Incoming freshman? Here’s how to refresh after a long vacation

Coming back to school from summer vacation can feel disruptive and unmotivated for most students. For some freshmen, however, this case can be much worse due to their extended break, causing them to struggle in readjusting to new settings. 

Most freshies, especially those who came from public high schools and enrolled in public universities, experienced a very long summer vacation, with some being three to five months long. This wide gap between days being in school can make some students feel like their brains have shut down during the break. 

Research shows that long breaks, such as summer vacation, holidays, or winter can affect students’ work ethics and lower their motivation to put in effort in studying. This happens because the rhythmic routines that the body relies on a daily basis to maintain consistency in work effort becomes disrupted in the midst of enjoying the break.

So the question lies: how do they actually refresh their brains to cope with academic stuff again?

A great place to start is by fixing the sleep schedule. Due to the unstructured routines students experienced during breaks, sleeping times may come randomly, sometimes early, sometimes very late. 

Studies have shown that having enough quality sleep not only avoids mental health conditions but also improves overall academic performance. Though, while quality is very important, consistency is equally so to keep safety, health, and performance in check. Hence, a regular sleeping schedule can help in resetting the brain to perform at its best while coping with going back to school.

During long-term breaks, psychologists say that students may experience cognitive decline to which their brain power deteriorates due to the lack of academic stimulation, resulting in losing about a month of school learning, on average. 

To combat this decline and restore academic performance, medical institutes state that performing light tasks may help in easing back into a routine that was disrupted, either in work or in school. 

For students, this may be done through simple brain exercises such as short reading, solving simple equations, and completing puzzles to stimulate the brain back into its academic state.

Moreover, research shows that activating the body physically may also help in putting performance into the brain as the improved blood flow from physical activities help sharpen it and promote cognitive performance and emotional stability.

Furthermore, reduced workload in breaks encourages extended procrastination, which in this digital age, commonly comes in excessive screentime. Such habits may be brought along while returning to school, causing distractions and once again disrupting rhythmic routines and brain function. Thus, lessening these distractions can significantly help in refocusing on academic performance.

Incoming freshmen can sometimes face overwhelming factors in returning to the academy, especially in a new school or university: new environment, different subjects, unfamiliar faces, and many more. And while some of them came from long summer vacations, the effects of it are not all positive to their performance. 

These methods can be a game changer for them to sharpen their minds again before venturing into their college journey.