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Sleep Deprivation

by piyushdabomb » Wed Mar 17, 2010 6:48 am
I started working on Overlapping sets yesterday (I believe after spending a good 4-5 hours studying) and wasn't able to get any of my overlapping set questions right. Likely because I was too tired.

I came home worried and in fact I didn't sleep all night thinking about this GMAT and how I didn't get my questions right. I wanted to jump right back in it during the middle of the night to fix my problems. I forced myself to 'let go'.

My questions:

1. Do you guys sleep at night with your GMAT on your head?
2. How do you 'let go' of problems. I try to tell myself that on my practice problems. I can't and it's killing into my sleep.
3. I told myself that I'll stick to ONLY 2.5 hours a day. I overshot it yesterday (I didn't think I went through all my material successfully). Could this be a reason?

Please help me. I don't want to do this again. I'm thinking that if I don't sleep by 11pm, the GMAT is going to take over my next few months. I can't afford a loss of sleep.
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Sincerely,

Piyush A.
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by carrillo1228 » Wed Mar 17, 2010 7:18 am
Hey,

To help you in your questions:

1) I do go to sleep with GMAT in my head.... but then I start thinking about things I'm looking forward to AFTER the GMAT and that lets me sleep like a baby..... (vacation in the summer, pool, family, etc)... A beer before going to bed helps you go to sleep faster. I was reminded of that yesterday.
2) The way I think of 'letting go' of problems is I tell myself...... out of 37 Q questions and 41 V questions.... what are the chances of a question very similar to this one appearing once again? The takeaway you need when doing problems is conceptual. Take a step back and look a birds eye view from 5,000 feet in the air, and not 10 feet high.
3) Probably could..... I don't know where in the world you are, but here in NY where I live, the weather is starting to get very nice..... go for a run- the endorphins will help you get pumped up and feel better (as does beer- pick your poison I guess).

If you can, depending on your schedule take a day off from studying to clear your head. Hang out with friends / family if you can. Try not to let it consume every waking moment.

Hope this helps.
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by piyushdabomb » Wed Mar 17, 2010 7:52 am
Carillo,

Thanks so much. I live in DC and the weather is starting to get awesome here. Believe it or not, I'm a runner. I run marathons, and just signed up for Ironman next year :). I definitely have my endorphins going for me.

Regarding my 2.5 hours, I think I need to just say "f-it" to the topic and move on. I was thinking about this last night but I think that rather than me starting a topic that I can't finish, don't start it at all. It was bad planning on my part. I thought that at midnight I can drill through as many questions (assuming i'd get them right after studying 4 hours non-stop). Obviously it didn't work.

Isn't beer before sleep bad for you? Doesn't it dehydrate you before that?

Summer time, women, and cocktails...Sounds nuts but need it.
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Piyush A.
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by carrillo1228 » Wed Mar 17, 2010 8:05 am
Hahha, Yeah, definitely hit the track and just run like the wind.

Regarding beer before sleep? Logic would point me to yes....... Maybe drink a beer and a taller glass of water behind it? Come to think of it, I did wake up thirsty this morning and had a taller glass of OJ... :-P

Summer time is great... lets just get the GMAT out of the way!

My target date is April 30 pending work and if not May 30, and you?
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by beatthegmat » Wed Mar 17, 2010 5:14 pm
Have you ever thought about doing some meditation prior to sleep? Maybe for 30-min before going to bed, remove any extrasensory distractions (phone, TV, GMAT) and simply chill out.

I'm really bad at doing meditation myself (I love getting distracted), but in the days that I do meditate, I find that I sleep better. Also, exercise helps as carrillo noted already.

Good luck!
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by harsh.champ » Thu Mar 18, 2010 4:55 am
A Strategy that works for some ppl is this:-
Think of ur practice tests as GMAT.
Before the practice test day,make yourself calm just as u would do before the actual GMAT day.
This way if you have given 5-6 tests you will not feel anything thats out of place on the penultimate day.
It takes time and effort to explain, so if my comment helped you please press Thanks button :)



Just because something is hard doesn't mean you shouldn't try,it means you should just try harder.

"Keep Walking" - Johnny Walker :P
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by RumpelThickSkin » Thu Mar 18, 2010 6:29 am
OP,

I am a runner myself and ran 8 miles yesterday. All I could do was think last night was how to tackle GMAT quant inspite of all the calorie burning!!! This GMAT really does get into your head!!!


All the best with it,
RTS
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by arzanr » Thu Mar 18, 2010 1:13 pm
I was just thinking about this issue today.. what a coincidence. I'm having REAL problems sleeping at night. My exams at 8am in less than 2 weeks and I'm trying to get in to the habit of sleeping early but I'm unable to get sleep before midnight and then end up not waking up before 8:30ish. Like last night I made sure to go for a run, come back and do a practice full math set and have orange juice instead of coke or coffee but I still couldn't get sleep after being tired from running and studying all day ending with a timed math test. I tried to go to bed at 10:30, gave up by 11 and then watched a couple of episodes of family guy before I finally dozed off. And in the morning I caught myself in that semi dream stage where I could swear I was dreaming about odd numbers and even numbers!
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by beatthegmat » Thu Mar 18, 2010 2:56 pm
arzanr wrote:I was just thinking about this issue today.. what a coincidence. I'm having REAL problems sleeping at night. My exams at 8am in less than 2 weeks and I'm trying to get in to the habit of sleeping early but I'm unable to get sleep before midnight and then end up not waking up before 8:30ish. Like last night I made sure to go for a run, come back and do a practice full math set and have orange juice instead of coke or coffee but I still couldn't get sleep after being tired from running and studying all day ending with a timed math test. I tried to go to bed at 10:30, gave up by 11 and then watched a couple of episodes of family guy before I finally dozed off. And in the morning I caught myself in that semi dream stage where I could swear I was dreaming about odd numbers and even numbers!
Hm...maybe you could really benefit from my meditation recommendation above. The fact that you're dreaming about odd and even numbers is not healthy!

Keep trying to go to bed early--and don't worry, it will all be over in just 2 weeks! Good luck!
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