Anyone know of any good Nootropics they use to improve study skills?

[Raihan Mirza]

I am sure many people in SFN has heard of Nootropics. Referred to as "smart drugs" and "smart nutrients", are substances which boost human cognitive abilities (the functions and capacities of the brain). Typically, nootropics are alleged to work by increasing the brain's supply of neurochemicals (neurotransmitters, enzymes, and hormones), by improving the brain's oxygen supply, or by stimulating nerve growth. Keeping the brain's neurotransmitters at high levels improves concentration, mental focus, calculation ability, memory encoding, recall, creativity, mood, and cures and prevents most depressions. So I was wondering has anyone here on SFN developed their own Nootropics which they feel is effective in their academic studies?

[Bluenoise]

Developed their own?

likely not.

 

But you may want to try Creatine. It's not just for building muscle mass. And will provide fairly steady results.

Resveratrol may also have a simular effect. Though the jury is still out for this and likely wont be back from vacation for a good long time.

 

Caffiene has an incredibly pronounced effect. Unfortunatley it tends to last only an hour or so, and then you crash. If you take to much then you'll get the oppisite effect.

 

napping is probably the most effective method. Lots of sleep for the night, and then a powernap everytime your head gets tired.

[senthilkumar]

As far I understand, your cognitive abilities cannot be increased by taking "smart drugs/nutrients".

Existence is indiscernible if no difference is between existence and nothingness.

[tyciol]

The brain is chemically composed to alterations in it's chemistry should effect changes (positive or negative) in intelligence, memory, thinking speed, etc. It's a shady field of study but I don't think it's right to say there would be no effect.

 

I didn't know that creatine could have nootropic advantages, I had mostly only heard of it's athletic ones, definately a reason to try it out I guess. I know exercise has been shown to be beneficial for the mind too, so I think that could partially explain any advantages it provides, but there could be direct ones too.

 

The problem with caffeine is that while it does greatly increase focus and energy, the wiki entry I read on it said some studies showed it to decrease memory encoding. Which means it's perfect to take for when you write a test, but not necessarily when studying for one. It can help you get through the study session or keep you up when you are tired, but if comparing an equivilent amount of time it may be a less effective use of study time.

 

Of course, studying prior to a test can be more effective in some cases, especially for memorization of terms, so caffeine's aid in doing that should be taken into account, and I'm not sure if the study did that. It's just more a sense of, even if it lets you pass that test, would the knowledge you demonstrated in it stick around or would it simply be in your temporary memory to be lost? It sort of seems that way when burning the candle with coffee for an exam.

[Bluenoise]

Creatine functions as a phosphate buffer. At times of extreem muslce activity it functions to keep ATP level constant, and allows the same level of activity to continue for longer than normal. I'd assume that it has a simular function in the brain.

Body builders use it since to allows them to exert their muslces alot quicker.