Studying

Post Reply New Topic

Some people study in cafés (how?), some people study with music, or with friends.

I find all the above impossible. I even can't study in a library, because there are too many people passing by, which are distracting visual stimuli. When I study, it has to be so quiet that the drop of a pin would be loud.

I have a neighbour whose daughter has tantrums at around 7pm every night. I have had panic attacks as a result.

When I study I must be alone because presence of others disturbs me. I can't imagine how someone can study listening to music. Listening to music, I concentrate on it, not on the knowledge I'm going to acquire.

I used to study with music playing. If it is too deadly quiet, I notice background noises such as the humming of appliances. At work, I don't mind construction noises. That is the noise of progress on the new library being built. I hate the beeping sounds of computers, though. That drives me nuts!

Same here.

I try to study on the train but it's impossible!

I honestly think they only pretend to study.

I agree. Being of typically heightened sensitivity you would expect it to be a little harder for Aspies to deal with collateral inputs.

Aural stimuli always affect me the most I think. Especially music. One of my NT class peers revises with Heavy Metal music blasting through his headphones!

In order to be able to concentrate on a task I need to listen to music or have other very unusual high sensory input. Other noises than music get the typically autistic reactions out of me and I cannot explain why music is making such a huge difference.

The overall need for stimuli in order to be able to focus isn't very usual for autism though, yeah.

I too can't study unless it's quite. I can't read or sleep that way either. I can't comprehend how people can study or read with MUSIC on. Completely incomprehensible to me. My brain focuses in on the other thing, and I can't concentrate. Same thing happens at night-if I hear talking (from TV or whatever), my brain focuses on that rather than letting go (and it's hard for it to let go period).

I've just recently told this story-but in fourth grade the teacher turned on a stereo as a "reward" for being good. I couldn't stand it, and she moved me to the opposite side of the room-which was better than nothing. She acted totally surprised that everyone wouldn't love it. (It doesn't help that besides not being able to study with music, I also can't stand the heavy metal-type music that dominated the airwaves in the late 80's.)

I can appreciate how such a scenario might prove beneficial to you and perhaps others though. The constant rhythm and predictability of music probably helps to soothe your senses through occupation of a substantial mental 'bandwidth'; other inputs become relatively less significant too.

What other high sensory input do you find beneficial?

My son picks out one piece of music from Nintendo that plays over and over again. It's very relaxing. That's what he does to get himself into a study mood.

When I'd have to try to explain what goes on in my head, I'd describe it as a soothing of the chaos indeed. When it is quiet, my eyes just find something they can turn to and that draw my mind into it. Then my thoughts start to wander... and I totally forget that what I was doing!
When music is playing, I hear it and it keeps my mind 'awake' so that I can focus at the same time on tasks like boring homework, but I don't listen to it consciously. It functions like a remembrance that I shouldn't let my mind wander.

Other than music I find a rough and uneven, but not cold ground very good for concentrating. I can imagine sitting on stones that are warmed by the sun (I already did that and found it very enjoying) and although it's not the most comfortable thing to sit on, it helps to concentrate on facts about biology or something similar that I need to learn by heart.
I also like to turn on TV and mute it, just to have the sensation of slight buzzing on my skin and in my ears in the background. I just realised that, it's rather silly, but yeah, it helps.

I can't think of more right now.

I do this also. It has to be relatively specific music, though - I usually listen to classical of some form, or something so messy that it's almost white-noise. If I can make out lyrics, I latch onto them and can't concentrate on anything else, thankfully I'll usually latch onto the beat and harmonies instinctively and find it pretty hard to make the lyrics out on most music, so what others listen to doesn't bother me so much it's intolerable.
It helps for me, I think, because "studying" inherently means reading or writing something I'm not all that interested in. If there's nothing else to at least partly focus on, I'll just get bored. (Special interests/obsessions, on the other hand, need no background music.) Oddly, I find it exceptionally difficult to focus on reading a book with the TV on, or any music other than totally lyricless classical. I can still do it, but it requires a lot of concentration, and I find myself re-reading pages and paragraphs so often that I'll just give up, most of the time.

I need quiet to study, period. I can't study in environments where there is a lot of stimuli, noise or otherwise.

For me i would need 2 be alone n it has 2 be quiet no noise wot so ever.

Hahaha yes I agree, I think that they're trying to show off their studently-ness.

Yes, music is highly annoying.

The learning support teacher told me once that she tried to revise for a university exam with music on, and she found that she learnt the lyrics better than the notes she was trying to learn.