The Importance of Study Breaks

Today, students are studying less in contrast to previous generations. Nonetheless, students are still spending an estimated 14 hours a week crunching the textbooks, which is roughly 2 hours a day. In addition to the time spent on studying, students tend to take study breaks to do other activities like checking social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. In Canada, individuals between the ages of 18-24, visited approximately 900 pages between January 2009 and March 2010. These visitors also spent almost 500 minutes per page during the time interval.

Interestingly, a recent study conducted by Stanford University indicated that the “urge to refresh” isn’t as significant as one would think. The research discovered that the necessity for taking a short breather from studying comes from one’s head. The concept of retaining one’s focus and concentration by restoring one’s body with rest, food or other physical activities may not be all true.

In fact, researchers of this study have found that individuals who have a stronger willpower are better at multi-tasking as opposed to those who feel the need for periodic breaks. Students who believed in the strength of their minds and willpower, and are convinced to persevere through the heavy workload, tend to perform better. Conversely, those who lack belief in their willpower and determination, have inadequate concentration levels compared to others and tend to procrastinate more.

However, I am not suggesting that students should sit in front of their textbooks or computers and race through 10 hours worth of reading without getting up and taking a break. Despite of the research mentioned earlier, I personally believe that short breaks are essential to one’s health. Studies have found that individuals who live a sedentary lifestyle, where one is often physically inactive, tend to have a “larger waist line and blood fats.” The research has also discovered that the more breaks one took, even as short as a minute, the smaller their waist is. During the study, the most active individuals’ waist line was precisely 4.1 cm smaller than the inactive ones, indicating the significance of adopting a physically active lifestyle.

Whether you take study breaks or not, learning to develop good time management skills in university will help you achieve academic success and your professional career in the long-run.

Beyond the Article:

Looking for ways to manage your time better? Check out an article about Work Smarter! Ready, Set, Go!

Try some relaxation exercises for your study breaks to combat stress, click here to learn more about these techniques.