Combating sleep depravity during work?

Things I use to stay awake:

- Red bull
- Coffee
- Caffeine tabs

These used to be good, now it seems I've developed resistance to caffeine, and need vast quantities of the above to just to function when I've slept normally.

What other legal substances or techniques work?

(Please don't suggest sleep!)

 

Try an overall approach:
Screen brightness. Chair, Sitting position, topic you are working on, natural light in your office. Good food, Fruit juices, music, exercise etc..

 

Things that help to cut down on sleep while improving its quality:

Proper breathing throughout the day.
Any exercise that increases the consumption of air ("aerobic exercise" in English?) at least once a day.
Hypnosis and autohypnosis and relaxation and meditation (but just not any random one).
Short naps throughout the day.
For some people, going to sleep before midnight works for less sleeping hours.

 

I do almost all those already, except maybe the exercise. It helps, but I need a more aggressive solution.

 

Get a bright full spectrum daylight lamp on your desk. It ups the levels of serotonin which is a chemical which keeps you happy, lively and awake.

 

Where would one purchase one of those?

 

one word:
Ephedrine

Vasopro
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=vasopro

 

Dunno, Google it you moron And we don't ship overseas

 

Tops, the lamp thing sounds like it might work.

I don't have asthma, will that really help?

 

Slapping your face and washing it w/ cold water helps too.

Or you could hire a masseuse to come in and give you a little massage. That usually wakes me up.

 

Definitely will help.

 

or...... do what Im doing today.. Lie on your bed work, go to sleep, wake up and work again

 

I allways get very drowsy in the afternoon (maybe due to the excessively good cafeteria at work) and have found that power napping works great.

Sitting with closed eyes - when you have gotten to that point where oyu find it dificult to keep them open anyway - and your keys in one hand, will allow you to doze off but not enter deep sleep.

This works great and you are usually at full speed a little later on.

If you are allowed to do this at work, just do it. If you are not allowed, then just sneak out to the toilet - if it is tolerable that is and close your eyes in privacy.

Incidentally all that cafeine will get you nowhere in the long run, and if you try to take a cold turkey you might just find that you get headaches for allmost a week after stopping. Then again, if you want to be addicted to the stuff, it's your choice it's a free world (some of it anyway)

PPS: I've been clean for about a month now... GOD I miss good coffee

 

I can't do that, I have trouble with waking the up part ...

 

Hi,

Bizarre as it may seem. Give up the caffine!

Coffee especially depletes your body of potassium, a sign of potassium deficiency is fatigue and muscle weakness.

Also sort out your blood sugar levels. If you're snacking on a lot of sugary things this WILL perk you up, but then your blood sugar levels will totally crash. Try eating some protein or fat with sugary things if you must have them. i.e a hand full of nuts or seeds.

Sugar and caffine not be easy to give up/cut down, but is worth it for the amount of life you get back in your life!


Cheers

Chris

 

Thanks guys, I think I'll go with TOP's lamp suggestion, and Crazy_Rob's Ephedrine suggestion. The rest sound good, but those require the least effort on my part.

 

Try the GI diet too. Not as much to do with losing weight as eating more healthily so your energy levels stay good all day instead of peaking and slumping.

Funny, but as I was writing this with my baby sleeping nappyless on my knees, he just peed down my leg. That sure woke me up!

 

If you want a 'patch' than the lamp and red bull etc. is good but it won't ever tackle the underlying problem - which is likely to be a malfunctional body due to dietary issues.

I have a lamp which is 99.1 on the colour rendering index (so nearly same as sun) and especially in the winter it gets me up faster in the mornings. I'd recommend fitting your entire office with full spectrum daylight lamps. Compared to the manky yellow lights it's fantastic.

 

Just get rid of your chair and hover over a sharpened stick....I doubt you will fall asleep

 

Or get some handcuffs hooked up to 220 volts and a mechanism that checks how long it's been since your last key-stroke. If $hasnt_typed >= 5_seconds then $SHOCK.