This is the time of year that is high stress for college and university students. With final papers coming due and exams underway, many students put their wellness aside for a few weeks, chugging coffee and staying awake late into the night. It’s easy to rationalize these negative habits because it’s a) only a few weeks, and b) we often think that devoting as much time to studying as possible is the best way to success.
In reality, studies show that the opposite is true.
Research on the Importance of Breaks for Learning and Recall
A 2021 study by the National Institutes of Health showed that taking breaks is essential to learning new skills and forming memories so that we can recall learning. Leonardo G. Cohen, a senior author of the study, notes that “wakeful rest plays just as important a role as practice in learning a new skill. It appears to the period when our brains compress and consolidate memories of what we just practiced.”
An earlier study from 2018 found that university students who exercise breaks (50 second jumping jacks or other callesthenics) built into a lecture found the material easier to understand, to remember and and had better focus.
Our distractable brains are not designed to focus for endless periods of time. Inevitably, our minds drift away and we end up thinking about dinner or what we need to do before going home. You may have witnessed this tendency for our minds to wander away during a meditation session or at the end of a yoga class in Savasana. Even when we try to focus on something as simple as the breath, our mind has other ideas!
For students studying and writing, it can be very helpful to support them in taking breaks from their work. I’ve seen some great examples of efforts to encourage students to take healthy breaks.
This is just a sample, but I’m sure there are many more out there:
- Ideas for Winter Study Breaks from UBC’s Chapman Learning Commons
- Study Break programming from the Terrapin Learning Commons at the University in Maryland, which offered workshops on creating healthy snacks, art, meditation and yoga
- University of Arkansas Libraries has a robust lineup of events this exam period!
I would be remiss to miss mentioning some events at my own Library, including Pop-Up Pups, Library Yoga (with yours truly) and warm inspiration. Students spend a great deal of time in the library at this time of year so it makes sense to offer support in taking healthy and restorative breaks.
What is a healthy break?
To reap the most benefits, a break should include at least one of the following elements:
- movement
- connection
- rest
- contrast
Movement is a wonderful way to relieve physical and emotional tensions that can build during periods of research and writing. Many libraries offer yoga programming to support this type of healthy break. I won’t go too much into movement since there are a few other posts on the topic (on stretching, yoga, and physical activity). The 2018 study above greatly supports taking an active break to increase focus and memory.
Connection is an interesting element to consider, as many of us use breaks to scroll through social media. Kang and Kurtzberg’s 2019 research suggests that phone use is “cognitively taxing” and does not offer the brain the same recovery as another activity. In an older article, “Your Brain on Facebook,” author David Rock notes that there is a difference between connecting with others online vs. connecting in person:
“The circuitry activated when you connect online is the seeking circuitry of dopamine. Yet when we connect with people online, we don’t tend to get the oxytocin or serotonin calming reward that happens when we bond with someone in real time, when our circuits resonate with real-time shared emotions and experiences.” ~ David Rock
This suggests that there is a difference between connecting with a friend IRL on a break will much more relaxing than connecting online.
Rest is another element to consider when taking a break. There are times when what our brains need most is sleep and that need simply can’t be met by drinking more coffee or (clearly!) by doing some jumping jacks. According to the Sleep Foundation (US organization), college students sleep roughly 6.36 hours per night during finals, which is nearly 2 hours less than what they need.
The academic library’s role in supporting sleep has been written about in the library literature (see Mary Wise’s 2018 article here) and the library has been a go-to place to nap over the years, even before designated sleep stations!
Contrast to the current activity is another way to ensure that the break is truly restorative. For example, moving from a computer screen to the phone screen isn’t going to reduce eye strain or allow your brain to recharge. Moving to a different type of activity allows our brains the opportunity to switch over into a different way of processing information.
For example…instead of sitting and playing a game on your phone
- bundle up and take a walk outside
- do something tactile like colour or use a fidget toy (or Lego or playdough, lots of options)
- stretch at your desk
- meet a friend to have coffee
We all need to take breaks in order to work more effectively and avoid burnout. As students spend increasing amounts of time in our buildings at this time of year, we can support their needs for healthy breaks too.
Until next time!
~Justine
References
Ariga, Atsunori, and Alejandro Lleras. “Brief and Rare Mental ‘Breaks’ Keep You Focused: Deactivation and Reactivation of Task Goals Preempt Vigilance Decrements.” Cognition, vol. 118, no. 3, Mar. 2011, pp. 439–443.
Buch, Ethan R., et al. “Consolidation of Human Skill Linked to Waking Hippocampo-Neocortical Replay.” Cell Reports, vol. 35, no. 10, June 2021, p., doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109193.
Fenesi, Barbara, et al. “Sweat So You Don’t Forget: Exercise Breaks During a University Lecture Increase On-Task Attention and Learning.” Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, vol. 7, no. 2, 2018, pp. 261–69, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2018.01.012.
Kang, Sanghoon, and Terri R. Kurtzberg. “Reach for Your Cell Phone at Your Own Risk: The Cognitive Costs of Media Choice for Breaks.” Journal of behavioral addictions 8.3 (2019): 395–403. Web.
Rock, David. “Your Brain on Facebook.” Harvard Business Review, 23 July 2014, https://hbr.org/2012/05/your-brain-on-facebook.
Wise, Mary J. (2018) Naps and Sleep Deprivation: Why Academic Libraries Should Consider Adding Nap Stations to their Services for Students, New Review of Academic Librarianship, 24:2, 192-210
Barre with Justine 
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