Expect More, Pay Less

After yesterday, my legs were pretty sore. I didn’t even play that hard, but apparently, I’m in a lot worse shape than I thought I was. There wasn’t anything I really wanted to do today, but I slept through dinner, so I had to go to Target for some sustenance. The reason I was even sleeping when it was dinnertime was because we learned earlier in class that when you sleep, your brain consolidates what you’ve learned and it becomes easier to recall new information. However, we also learned that higher fitness levels can contribute to improved performance in difficult cognitive conditions, so while I have the sleep part down, it looks like I’m going to have to get back in shape.

The study we actually went over involving fitness showed that kids in the top 30% of their fitness percentile at that age performed significantly better on recall tests than kids in the bottom 30% of their fitness percentile. However, this was only true when they took the test without taking a practice test beforehand, showing that the largest difference in performance came during the most difficult task. Self-testing is a study strategy known to help improve recall, so it makes sense that the fitness effect would have higher impact on the task without the self-test. I found this interesting, because I knew that nutrition had an effect on how well your brain performs, but I had no idea that your actual fitness level was a factor.

After class was done, my group and I finished up the Method section of our research paper at the library, and I went home and napped until around 6:30 PM, until Olivia came up to my room demanding that we go to Target so she could buy sweatpants. I had to buy some more Aquaphor for my lips anyway, so I obliged. We ended up buying a lot of food, and totally forgot all about the sweatpants and Aquaphor. When I stay up late studying, I rely on junk food to keep me awake, so I guess it’s not a bad thing to have a good supply. I’ve been to Target so many times in the past few days that my phone now automatically connects to the internet. I don’t know how I feel about that.

Scenes from Target.

After Target, I went back to the dorm, ready to implement what I learned in class about how sleep can benefit learning. However, when I got to the door and reached for my ID card, I realized that it wasn’t there. After a quick mental rundown of everything that had happened since I left, I came to the conclusion that it was stuck in my room. I texted George, and went to do my work while I waited. Pretty soon, it was around 11:00 PM and I was mostly done with everything, so I texted him again, and he didn’t respond. Worried that I would get locked out of my room, I went to the front desk and they gave me a 6-digit PIN. George is usually sleeping by 11:00, so when I opened the door and he wasn’t there, I was kind of alarmed. He was actually just showering, though, so nothing really happened. The whole episode was pretty strange, from my unexpected ability to recall that I had left my ID on my desk to George being awake that late (for him). I guess the sleep did help with my memory, after all.