and also those who are into bodybuilding.

3. The Rule of input and Output

You are what you eat. But who can let go of those chicken rolls and pizzas. Well who told you too? You can continue eating street food and stay fit by burning the calories you eat. Fitness is all about controlling how much, not what you consume and how much of that your burn. Simple math, if you eat more calories and burn less, you’ll gain weight. If you consume less calories and burn more, you’ll lose weight. Therefore, jump onto all those hamburgers, but remember to burn what you eat.

4. Sleep well

Okay! Sleeping before 2 AM is impossible. But even after that, try sleeping for a minimum of seven hours. As per a study, lack of sleep ages you quickly. So, if you feel lack of strength or get tired easily, then focus on your sleep. If you sleep properly, your body will be repaired adequately, you’ll have less black heads or acne and you’ll have a better memory. Try sleeping properly for a week, you’ll see the difference.

5. Look for long term goals

Want to be fit to attract someone in particular? Want to have a body like that actor or actress in the movie? Well, nothing would work unless you strive to be fit for yourself and not to impress others. When the former is there, the latter automatically follows. Love yourself before expecting someone to love you.

Image Credits- www.beautynfitness.com

Sidharth Yadav
[email protected]

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