Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: thedoc on 06/10/2013 23:19:35

Title: Why is it so hard to stay awake in lectures?
Post by: thedoc on 06/10/2013 23:19:35

Why can it be so hard to stay awake in class? Even topics I was really interested in would have me drifting off around the 30 min mark, no matter how hard I tried to stay focused.
Asked by Susan Banyai Howard


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[chapter podcast=1000514 track=13.10.01/Naked_Scientists_Show_13.10.01_1001395.mp3](https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenakedscientists.com%2FHTML%2Ftypo3conf%2Fext%2Fnaksci_podcast%2Fgnome-settings-sound.gif&hash=f2b0d108dc173aeaa367f8db2e2171bd)  ...or Listen to the Answer[/chapter] or [download as MP3] (http://nakeddiscovery.com/downloads/split_individual/13.10.01/Naked_Scientists_Show_13.10.01_1001395.mp3)

Title: Why is it so hard to stay awake in lectures?
Post by: thedoc on 06/10/2013 23:19:35

We answered this question on the show...

Jason Rihel - Yeah, so that's a very good question and I see it in my students and I [img float=right]/forum/copies/RTEmagicC_sleeping_student.jpg.jpg[/img]see it among the faculty when they have a seminar at even once that they are particularly interested in. I think it’s a combination of sleep deprivation. So, you're not sleeping perhaps enough and then during a lecture, you're getting a period of quiet restfulness. Maybe the lights go down, and those are all being triggers to say, “Hey, maybe you should go to sleep now. You didn’t get enough sleep last night.”