Having learned everything through reading by myself, my impression is that it helps to read in a way which enables the subconsciousness to cooperate. E.g. reading not only one text, but browsing related surveys etc. too, seemingly 'just very superficial' browsing gives the subconsciousness de facto a lot of usefull inputs. Not ignoring and counteracting signs of exhaustion or tiredness, e.g. during sleep one processes the read texts. Continuing reading even if something puzzles one or one can't solve an exercise on spot (I found that most difficult to do)- in most such cases one just forgot some tiny info or one's mental image of the issue in question is a bit confused, what corrects by itself anyway. But stopping reading would just waste time. And, of course, puzzlement is a good way to activate the subconsciousness. When I tutor students, I express it by an analogy: "If you climb a mountain, you stumble only over small stones, not over mountains. So, one should notice such stones, but not take them too serious".

Having learned everything through reading by myself, my impression is that it helps to read in a way which enables the subconsciousness to cooperate. E.g. reading not only one text, but browsing related surveys etc. too, seemingly 'just very superficial' browsing gives the subconsciousness de facto a lot of usefull inputs. Not ignoring and counteracting signs of exhaustion or tiredness, e.g. during sleep one processes the read texts. Continuing reading even if something puzzles one or one can't solve an exercise on spot (I found that most difficult to do)- in most such cases one just forgot some tiny info or one's mental image of the issue in question is a bit confused, what corrects by itself anyway. But stopping reading would just waste time. And, of course, puzzlement is a good way to activate the subconsciousness. When I tutor students, I express it by an analogy: "If you climb a mountain, you stumble only over small stones, not over mountains. So, one should notice such stones, but not take them too serious".

Edit: A study on the usefullness of reading before sleeping.

Having learned everything through reading by myself, my impression is that it helps to read in a way which enables the subconsciousness to cooperate. E.g. reading not only one text, but browsing related surveys etc. too, seemingly 'just very superficial' browsing gives the subconsciousness de facto a lot of usefull inputs. Not ignoring and counteracting signs of exhaustion or tiredness, e.g. during sleep one processes the read texts. Continuing reading even if something puzzles one or one can't solve an exercise on spot (I found that most difficult to do)- in most such cases one just forgot some tiny info or one's mental image of the issue in question is a bit confused, what corrects by itself anyway. But stopping reading would just waste time. And, of course, puzzlement is a good way to activate the subconsciousness. When I tutor students, I express it by an analogy: "If you climb a mountain, but you stumble only over small stones, not over mountains. So, one should notice such stones, but not take them too seriously".

Having learned everything through reading by myself, my impression is that it helps to read in a way which enables the subconsciousness to cooperate. E.g. reading not only one text, but browsing related surveys etc. too, seemingly 'just very superficial' browsing gives the subconsciousness de facto a lot of usefull inputs. Not ignoring and counteracting signs of exhaustion or tiredness, e.g. during sleep one processes the read texts. Continuing reading even if something puzzles one or one can't solve an exercise on spot (I found that most difficult to do)- in most such cases one just forgot some tiny info or one's mental image of the issue in question is a bit confused, what corrects by itself anyway. But stopping reading would just waste time. And, of course, puzzlement is a good way to activate the subconsciousness. When I tutor students, I express it by an analogy: "If you climb a mountain, you stumble only over small stones, not over mountains. So, one should notice such stones, but not take them too serious".