There you are in the wee hours of the night logged into a rack and trying to remember how the get NHRP to register in on the Hub Router in your DMVPN lab. You’ve configured DMVPN a number if times in the past but this time you’re running on fumes. You’ve had a long day at work. The kids/dog/wife/girlfriend/football game were demanding attention earlier and you couldn’t resist. Now your sitting in front of a terminal going cross-eyed and denying yourself some much needed sleep because you swore to yourself that you would finish this lab tonight. This situation is near and dear to my heard because I’ve done it before- many times. But what would you say if I told you that you may be doing yourself a disservice. In fact, what if I told you that you could probably finish the lab in half the time if you just went to bed and picked back up in the morning. Well guess what? That may in fact be the case.

Your Body Needs Sleep!

Our good friend Wikipedia has a little to say regarding Sleep an learning. Specifically it states that “recent evidence suggests” that sleep may consolidate and optimizes the layout of Procedural Memories. Exactly the type of memories that you may need for that DMVP solution your working on late at night. Relate that to the CCIE Lab for example, and we learn that Procedural Memories are long term memories, which is what we want come lab day.

An article by the Franklin institute states the following:

“Adequate sleep is crucial to proper brain function”

and

Any amount of sleep deprivation will diminish mental performance, cautions Mark Mahowald, a professor of neurology at the University of Minnesota Medical School.

The List Goes On

Paper after Paper, blog after blog, and research project after research project highlight the link between sleep and learning. Here are just a few that I found rather interesting:

Good Night’s Sleep and Learning are Linked to Each Other

Brain Basics: Understanding SleepGood sleep, good learning, good life

What sleep research can teach us about unlocking learning potential: Crucial Student Study Skills

Again, these are just a few that I found interesting. There are literally “Thousands” more!

The GlobalCongfig.net Recommendation

It’s pretty simple here:

Get Some Sleep!

Perhaps make the early morning hours your study time as I did in the final stages of my CCIE preparation. You can start the day off with a fresh mind and potentially have a more productive study session, wheter you are working on the CCIE, CISSP, JNCIE, or any other technology that you are studying.

Staring at a computer screen for hours is no fun. Staring at a computer screen for hours when you can’t focus is a nightmare. There have been many studies done on the effects of caffeine. One such study indicates that “The short-term effects include an increase in blood pressure (a health hazard for some) and elevate neural activity in many parts of the brain.” The result ends up being the postponement of sleepiness. Well that’s what you want right? You’re working on the CCNA, NP, IE (Really any test you can think of) and you have a limited time to prepare. What do you do? Many turn to the effects caffeine has on the body. Coffee, multi-hour energy shots as well as a slew of energy drinks have become commonplace today. While they may keep you awake, the question is, are all their effects for the good?

Negative Effects May Be Lurking

The positive effect one seeks in using Caffeine is related to it’s action on the nervous system. The negative effects are also related to the nervous system. Some known effects include:

restlessness

jitteriness

dehydration

arrythmias

It’s also thought that less time is spent in REM sleep, which is said to be the most essential part of ones sleep.

Another negative effect, as discussed in the article “How Caffeine Affects Test Taking in College Students” states that the effects that people seek in taking caffeine is reversed as it wears off. Still it’s been seen that the effects differ from person to person.

What Should You Do?

Simply put; Know Your Limits. The reason I bring this topic up is that in my personal CCIE studies I would put my children to bed at 9:30 PM and then down an energy drink. It gave me the energy I needed to study until 3 AM some nights. Did that time benefit me? To a certain degree I believe it did, but not to the level of quality that I would have liked. I often found that I would get to the point where I had to walk away because I couldn’t think clearly anymore. I wasn’t “tired” so-to-speak, but I was lacking the ability to focus. So in your personal studies take it easy and spend some time searching for the study method that will give you the most beneficial, most enjoyable experience. You may discover that your studies may not include the use use of caffeine.

Sources:

<li><a href="http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/caffeine/NU00600">http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/caffeine/NU00600</a></li>
<li><a href="http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro99/web3/Howard.html">http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro99/web3/Howard.html</a></li>
<li><a href="http://connected.waldenu.edu/issues-in-education/school-health-and-safety/item/1142-how-caffeine-affects-test-taking-college-students">http://connected.waldenu.edu/issues-in-education/school-health-and-safety/item/1142-how-caffeine-affects-test-taking-college-students</a></li>
<li><a href="http://clearinghouse.missouriwestern.edu/manuscripts/204.php">http://clearinghouse.missouriwestern.edu/manuscripts/204.php</a></li>