PowerPoint Presentations Are Like Sleeping Pills

Do you find it hard to stay awake during a Powerpoint presentation ? Blame it on the person who has put together those Powerpoint slides.

A esearchers has proved that if the presenter is speaking the same words that are written in the slides, that puts too much load on the mind and decreases your ability to understand what is being presented.

This may be a worrying alarm for managers, sales people and educators who rely heavily on Powerpoint Presentations - the audience may be absorbing very little information. PowerPoint is proved useless if you just mimic what's on the screen.

The human brain processes and retains more information if it is digested in either its verbal or written form, but not both at the same time.

Microsoft has also suggested users not to "parrot Powerpoint" - you've got to make eye contact with your audience, those people didn't come to see the back of your head.

Presentation guru Garr Reynolds says that the best slides may have no text at all - the slides are meant to support the narration of the speaker, not make the speaker superfluous.