How to Use Your Mind: A Psychology of Study: Being a Manual for the Use of Students and Teachers in the Administration of Supervised StudyKitson, Harry Dexter
Science
How to Use Your Mind: A Psychology of Study: Being a Manual for the Use of Students and Teachers in the Administration of Supervised Study
Kitson, Harry Dexter
Study skills
Dreams constitute one source of annoyance to many, and while they are
not necessarily to be avoided, still they may disturb the night's rest.
We may avoid them in some measure by creating conditions free from
sensory distractions, for many of our dreams are direct reflections of
sensations we are experiencing at the moment. A dream with an arctic
setting may be the result of becoming uncovered on a cold night. To use
an illustration from Ellis: "A man dreams that he enlists in the army,
goes to the front, and is shot. He is awakened by the slamming of a
door. It seems probable that the enlistment and the march to the field
are theories to account for the report which really caused the whole
train of thought, though it seemed to be its latest item." Such dreams
may be partially eliminated by care in arranging conditions so that
there will be few distractions. Especially should they be guarded
against in the later hours of the sleep, for we do not sleep so soundly
after the first two hours as we do before, and stimuli can more easily
impress themselves and affect the brain.
Before leaving the subject of sleep, we should note the benefit to be
derived from regularity in sleep. All Nature seems to move rhythmically
and sleep is no exception. Insomnia may be treated by means of
habituating one's self to get sleepy at a certain time, and there is no
question that the rising process may be made easier if one forms the
habit of arising at the same time every morning. To rhythmize this
important function is a long step towards the efficient life.
EXERCISE.--Brain workers do not ordinarily get all the exercise they
should. Particularly is this true of some conscientious students who
feel they must not take any time from their study. But this denotes a
false conception of mental action. The human organism needs exercise.
Man is not a disembodied spirit; he must pay attention to the claims of
the body. Indeed it will be found that time spent in exercise will
result in a higher grade of mental work. This is recognized by colleges
and universities by the requirement of gymnasium work, and the
opportunity should be welcomed by the student. Inasmuch as institutions
generally give instruction in this subject, we need not go specifically
into the matter of exercises. Perhaps the only caution that need be
urged is that against the excessive participation in such exhausting
games as foot-ball. It is seriously to be questioned whether the
strenuous grilling that a foot-ball player must undergo does not
actually impair his ability to concentrate upon his studies.
If you undertake a course of exercise, by all means have it regular.
Little is gained by sporadic exercising. Adopt the principle of
regularity and rhythmize this important phase of bodily activity as
well as all other phases.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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