7 Science-Backed Health Tips for Students to Increase Focus

Whether you are a school student handling exam pressure, or preparing for a competitive exam. It’s common for health to take a back seat while chasing academic goals. You ignore sleep, diet, and mental health. Neglecting your health can also affect your exam performance. After all, you don’t want all your efforts wasted, just because you fell sick before the exam or you were burnt out. 

In this blog, we’ll go through 7 science-backed health tips for students to increase focus and performance in exams.

Tip #1 7-9 Hours of Quality Sleep

Everybody tells you that in order to score well, you need to study for long hours, and sleeping less to cover more subjects does not seem to be a bad idea anyways. So you start sleeping less, replacing sleep with caffeine, until you are chronically sleep-deprived.

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Chronic sleep deprivation is doing you more harm than good. It affects your long-term memory, so you find it difficult to recall whatever you have learned. You find it hard to focus and solve complex problems. 

Sleep is the time when your body restores itself, and whatever you have learned during the day gets consolidated into your long-term memory. If you need to choose between studying and sleeping late, then choose sleep, as it helps your brain retain what you have already learned.

Tip #2 Exercise Everyday

Regular exercise works in multiple ways to improve your health. Just 20 minutes of light to moderate exercise helps to increase focus and learning. 

• Increases blood flow to the brain, delivering more oxygen and nutrients.
• Triggers the release of BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), a protein that promotes the growth of new neurons. 
• Reduces stress hormone cortisol.
• Activates the sympathetic nervous system, increasing alertness. 
• Better mood and higher energy levels.

If you are studying on a tight schedule, then try doing 10 minutes of bodyweight exercises during study breaks. And if you have time, doing an intense workout once in a while will help you return to studies with better focus.

Tip #3 Practice Meditation

Meditation is a simple practice that brings your attention back to the present moment. Whenever you feel overwhelmed with too many distractions, or have too many subjects to study. Before you begin your study session, take a minute to close your eyes and focus on your breathing. Breathe in for 4 counts, hold for 4, and exhale for 4. 

Even a few repetitions of this activate the parasympathetic nervous system, reducing stress and anxiety. You feel less panicked before exams and more attentive.

Tip #4 Connect with Nature 

The next health tips for students might sound confusing, but leave the books and laptops for some time and go for a walk in the park. Let your mind breathe. When you look at nature, trees, and birds, your mind starts to enter a rest state. 

Exposure to nature, even if it’s through a window in front of your desk, helps your mind to recover. If there is no green area around your house, then add small indoor plants around your desk. Also, play ambient sounds of rain or wind in the background. 

Tip #5 Follow a Nutrition Plan

Even if you don’t have the time to cook elaborate meals, meal prep in advance for the week. It allows you to have healthy meals throughout the week, with minimal effort. Your brain also needs proper nutrition in order to function properly. Especially, healthy fats like omega-3 fatty acids improve learning and memory. From chips and ultra-processed snacks, switch to walnuts, flaxseeds, and eggs. 

Increasing your water intake throughout the day also helps you feel more active. Even if you want to drink coffee, don’t drink more than 1-2 cups a day. Excess of caffeine can lead to energy crashes and increased restlessness.

Tip #6 Minimise Distractions and Create a Focused Study Environment

A clear space leads to a clear mind. When your attention jumps from one object to another, it’s hard to learn anything. Each break in attention is a lost opportunity, as focus does not return quickly once it is lost. The easiest way to focus longer is to put away your phone and turn off all notifications. 

Use the same place for studying every day and use it only for work. It makes it easier to focus as soon as you enter that space. Don’t keep extra items on your desk, only keep the study material you need. If your environment is loud, use noise-cancelling headphones with white noise or brown noise to minimise distractions.

Tip #7 Take Strategic Breaks and Active Learning

Think of attention like a muscle, if you use it too much, it gets fatigued. After short spans of focus, your brain needs rest. During breaks, get up from your desk and do something completely different, like exercising. 

Active learning allows your brain to engage more with the information and view it from different perspectives. It’s better than passively reading the same material again and again. The easiest way to practice it is to read a topic from the book, close it, and scribble whatever you understood from that section. This way, you remember what you studied for longer and quickly spot the gaps in your understanding. 

Astrological Link- Mercury, The Planet of Learning 

While the above science-backed health tips for students increase focus, astrology also offers a unique perspective on learning. Mercury rules over thoughts, memory, communication, analytical skills, and logical reasoning. 

When Mercury is strong, the mind works faster, you can recognise patterns and solve problems. You can understand new ideas quickly. But when the Mercury is weak, the mind feels scattered. You start forgetting things, and learning feels heavy. 

Mercury also shows the areas you are naturally interested in. A strong influence of Mercury in your chart makes you a curious person who’s always ready to learn.

If you ever feel distracted for no reason, and you can’t seem to focus no matter what. Look up at the sky, it might be Mercury retrograde. Mercury goes retrograde 3-4 times a year. It’s your sign to go inwards, instead of focusing on the outside world. It’s best to use these periods for revising something old, rather than learning something new. 

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The easiest ways to strengthen your Mercury are- 

• Add green elements like plants to your space.
• Face the North direction while studying.
• Chanting the mercury mantra “Om Budhaya Namaha” on Wednesdays.
• Help younger students with learning. 

Taking care of your body and mind is the first step to achieving success in any exam. By working with the natural rhythm of your body, you get to feel more energised and focused. And these health tips for students are all interconnected, better sleep improves memory, exercise makes it easier to focus, time in nature reduces stress, and the right study environment removes distractions. Along with this, strengthen your Mercury to naturally get better at problem-solving and learning.

FAQs

Q1. Which health tips for students reduce exam stress?

Sleeping well, exercising, and consuming light meals before the exam help in reducing exam stress. If you feel panicked, then deep breathing exercises can help you relax. 

Q2. What are the best health tips for students in school?

The best tip is to minimise time spent on social media and stay physically active. 

Q3. Is it good for students to drink coffee?

Consuming coffee in moderation helps to increase focus and alertness. However, too much caffeine disrupts sleep and increases anxiety. 

Q4. What type of exercises are best for students?

Bodyweight exercises and home workouts that you can do between study sessions are best for including in your routine. 

Q5. How long do I need to meditate to improve focus?

Start with just 3-5 minutes daily. Even 5 minutes of daily meditation helps to calm the mind and boost concentration.