STATUTORY WARNING: The ideas being presented below have not been tested in any laboratory. Try them at your own risk.
10. Eat Well
This is somewhat an equivocal statement. How you interpret it depends on the situation.
For instance, it is always advisable to have breakfast in the morning. Here "eat well" translates into "have food".
On the other hand, one of the best known methods to stay awake in the class is - "Avoid heavy food."
9. Sleep Well
Again depends. (Am I being too diplomatic?)
Try doing a "night out" and attend classes. It feels like hell.
Converse is also true.
Try attending a lecture after you had a wonderful dream and you'll know what is heaven and what is hell.
8. Bathe well
Again depends. (What is all this crap? Sounds like a tape recorder on an infinite loop?!)
There are days when I have taken a nice shower and gone to the class all charged up only to find my friend waking me up at the end of the lecture.
7. Exercise Well
I have tried almost everything. But nothing seems to work.
Some time back, I started exercising before going to the class.
I would run one round of the 2.2 km stretch or go to the gymnasium.
Aerobic exercise supposedly gets your blood circulating and keeps you awake.
But that is theory. It didn't 'work out'.
6. Take a deep breath
This is some advice I got from some well wishers.
Deep breathing is supposed to increase the oxygen supply to the brain and keep you alert during an important lecture.
Works! But only for a few days! :(
5. Back Counting
Start from 100 and back count to 1. The best I have gone is to 64.
There are variations you may try out - prime numbers, Fibonacci sequence.
But (as the cliche goes) it simply doesn't work.
4. Talk well
Works! But unfortunately, some professors get really annoyed if you gossip in class.
Moreover, talking is a little counter-productive and the whole point of attending the lecture is lost.
3. Bunk Classes
Counter-intuitive. Why bunk a few good lectures just to stay awake in the somnolent lecture?
Nevertheless, Bunking serves as a welcome break and one can come back to the next class without any reason to feel exhausted.
2. Sketch/Scribble/Anagram/Ambigram/Whatever
The professors can serve as ideal subjects for caricature/sketch/whatever. This has proved to be one of my best strategies to stay awake in class. Just scribble away and stay awake!
1. This is going to be Reader's Choice. You can leave your ideas as comments to this post. The best one gets nominated as the 1. Strategy to Survive a Somnolent Lecture.
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