High school and college students tend to spend between 10 and 20 hours per week studying, and when they have to prepare for the finals, that number can go up to 40 hours per week with the books in our hands. The place where you choose to learn the material will affect your knowledge and the overall results. Many students choose to study in their bedrooms while lying on the bed, and here we are going to give you some information about why that is the worst thing you can do for you and your education process.
You are less likely to process information
Comfort is a priority, but when you sit down to study, you want to finish the whole thing faster. When we are sitting behind a desk, we can focus on the task at hand, and it is easier for us to memorize the material and to process the information.
On the other hand, when you lie down on the couch, you will be distracted by everything, after a while you will start feeling back and neck pain, and you will get up to look for other things to do every 10 minutes. You will have to go through the material several times before you remember even one sentence or one equation.
Back pain
This is something that should worry you the most and this is the biggest reason why you should stay away from your bed when you need to prepare for an exam.
Every time you sit in an uncomfortable position, you are applying pressure to your back. When you do this once in a while, it won’t do too much damage, but if you do this all the time, for years, you will mess up your spine, and you risk suffering from a lot of health conditions. When we are young, we don’t understand how much damage we do by laying on the mattress when we want to read or prepare for an exam.
According to Ergonomics Health, when you choose the right desk, you protect not only your back and spine but your whole body. You won’t feel any pain in your neck and shoulders, it will be easier for you to find a comfortable position to take notes, and you won’t feel exhausted when you are done learning.
Not enough room
Unless you have a king-size bed with a portable desk on top of it, there is not enough room for you to study while you are in your bed. If you want to be productive, you need enough room for all of your books, notepads, and even pens and markers.
These days most students use their computers or tablets to study, but they are definitely not enough. When you sit down behind a desk, you can create a space that will allow you to see everything, write things down, take notes, and read your material. Don’t wait until you fail several exams to realize that the horizontal position is not the right one to finish your tasks and projects.
You cannot take notes
Nowadays we use our laptops to study, read, and to do everything else we may need to do. However, what happens when you need to sit down and solve an equation? Studying in bed may seem like a good option when you need to read something, but when you are more in a horizontal position than a sitting one, it is almost impossible to take notes.
When you are in bed, or on the sofa, you cannot actually do anything productive, and even though you may be able to read your history book, you won’t be able to underline anything that should be remembered and you will easily get distracted.
Studies have shown that students who try to learn while laying gown are less likely to pass the exam than those who sit behind the desk.
You are more likely to get bored and fall asleep
Our brain is wired that our mattresses are made for sleep and that when we lie day, we should rest. So, when you do anything else there but rest, we confuse our minds and that can lead to two things. The first one is you not being able to fall asleep and get early signs of insomnia, and the second one is not being able to do anything else on the mattress but sleep.
Because of that, you should try not to study, eat, or do anything else in the bedroom. When you need to get some rest, go, and lie down. But if you need to eat, put makeup on, or learn something new, avoid this room and do all of your tasks in the living room or any other place you feel comfortable in.
If you’ve noticed, most people say that when it comes to something as simple as skin care routines or putting on makeup, the best place to do that is behind a desk. When we compare this to our education, we have to learn that how we do things will affect the results.
Procrastination
This is something everyone faces. When we have to do something we don’t enjoy doing, we find a million other things that are more interesting. We look at our phones, watch TV, and we even get up to clean our homes or exercise.
When you have a separate space for your tasks, your brain is more likely to understand what has to be done, and you are more likely to start going through the material without delays.
There are a lot of studies connected to this, and you should test the theory on your own. Try to see how much time you need to start reading when you lay down on your bed, and how many breaks you take. Then, compare that data and see how fast you open the books when you sit behind the desk, and how many distractions you have. You will notice that you are actually saving time, and learning a lot more when you have a separate space for studying. You don’t need to spend the whole day with your books to cover all the material, you just need to be focused.
The next time you have to study, sit behind a desk, and see how much the whole process will improve. Don’t risk your knowledge and your health for some imaginary comfort.
