Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ Beyond Human the use of sleep to consolidate new material

Now I have read that if you sleep after you have studied something, you will consolidate it much better than if you did not sleep. What I want to ask is: if this is so, then it is not possible to always have the optimum learning for everything throughout the day since you can only sleep for a long period at night. However, it is possible to nap. Does anyone here or at LS use napping in order to help new material to be learnt quicker? Or is something such as the use of personal genius AND memory supercharger just as effective as napping?

Any thoughts will be appreciated,

Cheers,

Kenneth

"To always have an optimal anything for everything is impossible. (Violation of
the meta-model, remember?) But more to the point, Optimal Learning doesn't necessarily happen in this moment and then it is done. There are studies that show retaining information requires that you come back for review on several subsequent occasions.

"Sleeping seems to release a buildup of adrenisone too, but what that has to do
with learning? I have no idea."

Paul's also a napper. Plus, he said, "I think that any Paraliminal including the 10-Minute Supercharger can lead a person
into deep theta or delta brain rhythms. Those seem to be the consolidators. I feel that 10-15 seconds in delta is enough to produce a tremendous benefit to my brain."

After a great hiatus from all this learning/meditation stuff, I returned last week and have instituted a 'playful' form of photoreading/break-taking. I strongly desire photoreading and tai chi mastery and will attain both in due time.

Here's what I've been doing more or less: studying intensely for 30 or so minutes. Then, relaxing intensely with a paraliminal tape or with quickish meditation for 15 or so minutes. It's like tag-team--very unregimented. And they both complement each other greatly.

If you are a student, you may want to try something like this. Spend one day a week doing all your school work for that week. Essentially sacrifice the entire day and all forms of distraction to tagteam meditation and learning.

You can get A LOT done and you can listen to MANY different tapes or practice qigong during break.

I've been doing this for the first week of the semester and yesterday... I tell you, I don't know, it was... like... kind of like Pete's relation of the day he felt euphoric in 1999. Like everything was right. I felt high almost. A bundle of joy. I had the velvet breath too--a sure sign.

Yesterday was so powerful to me that I changed my master quote from "Just Do It" as Paul recommends in NB to "Just Bliss Out and Play". :-)

Just bliss out and play!!!
(makes me laugh whenever I think about it)

Oh, by the way, I have that Goethe quote pinned up in my room.

I think Paul Scheele's right about the 'optimal learning' - you can't have optimal learning all the time (though I have little knowledge of the meta model). I've decided to use the personal genius to get into state and the memory supercharger as the consolidator (as you guys suggested).

But as for napping, I nap now and then. If i get up early then I find I am tired around 2-3 or so (psychologically speaking, that is the lowest 'dip' in our circadian cycle). But how long should naps be for? I read that anything over an hour puts you into deep sleep and if you wake up shortly after you will feel 'groggy' since you have been awakened from this state. So, shorter naps are supposed to be better -- but how can I regulate this, without giving my body a jolt with the alarm?

Brian-- yes I am a student still, so maybe this 'cramming' at the beginning of the semester may well be a good idea. Your post seems to suggest this is to be a weekly thing...I thought that spread over the week, you retain more of what you learn and can space your study and leisure time better. However, I know that people like Buzan and others recommend the 'cramming' at the beginning of the semester. Oh, I do understand that your 'tag-team' idea replaces the short 5 minute breaks, and instead of having a 15 minute break every 90 minutes you have one every 30 minutes.

The only problem with a huge cram on one day, I was thinking, is that if you photoread during those 30 minute blocks then you would be activating the material the same day. However, if you were studying something else, such as learning some foreign vocab or something, or had photoread all the stuff before, then it would work well.

Sometimes I don't know what people mean when they say 'study'. For me, it seems quite specifically photoreading oriented (and much of that is the activation process or application of the material), though others may have different ideas.

Cheers,

Kenneth

What if you were to make this tagteam learning into a way of life? You'd become a learning/enlightenment machine.

from idea-seminars.com:
"Read one hour in your field per day and in 3 years you will be a top expert in your field. In 5 years you will be top expert in the country, and in ten years a top expert in the world."

Well, using that same logic, read 10 hours in your field per day and in ONE year, you'll be a top expert in the world!!! This would surely require a great sacrifice of time... but the payoff!

Also, you could potentially accumulate an enormous amount of meditation and paraliminal change each day.

...not a bad way to spend a year!

The only problem with a huge cram on one day, I was thinking, is that if you photoread during those 30 minute blocks then you would be activating the material the same day.

I'm trying to do things a little differently this semester by photoreading and postviewing all of my reading material for the semester within the first two weeks. Then, as Paul suggests, using the lectures as activation, then reading the matieral right after lecture.

I also (unfortunately) have the general attitude that my studies in school are a burden. I very much have to force myself to study for my classes.

Sometimes I don't know what people mean when they say 'study'.

Studying for me is the drudgery of learning that which you are forced to learn.