I'm recently back working in an office on a regular schedule after a few months (hell, a few years, really) of doing all kinds of different stuff. I'm loving everything about my new job except this: every day, about two hours after lunch, I catch myself just wading through wave after wave of sleepiness, fighting it like wet fabric. I'm not bored at work at all, but this is really starting to effect my focus.
I get up every morning around 7, and I'm usually konked out asleep by midnight, get a decent amount of exercise during the week and all that. I like to drink about half a pot of coffee at about 9, and maybe have a banana for breakfast. I eat healthy lunches (today: salami+swiss in a tortilla, hummus, baby carrots, and grapes). I do the second cup or two of coffee at 3 sometimes, but I'm trying to stay out of that habit, and usually it doesn't matter anyway, I still feel like I've been drugged.
It's crazy because I always shake it off and get really moving again just an hour or so before it's time to leave. I swear if I get this sorted out, I got it made, this is the ... last ... little ... piece ... zzzzzz
siesta.. I think some british or scandinavian companies found out that leaving their workers half an hour or so of rest after lunch increases their productivity for the rest of the afternoon...
I'm also sleepy after lunch.. but I think it's a little bit later.. from around 16:00 to 16:30-45
I stay away from coffee after lunch.. if I have a lot of work to do I just either have no lunch or very little..
on a regular day I just save whatever it's easy to do that requires less concentration for that 16:00-17:00 period
It's funny that if I'm left to myself, like during winter break back in school, I'm asleep around 2 am, and out of bed by 9 am - it's the same amount of sleep, but I'm not tired during the day at all, no matter what I'm doing. Maybe I should ask for flex-time.
smoke a phat pipe when you get home from work(along w/ a beer on the occasion) eat a huge dinner - and before bed another phat pipe!
-you should be good to go for the whole day! I'm kinda half joking here ! but not really...that my deal everyday...along w/ 2 cups of expresso in the am.
on a serious note though - what do you do when u get home from work? sit around on the net...watch tv, chum one up, exersize...all of these have a big impact on your coming day!!!
Welcome to the wonderful world of having a regular schedule! It happened to me too, every single day. About the only way it wouldn't is if I had a pretty stiff deadline or a lot of work, and then I was too focused to get tired.
I really never found a magic remedy, so I, too, am curious as to what others have to say......I'll be back to find out after my nap......
i often have a similar problem around 9:30 in the morning but it's usually a result of having risen at 5am for a 4-6 mile run. thankfully i don't do that as frequently these days.
schedule something exiting for 3.30 everyday,
like
a fight with your boss
a fight with a contractor
a fight with a co-worker
call ncarb to check on your application status
any of the above will give you a shot of adrenaline that will take you all the way down to 6pm in no time.
you're getting off of our caffeine high... and that combined with your blood sugar dropping = sleepiness... try having a small snack (protein-carb balanced) an hour or two after lunch.... coffee may work, but it's a band-aid on wet skin type of fix... diet (as in the types of food you eat) is HUGE in how your body processes and uses engergy......
Chop a line now...
Cocaine decisions...
You are a person with a snow-jon
You got a fancy gotta go job
Where the cocaine decisions that you make today
Will Mean that millions somewhere else
Will do it your way
Cocaine decisions...
You are a person who is high class
You are a person not in my class
And the cocaine decisions that you make today
Will mean nothing later on
When you get nose decay
I don't wanna know
'Bout the things that you pull
Outta your nose
Or where they goes
But if you are wasted
From the stuff you're stickin' in it
I get madder every day
'Cause what you do 'n' what you say
Affects my life in such a way
I learn to hate it every minute!
Cocaine decisions...
You are a doctor or a lawyer
You got an office with a foyer
And the cocaine decisions that you make today
Will not be discovered till it's over 'n' done
By the customers you hold at bay
Cocaine decisions...
You are a movie business guy
You got accountants who supply
The necessary figures
To determine when you fly
To Acapulco
Where all your friends go
Cocaine decisions...
We must watch the stuff you make
You have let us eat the cake
While your accountants tell you Yes Yes Yes
You make EXPENSIVE UGLINESS
(How do you do it? -- Let me guess...)
Cocaine decisions...
Cocaine decisions...
Cocaine decisions
I don't take lunch usually and I don't get this at all. Sometimes I snack a little at my desk, if I eat any more than a little, I get sleepy too.
We have a tradition, if anyone needs it they give a shout out and we have an office break at about 3:30 - whoever isn't swamped does something fun for 20 mins or so, like blast music or go outside or juggle. Happens 0-2 times a week.
Have the same lunch [size, portion etc], but divide it in half. Have one half about 11.30 and the other at 2.00pm.
Digestion is one of, if not the biggest user of energy in your system. I have the same problem if I have a bigger lunch than normal. And a tortilla takes a lot of digestion too.
How pertinent!...today's Brian Lehrer show talked about this issue...and you know what? According to this guest it has nothing to do with lunch.
Listen here
Show title: The Rhythm of Life
I recall when I was working in Copley Square, Boston on the second floor over looking Boylston, Avenue, we used to set our clocks by this young Nubian lady who always managed to be walking by our office at 2:00. I was the youngest and the last to pick up on her. The married older guys would always rave about her. So one day she
walks down the street and I just happen to be looking out the window and it is 2:00. So I say to the guy in the next cubical, "there she is...
and it is 2:00....little did I realize until I stood up his wife was sitting in the cubicle.....I crawled out of the office....on all fours...wanting to shrink into the oblivian.....
don't you think it also may have a little to do with the half
pot of coffee in the morning that's wearing off by 3?
i seemed to have the same problem..and i basically stopped
drinking coffee...started drinking more water and tried not
to have a huge lunch...i think the huge lunch part is a lot
of it as well don't ya think?
also after being active and not having to sit at your desk for 8-10
hours a day...it's tough to go to a routine of having to sit at a
desk for 8-10 hours...maybe your body is rejecting your new routine.
Ah, I think I'd rather give up breathing that give up coffee.
I've heard that larks/owls circadian theory before, but it doesn't really lead anywhere. The book just says 'take a nap!' not really a valid solution when you're the new guy in the office ... going to try the salad thing today.
Consider the infant for whom almost everything is new and thus cognitively tiring. He sleeps a lot. New job, stressful, lots of changes going on in your brain, lots of un-flow work, poor diet with far too many spikes in your energy levels from caffeine, sugar, inadequate complex carb's, probably vitamin deficiencies that mean your body and brain can't achieve what it wants to achieve from food and has to do more chemical synthesis, or not do it (recover) at all.
The nap is a good idea. I (can) go down to the basement where our company has three shower rooms. Not cubicles, but individual lock-the-door-and-turn-the-lights-out rooms. I (can) take two of the snuggly white freshly laundered towels, lay them on the floor and nap. Aaaah.
The circadian rhythm point is correct. We are supposed to be diurnal. There are many different circadian rhythms going on in your brain and body, from sleep-wake cycles, the intricacies of individual sleep cycles with K-spindles, REM, alpha-wave, beta-wave, to eat-digest cycles, high body-core temp to low etc. Synchronising these to your schedule takes time.
Treat yourself. Do the right thing. Go to bed on time.
Losing 1 hour of sleep a night is thought to equate to a performance loss of 25% in the following day. Continued sleep deprivation (even at the level of 1 hour/night) can lead to chronic fatigue, and commonly goes unnoticed as one becomes accustomed to the lowered level of performance.
This understandably leads to irritability, self-esteem issues, dis-this and that et yada yada yada.
interesting...although is there any study that says that
every single person on the planet requires 8 hours of
sleep?
8 hours is a benchmark that has been cited often..but
i've also heard of others who say that your sleep cycle
is 3 hours or so right? so wouldn't 9 be better then or
6?
i don't think one can say that getting less than 8 hours
of sleep equates sleep deprivation...now doing what i
do in getting about 6 hours a night...then i concede
the point and can start to see that some of what you're
talking about is happening to me.
My current remedy for this is a "15min coffee run", which is really a 15min nap in my car. My car is designed for just this purpose and I park in a garage, so it's perfect.
As DubK said, I can power through if I'm on a deadline or am bouncing between several projects/tasks. But if I'm on my own schedule/pace, around 2:30, I feel like a drunken sailor trying to get back to sea.
Individual difference is what makes us (and whatever else we haven't killed) evolutionarily successful.
What I'm saying is a no-brainer. try a week of going to sleep an hour earlier, after which you'll be so perky that you;ll forget what gave you that hard-on this morning, start staying up later, drinking more get back to that old routine, lose that performance edge, get back onto the coffee crutch, bitch out at your friends...
Shit, I didn't sleep at all last night, and I haven't been for a nap today (yada yada) and I'm jacked up on coffee, just about scraping through on adrenaline which is having horrible knock-on effects in my stress/cortisol system, I'm grinding my teeth, my posture is compromised my work is substandard, (though it might be on time which, right now, is more critical) my skin is itchy my eyes are out on stalks.
But hey, tonight I get to sleep and tomorrow to Paris. Yay!
765, finding that balance is tricky I found I was having similar problems, and found that I had to adjust my diet a few times to get it right. I was medically advised that eating breakfast was important...they said imagine a barrel, if you don't eat breakfast its is only 3/4 full but your body still takes what it needs from the well. So at the end of the work day that last 1/4 bit is missing and you are running on empty. A banana is not breakfast although a good source of Potassium - you need carbs, protein and a little fat in there to give you enough to make it through the day - add a jolt of coffee and I'm sure the buzz will make you smile.
I’ve always assume this happens to everyone? A co-worker and I always take a “snack break” which entails taking a walk and grabbing some sugar always around 3:30-4 gets me through the rest of the day.
Dub-K - I was just being honest! Thats what works for me...everyones different I guess! Although its really about taking a break from the computer every couple of hours...the pipes thing is just to regain my sainity that I lost in the black hole of death!
a good source of carbs for me has typically involved cream of wheat and sometimes some wasa bread/crackers...i always have a couple of bananas and at least 1/2c of carrots, then salad for dinner, sometimes with tuna and sometimes without, but i always put sunflower seeds in it.
oh, and 2 protein shakes - powder - with cinnamin and cayenne pepper...and slightly frozen.
It might be PsyArch for the win. Slept from like 11 to 7:20 last night, banana for breakfast, coffeecoffeecoffee as usual … I got a little worried when I remembered that I had signed up for a lunch and learn today, but decided to just go with it and see what would happen: Chicken salad sandwich, potato salad, and a cookie for desert. It’s 4pm right now and I feel fine, slight energy dip, but I’m reviving myself with one of those four dollar juice things.
One of the hard things about trying to fix this is that isolating variables is extremely difficult, right? One day you might go to bed early, and then toss and turn all night, the next you might sleep well, but end up eating a crappy lunch, or you might just ignore all the invites to the Indian buffet, only to get roped into going out for drinks … every day is different. Right now I’m trying to decide whether to go running after work or go to the AIA lecture on historic preservation …
by now i'm so stuck in my ways that i wake up at 5:57am and turn my alarm clock off before it rings at 6:00. (my wife appreciates that.)
i fill the coffee maker up to '6' every morning - about two tall car cups full. i drink one cup while archinecting and take the second cup on the road.
--
at 10:00pm i start dragging and make my way upstairs. i get ready for bed, start reading, but almost always have to quit and fall asleep 5-10 minutes before 11:00.
my afternoon doldrums are almost certainly due to me being a sucker for sugar and my office refilling the candy jar every time it's down halfway.
Tired Everyday at 3:30
I'm recently back working in an office on a regular schedule after a few months (hell, a few years, really) of doing all kinds of different stuff. I'm loving everything about my new job except this: every day, about two hours after lunch, I catch myself just wading through wave after wave of sleepiness, fighting it like wet fabric. I'm not bored at work at all, but this is really starting to effect my focus.
I get up every morning around 7, and I'm usually konked out asleep by midnight, get a decent amount of exercise during the week and all that. I like to drink about half a pot of coffee at about 9, and maybe have a banana for breakfast. I eat healthy lunches (today: salami+swiss in a tortilla, hummus, baby carrots, and grapes). I do the second cup or two of coffee at 3 sometimes, but I'm trying to stay out of that habit, and usually it doesn't matter anyway, I still feel like I've been drugged.
It's crazy because I always shake it off and get really moving again just an hour or so before it's time to leave. I swear if I get this sorted out, I got it made, this is the ... last ... little ... piece ... zzzzzz
happens to me too, my only remedy is coffee.
siesta.. I think some british or scandinavian companies found out that leaving their workers half an hour or so of rest after lunch increases their productivity for the rest of the afternoon...
I'm also sleepy after lunch.. but I think it's a little bit later.. from around 16:00 to 16:30-45
"half an hour of rest" - I mean real sleep -they even give them a pillow- not chattin' after lunch with co-workers at the restaurant
A brisk walk outside can usually revive me when that 3:30 lull sets in.
I stay away from coffee after lunch.. if I have a lot of work to do I just either have no lunch or very little..
on a regular day I just save whatever it's easy to do that requires less concentration for that 16:00-17:00 period
It's funny that if I'm left to myself, like during winter break back in school, I'm asleep around 2 am, and out of bed by 9 am - it's the same amount of sleep, but I'm not tired during the day at all, no matter what I'm doing. Maybe I should ask for flex-time.
it's your lunch digesting.
smoke a phat pipe when you get home from work(along w/ a beer on the occasion) eat a huge dinner - and before bed another phat pipe!
-you should be good to go for the whole day! I'm kinda half joking here ! but not really...that my deal everyday...along w/ 2 cups of expresso in the am.
on a serious note though - what do you do when u get home from work? sit around on the net...watch tv, chum one up, exersize...all of these have a big impact on your coming day!!!
and a break at 3:30 from the black hole of death is always in order!
Welcome to the wonderful world of having a regular schedule! It happened to me too, every single day. About the only way it wouldn't is if I had a pretty stiff deadline or a lot of work, and then I was too focused to get tired.
I really never found a magic remedy, so I, too, am curious as to what others have to say......I'll be back to find out after my nap......
WATS, that is not terribly helpful!
Although I forgot to mention, an afternoon snack sometimes seemed to help me.....ok, really napping now....
i often have a similar problem around 9:30 in the morning but it's usually a result of having risen at 5am for a 4-6 mile run. thankfully i don't do that as frequently these days.
schedule something exiting for 3.30 everyday,
like
a fight with your boss
a fight with a contractor
a fight with a co-worker
call ncarb to check on your application status
any of the above will give you a shot of adrenaline that will take you all the way down to 6pm in no time.
a couple of things:
you're getting off of our caffeine high... and that combined with your blood sugar dropping = sleepiness... try having a small snack (protein-carb balanced) an hour or two after lunch.... coffee may work, but it's a band-aid on wet skin type of fix... diet (as in the types of food you eat) is HUGE in how your body processes and uses engergy......
that's all for me.
log onto archinect and start a flame war
drink a lot more water.
Are you getting enough iron? You may be anaemic, which makes you feel really tired. If you're not into red meat, more leafy dark green veges may help.
Chop a line now...
Cocaine decisions...
You are a person with a snow-jon
You got a fancy gotta go job
Where the cocaine decisions that you make today
Will Mean that millions somewhere else
Will do it your way
Cocaine decisions...
You are a person who is high class
You are a person not in my class
And the cocaine decisions that you make today
Will mean nothing later on
When you get nose decay
I don't wanna know
'Bout the things that you pull
Outta your nose
Or where they goes
But if you are wasted
From the stuff you're stickin' in it
I get madder every day
'Cause what you do 'n' what you say
Affects my life in such a way
I learn to hate it every minute!
Cocaine decisions...
You are a doctor or a lawyer
You got an office with a foyer
And the cocaine decisions that you make today
Will not be discovered till it's over 'n' done
By the customers you hold at bay
Cocaine decisions...
You are a movie business guy
You got accountants who supply
The necessary figures
To determine when you fly
To Acapulco
Where all your friends go
Cocaine decisions...
We must watch the stuff you make
You have let us eat the cake
While your accountants tell you Yes Yes Yes
You make EXPENSIVE UGLINESS
(How do you do it? -- Let me guess...)
Cocaine decisions...
Cocaine decisions...
Cocaine decisions
Ragazzi per favore, Zappa vorrebbe dirvi di stare calmi!
I don't take lunch usually and I don't get this at all. Sometimes I snack a little at my desk, if I eat any more than a little, I get sleepy too.
We have a tradition, if anyone needs it they give a shout out and we have an office break at about 3:30 - whoever isn't swamped does something fun for 20 mins or so, like blast music or go outside or juggle. Happens 0-2 times a week.
Have the same lunch [size, portion etc], but divide it in half. Have one half about 11.30 and the other at 2.00pm.
Digestion is one of, if not the biggest user of energy in your system. I have the same problem if I have a bigger lunch than normal. And a tortilla takes a lot of digestion too.
kombucha
How pertinent!...today's Brian Lehrer show talked about this issue...and you know what? According to this guest it has nothing to do with lunch.
Listen here
Show title: The Rhythm of Life
yeah, circadian rhythms should not be ignored.
I recall when I was working in Copley Square, Boston on the second floor over looking Boylston, Avenue, we used to set our clocks by this young Nubian lady who always managed to be walking by our office at 2:00. I was the youngest and the last to pick up on her. The married older guys would always rave about her. So one day she
walks down the street and I just happen to be looking out the window and it is 2:00. So I say to the guy in the next cubical, "there she is...
and it is 2:00....little did I realize until I stood up his wife was sitting in the cubicle.....I crawled out of the office....on all fours...wanting to shrink into the oblivian.....
So I'm guessing my usual two slices of pizza and 20oz. ginger ale for lunch may have something to do with the fact that I go comatose around 3:30...
don't you think it also may have a little to do with the half
pot of coffee in the morning that's wearing off by 3?
i seemed to have the same problem..and i basically stopped
drinking coffee...started drinking more water and tried not
to have a huge lunch...i think the huge lunch part is a lot
of it as well don't ya think?
also after being active and not having to sit at your desk for 8-10
hours a day...it's tough to go to a routine of having to sit at a
desk for 8-10 hours...maybe your body is rejecting your new routine.
my job makes me fall asleep
nap. nap some more
go polyphasic if your crazy enough
while fogey's probably right, i combat this problem by just delaying lunch until 3:00. can't do without my sugar and other carbs...
Ah, I think I'd rather give up breathing that give up coffee.
I've heard that larks/owls circadian theory before, but it doesn't really lead anywhere. The book just says 'take a nap!' not really a valid solution when you're the new guy in the office ... going to try the salad thing today.
765, i hear ya, i get up at 330 am and some days i need a large 4xshot french roast depth charge, that keeps my motor going all day.
Did anyone say "go to bed earlier"?
Consider the infant for whom almost everything is new and thus cognitively tiring. He sleeps a lot. New job, stressful, lots of changes going on in your brain, lots of un-flow work, poor diet with far too many spikes in your energy levels from caffeine, sugar, inadequate complex carb's, probably vitamin deficiencies that mean your body and brain can't achieve what it wants to achieve from food and has to do more chemical synthesis, or not do it (recover) at all.
The nap is a good idea. I (can) go down to the basement where our company has three shower rooms. Not cubicles, but individual lock-the-door-and-turn-the-lights-out rooms. I (can) take two of the snuggly white freshly laundered towels, lay them on the floor and nap. Aaaah.
The circadian rhythm point is correct. We are supposed to be diurnal. There are many different circadian rhythms going on in your brain and body, from sleep-wake cycles, the intricacies of individual sleep cycles with K-spindles, REM, alpha-wave, beta-wave, to eat-digest cycles, high body-core temp to low etc. Synchronising these to your schedule takes time.
Treat yourself. Do the right thing. Go to bed on time.
he's getting 7 hours of sleep already...should he be going
to bed at 11?
7 hours is not 8 hours.
Losing 1 hour of sleep a night is thought to equate to a performance loss of 25% in the following day. Continued sleep deprivation (even at the level of 1 hour/night) can lead to chronic fatigue, and commonly goes unnoticed as one becomes accustomed to the lowered level of performance.
This understandably leads to irritability, self-esteem issues, dis-this and that et yada yada yada.
Get some sleep.
interesting...although is there any study that says that
every single person on the planet requires 8 hours of
sleep?
8 hours is a benchmark that has been cited often..but
i've also heard of others who say that your sleep cycle
is 3 hours or so right? so wouldn't 9 be better then or
6?
i don't think one can say that getting less than 8 hours
of sleep equates sleep deprivation...now doing what i
do in getting about 6 hours a night...then i concede
the point and can start to see that some of what you're
talking about is happening to me.
My current remedy for this is a "15min coffee run", which is really a 15min nap in my car. My car is designed for just this purpose and I park in a garage, so it's perfect.
As DubK said, I can power through if I'm on a deadline or am bouncing between several projects/tasks. But if I'm on my own schedule/pace, around 2:30, I feel like a drunken sailor trying to get back to sea.
Individual difference is what makes us (and whatever else we haven't killed) evolutionarily successful.
What I'm saying is a no-brainer. try a week of going to sleep an hour earlier, after which you'll be so perky that you;ll forget what gave you that hard-on this morning, start staying up later, drinking more get back to that old routine, lose that performance edge, get back onto the coffee crutch, bitch out at your friends...
Shit, I didn't sleep at all last night, and I haven't been for a nap today (yada yada) and I'm jacked up on coffee, just about scraping through on adrenaline which is having horrible knock-on effects in my stress/cortisol system, I'm grinding my teeth, my posture is compromised my work is substandard, (though it might be on time which, right now, is more critical) my skin is itchy my eyes are out on stalks.
But hey, tonight I get to sleep and tomorrow to Paris. Yay!
So, ahem, get some sleep.
Here endeth...
765, finding that balance is tricky I found I was having similar problems, and found that I had to adjust my diet a few times to get it right. I was medically advised that eating breakfast was important...they said imagine a barrel, if you don't eat breakfast its is only 3/4 full but your body still takes what it needs from the well. So at the end of the work day that last 1/4 bit is missing and you are running on empty. A banana is not breakfast although a good source of Potassium - you need carbs, protein and a little fat in there to give you enough to make it through the day - add a jolt of coffee and I'm sure the buzz will make you smile.
I hope this helps, as it did for me.
I’ve always assume this happens to everyone? A co-worker and I always take a “snack break” which entails taking a walk and grabbing some sugar always around 3:30-4 gets me through the rest of the day.
Dub-K - I was just being honest! Thats what works for me...everyones different I guess! Although its really about taking a break from the computer every couple of hours...the pipes thing is just to regain my sainity that I lost in the black hole of death!
I need a nap....
a good source of carbs for me has typically involved cream of wheat and sometimes some wasa bread/crackers...i always have a couple of bananas and at least 1/2c of carrots, then salad for dinner, sometimes with tuna and sometimes without, but i always put sunflower seeds in it.
oh, and 2 protein shakes - powder - with cinnamin and cayenne pepper...and slightly frozen.
It might be PsyArch for the win. Slept from like 11 to 7:20 last night, banana for breakfast, coffeecoffeecoffee as usual … I got a little worried when I remembered that I had signed up for a lunch and learn today, but decided to just go with it and see what would happen: Chicken salad sandwich, potato salad, and a cookie for desert. It’s 4pm right now and I feel fine, slight energy dip, but I’m reviving myself with one of those four dollar juice things.
One of the hard things about trying to fix this is that isolating variables is extremely difficult, right? One day you might go to bed early, and then toss and turn all night, the next you might sleep well, but end up eating a crappy lunch, or you might just ignore all the invites to the Indian buffet, only to get roped into going out for drinks … every day is different. Right now I’m trying to decide whether to go running after work or go to the AIA lecture on historic preservation …
it's 3:31... i just hit a wall...
actually, 3:30 coincides with the time I complain about my job...
...btw, this sucks, i'm gotta get outta this place... (and at 4:00pm i'll be cookin up ideas for the portfolio)
I've been dragging all afternoon. I normally don't drink coffee after lunchtime, but I just caved in and poured a mug.
by now i'm so stuck in my ways that i wake up at 5:57am and turn my alarm clock off before it rings at 6:00. (my wife appreciates that.)
i fill the coffee maker up to '6' every morning - about two tall car cups full. i drink one cup while archinecting and take the second cup on the road.
--
at 10:00pm i start dragging and make my way upstairs. i get ready for bed, start reading, but almost always have to quit and fall asleep 5-10 minutes before 11:00.
my afternoon doldrums are almost certainly due to me being a sucker for sugar and my office refilling the candy jar every time it's down halfway.
oh, that's my coffee for the day, by the way. except on special occasions.
agh! - but you haven't tried the pipe
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