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The literature indicates that glucose deprivation, dehydration, decreased sleep quality and quantity, and mood changes, independently and adversely can influence cognitive functions and therefore learning. The Ramadan fast is an annual religious act undertaken by Muslims where individuals refrain from consuming food and fluid during daylight hours, daily over 30 days. Alteration in eating times and sleep–wake cycles lead to a disruption in the body's daily circadian rhythm resulting in sleep perturbations and mood swings. Consequently, Ramadan fasting is linked to daytime lower glucose concentration, dehydration, decreased sleep quality and quantity, mood swings and elevated subjective feelings of fatigue and malaise. This review highlights how Ramadan fasting potentially poses learning difficulties as a result of the independent and/or combined effects of these factors.

Prolonged sitting has a detrimental effect on lipid metabolism and insulin sensitivity leading to increased risks of metabolic conditions. Attendees at conferences typically sit for long periods during oral presentations. The use of visual cues or ‘just-in-time’ (JIT) prompts during oral presentations can inform audiences about the deleterious effects of prolonged sitting and encourage them to avoid sitting for long periods. It remains unclear whether these ‘just-in-time’ prompts used in conference settings are effective in reducing prolonged sitting. The ‘just-in-time’ prompts were used in two separate conferences—one focused on health and the other on language. Ten oral presentation sessions were randomly assigned to the experimental group (EXPT, with the JIT prompt) and ten oral presentation sessions to the control group (CON, without the JIT prompt). In both conferences, the proportion of the attendees who stood up (i.e. did not sit) during the oral presentations in the EXPT conditions was less than 10%. The main finding was that the use of the JIT prompt to discourage prolonged sitting at the health conference where attendees were likely to be knowledgeable about the dangers of prolonged sitting was ineffective (EXPT vs CON conditions, p>0.05; ES=0.69) compared to conference attendees at a language conference (EXPT vs CON conditions, p