READING COMPREHENSION PASSAGE (CLASS 9 AND 10)

 Solved Worksheet 10

 

OUR BRAIN NEEDS DEEP REST

Source : Extract from Brain Based Learning By Eric Jensen

1.     Surprisingly, the brain may become more easily fatigued when conditions for learning are less optimal. To get the brain’s best performance, it needs deep physiological rest – the kind in which you are “dead to the world”. Students living in abusive or highly stressed families, areas of high crime or poverty or impacted by trauma are much more likely to be sleep deprived.

 

Learners who live under stress, anxiety, or a constant threat of some kind don’t receive the all-important brain rest needed for optimal functioning: Without it, learning and thinking are impaired.

 

2.     How dramatic is the impairment? At the Three-Mile Island nuclear power plant, sleep loss and exhaustion were blamed for the failure to recognize a coolant leak, which in turn led to a near catastrophic melt down of the reactor. Sleep loss was also a contributing factor in the faulty decision making that led to the Challenger explosion and disastrous Chernobyl accident. At its most extreme, sleep deprivation can be lethal; to a lesser extreme, inadequate sleep impairs new learning.

 

3.     How much sleep is enough? This varies from individual to individual: however, we do know that it is the REM period (the dream state) of sleep that is most crucial. While some adults will require eight to ten hours of sleep per night, other seem to function perfectly well on short quizzes requiring rote memorization, but not as well on extended performance testing that requires stamina, creativity and higher- level problem solving. 

 

 

4.     Researcher Bob Stickgold at Harvard University (1997) suggests that sleep time may affect the previous day’s learning. By cutting night time sleep by as little as two hours, your ability to recall may be impaired the next day. The more complicated and complex the material is, the more important sleep is to the learning of it.  It is believed that sleep gives your brain time to do its “housekeeping” – to rearrange circuits, clean out extraneous mental debris, and process emotional events.

 

5.     One researcher (Freeman 1995) suggests that the real reason for this may be a concept called “unlearning”. Using complex mathematical and computer modeling, he discovered that neural networks can become much more efficient when certain memories are “unlearned”- much like your computer “cleaning up the desktop”. By eliminating unnecessary information (usually during sleep time), the brain becomes more efficient. The fact that you have trouble remembering dreams may indicate how effective your brain is at “cleaning up” your cerebral “house”

READ THE ABOVE PASSAGE CAREFULLY AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS THAT FOLLOW:

1. What is the optimal environment for learning?

To get the brain’s best performance, it needs deep physiological rest – the kind in which you are “dead to the world”. Proper rest and a stress- free comfort zone is essential for optimal learning.

2. What was the reason for a catastrophic melt down of the reactor?

sleep loss and exhaustion were blamed for the failure to recognize a coolant leak, which in turn led to a near catastrophic melt down of the reactor


3. What is the result of sleep deprivation?

Inadequate sleep impairs new learning.

4. How much sleep is required?

Some adults will require eight to ten hours of sleep per night, other seem to function perfectly well on short quizzes requiring rote memorization, but not as well on extended performance testing that requires stamina, creativity and higher- level problem solving.


5. What happens when night time sleep is cutoff?

By cutting night time sleep by as little as two hours, the ability to recall may be impaired the next day.


6. Is unlearning important? Why?

Neural networks can become much more efficient when certain memories are “unlearned”- much like your computer “cleaning up the desktop”. By eliminating unnecessary information (usually during sleep time), the brain becomes more efficient. The fact that you have trouble remembering dreams may indicate how effective your brain is at “cleaning up” your cerebral “house”