If you have a hard time staying awake in the afternoon at work, there are a few techniques that you can use to fight this fatigue. It is often difficult to perform your best if your energy levels flag throughout the day, but these helpful tips will keep you energized all day long!
Wake Up
Yes, your level of energy throughout the day starts with the way that you wake up each morning. Instead of sleeping in to your heart’s content, try to get up at the same time every day and immediately expose yourself to light. This will enable the circadian rhythms of your body, which are regulated by your master body clock. If your body is not exposed to light, your sleep-wake cycle will be delayed by 12 minutes every day to perform on a 24.2 hour rhythm instead of a 24 hour cycle. As a result, your body will naturally push back your bedtime, and if you get up at the same time every day, you will become exhausted. To keep your circadian rhythms in check on a 24 hour clock, try to get 30 minutes of light exposure first thing in the morning, even when you have slept in on a Saturday. An easy way to do this is to stroll for a half hour outdoors in the morning or even have breakfast by a large, sunny window.
Eat
Instead of loading up on carbohydrates, focus on your protein in the morning. Carbohydrates offer quick energy, but they will cause you to become tired if you eat too much. It is best to reduce your daily intake of carbohydrates to 150 g, which could include two servings of fruit, five servings of vegetables, and three to four servings of whole grains.
Drink Coffee
Many people make the mistake of overloading on their cuppa Joe first thing in the morning, but it pays to split up your coffee consumption. As I mentioned the mid-afternoon slump earlier in the article, the best way to beat this drowsiness is by drinking a half or full cup of coffee in the afternoon. This is according to James K. Wyatt, PhD, Director of the Sleep Disorders Service and Research Center at Rush University Medical Center. He states that drinking coffee in the afternoon will give you more energy, and it will also block adenosine, a chemical in the brain that induces drowsiness and often accumulates in the afternoon.
As a rule of thumb, if you are highly caffeine sensitive, it is best to enjoy your coffee earlier in the afternoon so that you do not have trouble sleeping at night. If you are caffeine sensitive or have a difficulty sleeping, physicians recommend to stop drinking coffee for six hours before you go to bed to have a full night of rest.
Author Resource:-
Mark Ramos is a coffee geek. For a great selection in all things coffee, espresso machines and BUNN coffee makers, check out The Coffee Bump.
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