Getting into the swing of studying is a bit like pushing an apple cart along a road. The hardest part is getting it going. You have to heave against its inertia, and then gradually you get some forward momentum. A bit more pushing, and finally, you’re rumbling happily along the road.
It’s the same with studying. The hardest part is getting going. You gather some motivation to study, power through the first couple of minutes of resistance, and once you have momentum, things get easier.
But then …
You find your attention flagging. You want to take a break but this can be dangerous. At Brainscape, we know there are two types of study breaks. You can either:
- Take the right kind of break, and get back to studying with more energy and a sharper brain, or,
- Get sidetracked and realize that four hours have vanished on TikTok.
Here’s the important bit: there are good ways to take study breaks.
How to Take Study Breaks—the Right Way
Tip 1. Set Your Boundaries
Like tequila, all-you-can-eat buffets, and Vegas, the most important thing to understand about study breaks isn’t when to start, but when to stop. So before you start your break, decide how long it will be, and set a timer.
The length of your break should depend on how long you’ve been working, and therefore how long you need to recharge. If you’re using the Pomodoro method, take a 5-minute break every 25 minutes. However, if you’ve just spent the last two hours working through difficult math theorems, then a 20-30 minute break is fine.
Set an alarm on your phone or watch to go off when your time’s up. And as soon as you hear the alarm, don’t mess about: get back to studying. This is important. The willpower needed to get you back into the study groove is considerable, so keeping to a very exact time will prevent a 10-minute study break from turning into an hour of procrastination.
It can also be helpful to decide how long you’re going to study before you take a break. This will help you stay focused while studying, and give your willpower that boost to save making an origami chimpanzee for your study break.
Tip 2. Exercise
Exercise is perhaps the most effective way to restore mind and body, with the added advantage of improving concentration. (Pink leg warmers and leotards optional.)
Even a short exercise session of 5 to 10 minutes (a quick walk or set of push-ups) will get your blood flowing and oxygenate your brain. In addition to the physical benefits, exercise aids your memory.
Tip 3. Have Something to Eat
The best foods to eat during your study break are healthy, like fruit, nuts, lean proteins, and slow-release carbohydrates, which are shown to enhance brainpower. Unfortunately, sugary drinks, chips, and highly processed junk foods just aren’t on this list.
Sugar may spike your energy at first but it’s pretty soon followed by a crash in energy levels, thanks to increased production of insulin. This has the effect of making your head feel as heavy as a cannonball, compelling you to rest it on your books and nap the next hour away.
The other danger of snacking is that it’s hard to stop. Even if you get back to study, you may find yourself snacking on it for the rest of your study time. Mixing study with continual snacking isn’t a good option, as you’re diverting energy from your brain to your digestive system.
Tip 4. Read Something
This may not seem like a proper break at first if you’ve been reading as part of your study. But the key is to read something fun and wholly unrelated to what you’ve been working on.
It could be an interesting magazine article, a graphic novel, or a fiction book. Non-fiction is alright, but fiction or humor will give your brain a chance to change gears from analytical to creative mode. If your book’s a real page-turner, set your timer to “obnoxiously loud” to shatter your reverie and signal the end of your study break.
Tip 5. Have a Nap
Napping can be a great way to recharge, provided you keep to certain guidelines. Famous nappers include Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Napoleon, Albert Einstein, and Thomas Edison. They certainly got a few things done in between their naps.
As with some of the other options, successful napping comes down to knowing yourself. Some people are world-class nappers. They can close their eyes, fall asleep, and wake up five minutes later feeling thoroughly refreshed.
Other people try to have a nap and come out of it feeling groggy and awful. If that’s you, then this type of study break may not be your cup of tea.
When planning your nap, it’s important to set a timer so you don’t nap longer than twenty minutes. This should give you enough time to fall into the shallow stages of sleep, but not into the deeper stages, from which you can awaken feeling like you’ve been run over by an 18-wheeler truck. A short nap also shouldn’t interfere with your sleep at night, while a long nap can.
Tip 6. Make a Quick Phone Call
This one can be a great way to catch up with friends and put your mind into a completely different state so it can recharge. Just don’t call that friend whose life is an endless series of dramas.
In other words, if you don't have the kind of relationship where you respect each other's goals and can say ‘Thanks for the chat, but I have to go now,” then this tactic isn’t for you.
Otherwise, calling a friend is a nice way to break things up. And you can complain about having to study as well.
The Inverse Strategy for Taking Study Breaks
The last way to think about study breaks is to switch everything on its head. Sometimes, doing the opposite of what you’d normally do is the best way to get things done in half the time it usually takes you, and that’s where Brainscape comes in.
Brainscape is an online flashcard study tool that breaks complex, knowledge-intensive subjects down into bite-sized pieces of information. Students using it halve the time it takes them to learn difficult information due to Brainscape’s adaptive spaced repetition algorithm.
Here’s how it works. Instead of studying and taking study breaks, you're taking breaks from the rest of your life to go study. This means breaking your study into many small bite-sized portions you can scatter throughout your day.
When you use a study app like Brainscape, it’s easy to do this in short 5-10 minute rounds. With the mobile app, you can use those in-between times to learn what you need to in order to pass your tests.
You can study:
- On public transportation.
- While drinking your morning cup of joe.
- On the treadmill (yes, it is possible to study while exercising).
- Waiting for your partner to finish doing their makeup/piano lesson/kung fu session.
You get the picture. The most successful people are good at managing their work-life balance. When you have big goals, it doesn’t always have to be a tradeoff between Study Now vs. Live Later. Especially if you have the right tools to study productively, anywhere, at any time.
Taking Good Study Breaks: A Final Word
Studying can be hard—but taking the right kind of break makes all the difference. Whether you're doing push-ups between problem sets, calling a friend for a quick chat, or diving into a fiction book to switch gears, good study breaks help reset your brain so you can come back more focused and energized.
The key is to be intentional: set a timer, avoid sugar crashes, and give your brain the kind of rest that actually helps it recover.
And if you're still struggling to find the time or motivation to study in long stretches, flip the script. With Brainscape, your “study breaks” can become your study sessions. Our bite-sized flashcards and spaced repetition algorithm make it easy to sneak in high-impact learning throughout your day—on the train, in the kitchen, even mid-pilates (hey, we don’t judge). Big goals are built in small moments, and with Brainscape in your pocket, every moment counts.
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