How to NOT Fall Asleep While Reading (Complete Guide)

We all know that reading is an essential skill for everyone to have. It is not only crucial for your future but also for your mental health.

However, many people find reading difficult because they fall asleep or don’t feel motivated to read.

But if you have a coming midterm test or a presentation, you would have no choice but to study more than usual. And in such a case, it may seem that the solution is to stay up late and read.

However, staying up all night can be a severe challenge to those who easily fall asleep when studying and can lead to poor performance at school or work, affecting your confidence.  

If you want to stay up while reading, go somewhere public, use good lighting, read aloud, ear or drink something healthy, or get a reading buddy.

In this article, you will find some more valuable tips that you can use to avoid falling asleep while reading and why reading makes you sleepy. If you can understand why reading makes you sleepy, you can better apply the tips we will discuss in this article.

Let’s get started!

How to avoid falling asleep while reading

There are many reasons why people fall asleep while reading, but one of the main ones is that people often read in bed.

If you want to avoid falling asleep while reading so that you can comprehend as much as possible for an upcoming test, exam, or presentation, then take a look at the tips we will discuss in detail below.

1. Correct your posture

One of the best methods to avoid falling asleep while reading is to sit in the correct position. Typically, most people lie down when they study, which needs to be corrected if they want to stay awake so they can read longer.

The best way to correct your posture when reading is by sitting up straight in a chair with back support. Correcting your posture and sitting upright allows you to stay alert and focus on the reading material.

Yes, getting into a more relaxed position while studying may be tempting, but doing so might set you in the mood for sleep.

A study done in 2014 examined the effect of sitting or lying down on working memory performance. The results showed that when participants were lying down for the test, they reported sleep quality had a negative effect on their performance. However, when participants were seated upright, performance was unaffected by sleep quality.

So how does this relate to preventing sleepiness when reading? 

Sitting up can help you stay focused and alert if you’re fatigued.

Additionally, you might want to try standing up and leaning against a wall while you study, or you could try moving around, which could improve your blood circulation and thus keep you from falling asleep.

2. Eat or drink something healthy

It’s easy to justify an energy drink as a way to keep you awake. 

According to the National Sleep Foundation, sugar is the one thing you want to avoid if you plan on staying awake while reading. 

The National Sleep Foundation writes, “consuming too much sugar during the day can lead to an energy crash. Eating lots of sugar reduces the activity of what are called orexin cells. As a result, you’re going to feel pretty sleepy.” 

Additionally, eating sugar right before bed causes you to have a restless sleep making you feel exhausted the next day.

3. Go somewhere public

Sitting out in public makes you probably less likely to fall asleep while studying. 

Think about it. You must keep an eye on your belongings; plus, nobody wants to be seen fast asleep in public.

To avoid falling asleep while reading, head to a coffee shop, a restaurant, or a bookstore and bring along your study material. Make sure it is somewhere energizing too. If the environment is relaxing with soothing music and dim lighting, that could put you to sleep.

 4. Read at your desk and not in your bed

Suppose you like to read a good book in bed before you get some shut-eye, great! Dr. Raman Malhotra, associate professor of neurology at the Washington University Sleep Center in St. Louis, Missouri, agrees that reading can put your mind and body in the right mindset to sleep. 

However, when it comes to reading something like a textbook, that’s one thing you don’t want to associate with sleep. 

The difference between reading your textbook while sitting at a desk versus your bed can impact whether or not you stay awake while studying.

5. Use good lighting 

Reading in a dark area causes your body to release melatonin, a hormone that makes you feel sleepy. 

Also, reading in the dark can be very tiring for your eyes and lead to headaches and eye strain. A wonderful way to avoid falling asleep while reading is to use good lighting or read in an environment that is well lit.

The use of good lighting will make it easier for you to read, reduce eye strain, and help you stay awake and read faster.

6. Read aloud 

If you have been reading for a while and feel like you are about to fall asleep, it is time to try something different. Read aloud! 

Reading aloud enables you to stay more engaged in what you are reading. It also improves your comprehension skills by ensuring that you hear every word you are reading, making it easier for your brain to process the content.

7. Have a good exercise and sleep routine

Exercising and sleeping go hand-in-hand. Each day, get out and get your heart pumping. The more you exercise, the more energized you’ll feel. 

Exercising regularly also promotes sleep. Getting a full 8-hours in each night is the right amount of sleep you need for a fresh start each day.

According to the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, not getting enough sleep is the worst thing you can do for yourself. 

They explain, “First, a sleep-deprived person cannot focus attention optimally and therefore cannot learn efficiently. Second, sleep has a role in memory consolidation, which is essential for learning new information.” 

So what’s a stressed and tired college student to do?

Developing a good exercise and sleep routine can help alleviate stress and increase your energy so you can read without feeling sleepy. 

8. Don’t expect to do it all in one go

Reading an entire textbook in one evening is possible, but whether or not you’ll fall asleep while doing so is up in the air. 

You may get bored or miss out on important information. Or you could end up rereading paragraphs because you’ve encountered something that requires discussing with your professor.

Set realistic goals, take breaks, and break down the reading material into pieces, all of which will help you avoid falling asleep while reading. 

You’ll be more productive and be able to memorize the material more effectively than trying to learn everything in one evening.   

9. Get a reading buddy

Finding a reading buddy is an exciting way to prevent sleepiness while reading. 

When you find someone with similar interests as you and read with them, this will help you stay engaged in the reading material.

Your reading buddy could be a family member, a work colleague, or a coursemate. With a reading buddy at your side, you are responsible for each other, ensuring that the other does not fall asleep because of boredom or lack of interest in the material.

10. Read actively

Actively reading your study material can help you stay awake. If you actively take notes, highlight important text, underline main ideas, or read out loud as aforementioned, your brain will stay more active, and it will be harder for you to fall asleep. 

In addition, you will retain information better.

Why does reading make you sleepy?

It is not a surprise that reading can make you sleepy. Most of us can give accounts of one time or more that we dozed off while reading without even realizing it. 

But the issue is, why does it happen? Why do we feel sleepy when we read?

One theory suggests that reading causes the brain to release serotonin, making the body feel more relaxed and sleepy. 

Another theory suggests that the brain becomes exhausted from focusing on reading for extended periods, which can lead to sleepiness because it needs time to recover from its attention span being used up.

In this section, we’ll discuss some of the most common reasons reading makes you sleepy.

You’ve had a long day

If you’ve had a long, stressful day at work or in class, the tendency is high that you won’t be able to find the energy to read.  

And even if you tried, because you are so tired, you won’t be able to keep your eyes open. 

Furthermore, most people read lying down in a quiet place which sets them into a state of relaxation and sleepiness, and it doesn’t take long before they are drooping and their heads start nodding off.

Tired eye muscles

Reading requires a lot of eye movement. This is because our brains process written words one letter at a time. 

When you read, your eyes jump from word to word, line by line, and page by page. This constant eye movement can make the muscles around the eye tired, especially if you have been reading for long hours. And that’s when you start feeling sleepy.

In addition, reading in a low-light environment can cause your eyes to get tired because the eye muscles need to work harder to compensate for the dim light.

Reading about a boring topic 

Reading is a wonderful way to unwind, but it can also make you feel sleepy if you’re reading something boring.

A material that is interesting or engaging will keep your brain awake longer to process what’s happening in the story or article.

When you read, your brain has to work harder to process the information, and if the information is boring or complex, you might start to feel sleepy. 

In this case, you may have to give your brain a break to process the information it has received or find much more engaging material to read and keep the complex material for later when you feel much more alert.

Conclusion

Feeling sleepy while reading is a common problem, and chances are that you have experienced the phenomenon of falling asleep while reading. You may have been able to stop yourself from nodding off, but it was a close call.

If you are in college, you have a lot of reading on your plate, which is why the tips discussed above are crucial to helping you perform better in school.

If you often feel sleepy while reading, highlight the tips on your notepad and post them where you can see them, then begin to apply them to your reading schedule.

Indeed you will begin to immediately notice that you can stay up longer, read faster, and comprehend the reading material better. 

In addition, speed reading is a great skill to learn if you want to improve your brain capacity to pick up information faster before you feel sleepy due to fatigue. 

Feel free to learn more about the speed reading courses we offer today at Iris Reading. By getting through your textbook at great neck speed, you’ll study more in less time and be more prepared for your next exam.