memory, sleep, and study skills

8/8/2019 Memory, Sleep, And Study Skills

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´Memory, sleep, andstudy skillsµ



What things are to be remembered?

How much memory do I need?

Other things being equal, a richly

filled and tenacious memory is a

precious resource



Do not overload the memory with every notion, fact,

image, quotation, available. Junk !

We fill up our minds, but only with useful things

Memory overload is injurious to personal thought and to

attention



It is a capital rule to bring the memory into the general

current of our intellectual life, to make it share in our

vocation

Specialisation ± concentration on the principal object

Memory as ecstasy ± memory of the ³parrot´ versus

³inspirational´ memory

Body hygiene



One·s memory must not be chaos The worth of every experience

depends on its connection, itsgrouping with other experiences

Merely to accumulate recollections is

to make them all unusable and

inevitably to recover them only by

chance

Never attempt to commit to memory

what you have not meditated on



Look always for what connects this thing with that, what

conditions are necessary for this and for that; let this co-

ordination, and not scattered fragments, fix itself in your

memory

How does an airplane fly?



A well-ordered mind is like a genealogical tree, in which

all the branches spring from the trunk and so

communicate with one another

Studying by explaining to oneself what has just been

studied

³Gyroscopy´



The primordial, the fundamental, the simple, whence

complexity arises step by step and through successive

differences, is what supports memory, as it does

knowledge

The basic definitions

The early chapters

³Company Law 201´



A new idea acts retrospectively; a torch throws its light

behind as well as before

A good book read throws more light on previous ones

that were ill understood

A poorly understood

theme after a time interval

will always give new insight



Order in mind and memory protects

us from excessive strain

What is useless, what finds room in

chaos, finds none in an organised

whole

Note taking and organisation for

exams



There are in every subject-matter a few

ideas that govern the whole

Every book is a commentary on a single

idea

Every philosopher spends his career

elaborating one single theme



Explain the process of food digestionto me

This overall view is usually obtained in the lecture or atthe first reading. This is the first memory and thefoundation of all additional memory

³To everyone that hath shall be given and he shall

abound´



How they can be remembered?

Aerobic exercises

Concentration

Socialise

Sleep

Reduce stress

Eat well

Avoid depression and emotionalinstability



T he 5 rules of St. T homas Aquinas1. To set in order what one wants to remember

2. To apply the mind deeply to it

3. To think over it often

4. When one wants to recollect it, to take the chain of

connections by one end, which will bring the rest with it

5. To connect the memory of intellectual things with that of

sensible things



(1) T o set in order So when you want to remember, notice the connections

and the reasons of things; analyse them, look for the whyand wherefore, observe the genealogy of happenings,

their order of succession, and their dependent

consequences



How many letters here can you remember?

FBIPHDTW AIBM



Now how many can you remember?

FBI PHD TW A IBM



(3) T o think over it often Life obliterates the traces of

life ± need to run the toolover the lines again

Agitation of mind is

detrimental to thought - a

peaceful life, passion-free,is necessary for the good

use of memory

Panic before exams



(3) T he faculty of admiration, and youth of soulin face of nature and life, also contribute tomemory

We should retain that openness to being swept off our

feet by a high value

Mary was swept off her feet by the Annunciation and

went hurrying to the hill country to visit Elizabeth andshare her joy with the latter

All the Apostles were practically swept off their feet by the

encounter with Our Lord, including Peter at the waterside

An interesting lecture or lecturer

An interesting topic or a fresh topic



(4) When one wants to recollect Take advantage of that fact of mutual dependence

between thoughts and impressions

Mnemonics

Gyroscopy



(5) Cultivation of necessary contacts

Sensible things are the proper object of the intellect and

belong to memory of themselves, the others indirectly, byaccident

³The difficulty of novel-writers nowadays seems to me to

be this: if they do not go into society their books are

unreadable, and if they do, they have no time to write.´

Society is a book to read, even though a commonplace

book

Footsteps in the snow of St. Josemaria

³Tomate y leer´ of St. Augustine



(5) Cultivating the necessary contacts

Purely bookish knowledge is fragile; it suffers from the

defect of the abstract

Amiel to himself: ³You are a captive balloon, see that the

rope holding you to earth does not wear thin´

What is dreaming but thought cut off from the outer world, thought that has ceased to will?

Practicals, clinicals, experiments, excursions

Application of acquired concepts to reality: newspapers,

get-togethers, television

The ³inquisitive´ and ³acquisitive´ mind



Sleep and study

skills



Sleep Sleep, natural state of rest characterised by reduced

body movement and decreased awareness of surroundings

Sleep versus hibernation or coma

All mammals and birds sleep, but scientists are unsure if reptiles, fish, insects, and other life forms sleep

In general, large mammals tend to sleep less than small

mammals



Mammal sleep requirements

Giraffe 2

Horse, elephant 3

Cow, goat, donkey, sheep 4

Man (adult), pig, rhinoceros 8

Mouse 13

Koala, giant sloth 20



Kinds of sleep Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep: short, rapid EEG

waves, eye movements, associated with dreams,complete muscle atonia

Non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep: large, slow EEG

waves, no eye movements, no dreams, muscle tone

present, slow breathing and heart rate, low bodytemperature and pressure



EEG recording of REM sleep highlighted by red line: short, rapidwaves



REM and NREM sleep



T he physiology of sleep (1) EEGs have shown that during a normal night, humans

cycle between REM sleep and NREM sleep in veryregular patterns

In adults aged 20 to 60, REM sleep occurs about every

90 minutes

In this 90-minute cycle, humans fall into progressively

deeper stages of NREM sleep, then cycle back through

the stages until they enter REM sleep, and then the cycle

begins again

In a normal night, the number of REM periods varies from

4 to 6, depending on the length of the episodes and the

total time asleep



T he physiology of sleep (2) REM episodes in the beginning of the night usually last

about 10 minutes and, during the night, growprogressively longer, lasting up to 30 minutes in the early

hours of the morning

Most adults spend about 20-25% of their total sleep time

in REM sleep; it is common for one to wake for a shorttime at the end of a REM phase

REM sleep is generated by a region in the brainstem,

called the pons, and adjacent portions of the midbrain

The neurons most critical to NREM sleep control are in

the basal forebrain, the region of the brain lying in front of

the hypothalamus



T he physiology of sleep (3) Research has shown that REM and NREM sleep may

serve specific biological functions

Sleep deprivation studies show that depriving subject of

one type results in more of that type in next sleeping

period

REM sleep: memory storage, procedural memory

NREM sleep: recollection and amplification of recent

memory



Sleep patterns among students



Sleep patterns among students-2 Recent study suggests that REM sleep plays an

important role in consolidating the day's events intomemory

Single 8-hour sleep versus two 4-hour spells or a 5-hour

and a 3-hour combination



T he work of the night Sleep is a relaxation of tension; the conscious will lays

down its function, ceases to trouble about living, aims atno purpose, and largely surrenders itself to mother nature

The transmission belt of the human motor now passes

from the free-will of the individual to the free-play of

cosmic forces (paths unknown to clear consciousness)

Our inner powers are grouped in a new way; our

thoughts arrange themselves; the intersect; the energy

set free by the cessation of activity is used effortlessly

For the intellectual, sleep itself is work, daily toil

Sleep as a windmill or a river with installed turbines

How will you set about this?



T he work of the night (2) S ometimes, no particular ingenuity is required. When you

wake, you find the collaboration of sleep all performed

and recorded. The work of the previous day appears to

you in a clearer light; a new path, a virgin region lies

before you; some relationship of ideas, of facts, of

expressions, some happy comparison or illuminating

image, a whole passage perhaps or a plan ready to berealised, will have surged into your consciousness

The habit of St. Josemaria; scrap papers; diary

Inspirations at Mass or morning prayer

Sleep works of itself, but it works on existing material; its

work must be prepared

The custom of the monks; the custom of St. Josemaria

Call things to your mind as you fall asleep; restfully, off

course



Rest is not death; it is life, and all life bears fruit. While

you yourself can gather the fruit of sleep, do not leave itto the birds of night



T he common virtues Virtue potentially contains intellectuality, for, since it leads

to our end, which is intellectual, virtue is equivalent to thesupreme knowledge

In man there is a mutual interdependence of virtue and

truth (knowledge). The faculty of discernment has its

safeguard in the soul

Virtue is the health of the soul; and health affects the

sight

³How will you manage to think rightly with a sick soul, aheart ravaged by vice, pulled this way and that by

passion, dragged astray by violent or guilty love?´



T he common virtues (2) St. Thomas Aquinas: ³The exercise of the moral virtues,

of the virtues by which the passions are held in check, isof great importance for the acquisition of knowledge´

How can we explain this?

On what does all the effort of study depend? Onattention, which delimits the field for research,

concentrates on it, brings all our powers to bear on it;

next, on judgment, which gathers up the fruit of

investigation. Now, passions and vices relax attention,

scatter it, lead it astray; and they injure the judgment in

roundabout ways



T he common virtues (3) Let us turn briefly to psychology

The ³psychology of the feelings´ governs practice [I ambetter at things that I like], but also to a large extent

thought

Knowledge depends on the direction given to our

passions and on our moral habits. To calm our passionsis to awaken in ourselves the sense of the universal; to

correct ourselves is to bring out the sense of the true



T he common virtues (4) Let us carry the analysis further: What are the enemies of

knowledge? Sloth: grave of the best gifts

Sensuality: weakens the body; befogs the imagination;

dulls the intellect; scatters memory

Pride: dazzles and darkens with our own spirit and makesthe universal truth escape us

Envy: refuses to acknowledge any other light but our own

Irritation: repels constructive criticism

Without these obstacles, a man of study will rise toheights greater or less according to his resources and his

environment; but he will reach the level of his own gifts,

of his own destiny



T he common virtues (5) Now let us get to the summit !!

³Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God´

Purity of heart requires purity of soul

At the summit of things, the true and the good are not

only connected, but are identical

Gnoseology

Life of prayer

The Holy Mass

Struggle to acquire virtues

memory, sleep, and study skills

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