 During sleep, the growth hormone is activated; the body’s muscle and energy supplies that have been depleted during the day are restored and rebuilt and muscle tone and skin appearance are improved. Mental energy is also restored, which is much needed after a busy day of thinking and creating. Without sleep, you just don’t function well; crankiness, grogginess, inability to concentrate or think and extreme irritability are all ‘symptoms’ after an all-nighter or poor nights sleep. After 17 hours of being awake, physical performance decreases enough to rival a blood-alcohol content of 0.05%, or around two glasses of wine-which is enough to put you behind bars in many countries around the world.
So how do you make the most of your sleep, so you can protect your sanity, and the people’s around you? I know it’s a novel idea, but sleep is supposed to energize you, and if every morning you wake up and still want a few more minutes under the covers, you may need to reevaluate your ‘sleep hygiene’ (and join the club, there are 70 million people in the United States experiencing sleep-associated problems).
Waking up and going to sleep at the same time every day- even on weekends will improve your sleep drastically. Although sometimes it’s impractical, doing it as much as possible will get your body used to sleeping and waking properly, and stop you from wanting more sleep during your ‘awake’ hours.
It’s also important to resist the urge to take long naps during the day -- they will mess up your body clock, making it a lot harder to go to sleep at night. But, when you can’t fight the exhaustion, quick, half-hour catnaps are beneficial for little pick-me-ups and can increase alertness, stamina, motor learning, motor performance and improve muscle memory and clear the brain of useless information its built up, which will help you remember facts, events and names.
Alcoholic and caffeinated drinks have stimulants in them, so stop consuming them at least four hours before you go to bed to ensure a good night’s sleep. If you have trouble going to sleep at night, you may find that venturing back into childhood and counting sheep will help. Visualizing something repetitive or calming, instead of what you did today, or what you will do tomorrow, will signal your brain to stop thinking and prepare for sleep.
But, if you’re at the office, nodding off, and it’s too late to get a good nights sleep there are things you can do to keep yourself awake, making it possible to make it through until you can go home and climb underneath your covers.
Get up and move! Sitting at your computer desk, eyes glazing over, will not help you get any work done or stay conscious. If you need to send a colleague an email, just get up and go talk to them instead, go get a drink from the water cooler or find an excuse to go for a walk down the stairs. Any movement will increase blood flow, improve circulation and send oxygen and nutrients to your body and mind.
Don’t hit up the vending machine for some ‘instant’ energy or caffeine, you’ll be sorry in the long run. Sugary snacks and sodas will give you about a half an hour of energy, followed by a crash and low worse then the one you had before the snack. Instead if you can find a snack with complex carbohydrates and protein, like whole-wheat crackers and cheese, you’ll have more energy and for longer. Apples are an excellent alternative to caffeine and will give you an energy boost with 20 grams per carbohydrates per apple.
A lot of fatigue comes from not drinking enough water; when your dehydrated your body decreases blood circulation to conserve energy, depriving your muscles of oxygenated blood. By drinking eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day, plus 4 to 6 ounces of water every 15 to 20 minutes during a workout you’ll refresh you and get your oxygen-filled blood pumping to your brain. |
