All morning long you felt alert and awake, responding to countless emails, engaging in all your meetings and having laser-focus on the tasks you’re working on.
Then 3 o’clock rolls around and a sudden wave of tiredness crashes into you. With it brings a loss of concentration and a seemingly impossible battle to keep your eyes open. This, my friends, is the mid-afternoon crash that we are all too familiar with.
By following these helpful tips, you’ll be able to better combat the mid-afternoon crash.
Skip the Sugar
While reaching for an energy drink or another cup of coffee seems like the practical fix, it’s NOT!
Caffeine and sugary drinks may give you a quick boost of energy but they could make you end up feeling worse. When our bodies digest sugar they release the hormone insulin. As our bodies respond to this, blood sugar levels drop, causing another slump.
Instead, reach for a high protein snack such as nuts and yogurt, or complex carbohydrates like whole grains. These slower-burning energy sources aid in blood sugar control.
Eat a Lighter Lunch
After eating a heavy lunch, our bodies are busy digesting the meal, diverting blood from the brain to aid in digestion. The more we eat, the longer it takes our bodies to digest it. For healthier lunch ideas, check out our blog: 3 Recipes & Tips to Eat Healthier at Work.
Take a Walk Break
More hours spent at our desk doesn’t always mean more productivity. Too many of us work in busy office environments and we often don’t step away from our desks.
Taking a break, especially for some exercise, will give you the energy boost you may need to get more work done when at your desk. Even a brief walk increases our energy by building muscle and boosting our mood and self-confidence.
Don’t Hit Snooze (even though it feels so good)
While we think any extra sleep will only aid in our energy levels throughout the day, hitting snooze causes more harm than good.
Our bodies perform several mechanisms in order to prepare us to wake up. When hitting snooze to return back to sleep, the body thinks it was a false alarm and stops preparing us to wake up. Then when the alarms goes off again, the body and brain are taken by surprise causing us to feel even more groggier than the first time awake.
The more snoozing, the more confused the body and brain get, resulting in more tiredness. For other tips on waking up on the first alarm, check out our blog: Tips to Become an Early Riser.
Live a Healthier Lifestyle
We all know that one person who seems to be full or energy all day long, every day, and we think to ourselves, “How do they do it?”
It could be that they live a healthy lifestyle. Eating the right foods and exercising regularly plays a tremendous role in how are bodies create and burn energy.
Eating a healthier diet, incorporating exercise into your daily routine and resetting your body’s natural clock to get the right amount of sleep may take some time before you feel the change in your energy levels.
For a quick energy fix, try these simple tips:
- Snack on almonds. They are high in magnesium which is key in creating energy.
- Chew on gum with strong minty flavors to stimulate the brain.
- Rub peppermint oil on your hands for its energy-enhancing scent.
- Talk it out. Take a quick break to have an engaging conversation with a coworker.