How to Stop FEELING TIRED in the AFTERNOON

During the day we feel the most sleepy between the hours of 1 and 4 pm. There's even evidence to show that rates of hospital mistakes went up between these times. But why do we feel so sleepy in the afternoon and what can we do to prevent it? My name is Sarah Jefferies, I'm a registered nurse with a Masters of Science in Nursing and a background in ER nursing education and sleep therapy. A lot of our bodily functions are controlled by our circadian rhythm. This rhythm works kind of like an internal clock. Now if you've ever wondered how your body knows when to go to sleep and when to wake up, it's because of your circadian rhythm. When it's time to go to bed your body releases melatonin which makes you feel sleepy. Then when it's time to wake up the release of the melatonin stops and your body then starts to release cortisol to get you up and moving. Now the circadian rhythm also influences our alertness and mental ability along with our energy levels and because of this our cognitive abilities change over the course of the day. We are much smarter and more energetic during some parts of the day while during others we're the complete opposite. For example during the night we experience a massive drop in energy alertness particularly between 2 and 4 am but we don't usually notice because we're fast asleep. Then when you wake up your energy and alertness steadily increases over the course of the day until they reach the peak late morning. That's when we tend to be at our sharpest. But that peak is then followed by an afternoon low which is what we call the afternoon slump. And this low happens usually around 7 hours from when most people wake up. That's why we're saying the afternoon slump is between 1 and 4 pm for most people. Now this is a natural biological occurrence created by a circadian rhythm but what's interesting is the slump is then followed by a period of alertness and then slowly decreases again ready for bed. Now this pattern of alertness and sleepiness is completely normal and it's controlled like I said by the body's natural internal clock. But there are a few things that you can do to make the afternoon slump less slumpy. Now one of those things you can do obviously is to get a good night's sleep to begin with because when you get insufficient amount of sleep your mental alertness is obviously reduced especially during the afternoon slump it's even more so reduced. But if you're getting the recommended amount of sleep on a regular basis this dip is going to be less intense which seems obvious but there are still people who believe that to get more productivity out of your day they need to decrease the overall sleep. This is a mistake because your afternoon slump is just going to be worse and you'll be less alert than you may need to be and overall less productive. So totally contradicting less sleep to be more productive mantra. Another way to recharge during the afternoon slump and this is something I did quite frequently as a nursing student is to take a power nap especially before those afternoon lectures. Oh my god so hard. Now napping can really help in terms of your alertness and cognitive performance but they say there's an ideal amount of time to nap and that's between 10 and 20 minutes. And that's proven to really help make you more alert and be able to concentrate more but any more than 20 minutes and your brain begins to fall into the deeper stages of sleep. A lot of people who try napping make this big mistake and they end up feeling worse after the nap. So keep your power nap short and think of naps as more of like a relaxing meditation where you close your eyes, lie down and just let your mind disconnect for 15 minutes. Now understand that not everyone has the option to take a nap or a longer break during the afternoon slump because of your workplace doesn't offer the flexibility or you have kids running around after you or you might be one of those people who just want to power through it. If you fall into this category another thing you can do is just try to switch to something that doesn't require as much concentration so things that are familiar, mundane, not as important and can be done on kind of like autopilot if that's if you don't have a chance to switch off. So easy tasks basically and leave your most important and difficult work to be done before the afternoon slump kicks in. The next thing that can help lessen the afternoon slump is by having a healthy low carb lunch. We've all felt that feeling, the after effects of a huge carb heavy lunch, the drowsiness, the bloated sluggish feeling and this is because your digestive system is working overtime to get rid of all those excess carbs making you even more tired on top of an already impending afternoon slump. So when you eat simple carbs your blood glucose tends to spike up and give you the temporary energy but that soon goes and you soon crash. So to avoid this massive crash on top of the slump, avoid simple carbs, instead go for smaller portions with lots of different nutrients such as protein, fat and fibre. Disclaimer, this video is for educational purposes only and not a replacement for medical advice or treatment. The next point I want to bring up to combat the want to fall slump is it sounds obvious but take a break. Now in some areas this can be seen as being lazy and some people think you should just keep on working but there's lots of research that shows that taking a short mental break for about 15 to 30 minutes can really improve your cognitive alertness. You know the feeling, you're trying to focus on your work but your mind just keeps wandering and then you're thinking about something else. So take a break, like a real mental break. Detach yourself from work, psychologically detach and think about something other than work or just think about nothing. Just take a break from work as much as you can, just detach. And this moves on to the next point which is moving around. This boosts your energy levels which helps you stay sharp and focused. If you can walk outside that's great, get some sun exposure. This helps the brain release those all-important mood boosting, energy boosting chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin. Hopefully now you have a better idea about why the afternoon slump happens and what you can do about it. If you have the option, experiment with your schedule a bit and see how you can implement the tips I've just talked about. Let me know in the comments if you've tried any tips, what does or doesn't work for you. If you want to know what happens to our brain when we sleep, click here where I tell you some pretty amazing facts.