Identify the causes of sleepiness
If yesterday you were exploring the new hot bars of the city, the day before yesterday you were celebrating your best friend’s birthday, and three nights before you were surfing online until 4.00AM, the fact that you are feeling sleepy is perfectly normal and expected.
However if you sleep properly, don’t stay up late but only for specific events, and nevertheless you feel sleepy all the time, the causes of this phenomenon may be pathological.
Find out about the most common causes of sleepiness and their natural cures. If the symptoms persist, arrange an appointment with your doctor for a checkup.
Go to bed early
You have certainly heard people say that “the sleep during the night cannot be replenished”, and this is due to the bio-rhythms of the body, and to the dark that favors deeper sleep.
Recent surveys made that even more specific, concluding that the hours from 10.00 p.m. until 2.00 a.m. are those during which the body relaxes more when sleeping.
Therefore, if there isn’t any extremely interesting reason, it would be good to avoid goofing around on Facebook until dawn, and, of course, to make sure that you sleep eight hours every night.
Take a warm shower
We would say “the coldest you can take”, but we wouldn’t want to scare you and skip the paragraph. Start by gently massaging the roots of your hair while washing them and take a deep breath to smell the shampoo -aromatherapy does not have to do only with essential oils.
When you rinse, apply the good old trick of the Scottish shower: three seconds freezing water, three scorching hot. Repeat two or three times, then finish with cold or warm water, and wrap yourself in a warm bathrobe.
You will have stimulated the blood circulation, and forgotten that a moment ago you were sleepy.
Keep your mind busy
Focus on work, take breaks with your most talkative colleagues and generally do not leave “blank” intervals, so that your brain doesn’t get the opportunity to – even momentarily – shut down.
Even more important is that you do not dodge the temptation to complain that you are sleepy or count, talking about your last night’s adventures, the few hours you have slept.
The power of autosuggestion -and refusal, in this case- is much greater than you think. The less you think about anything that has to do with sleep the less you’ll feel sleepy. Besides, you’re not.
Eat an apple
According to surveys, it will wake you up much better than a mug of coffee -especially if you are a member of the pleasant category of caffeine junkies, that the last time they stopped feeling sleepy because they were drinking coffee was when they were still at school.
We would stress the importance of a balanced nutrition, and the five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, but people who follow a balanced diet do not need advice for beating sleepiness -and therefore they are not among us.
Listen to your stomach
The human body is admirably programed to communicate its needs – it’s just that most of the times we do not hear, simply because this is what we have learned to do.
The sudden irresistible desire for chocolate, for example, is not an underground plan of your body to take revenge for the exhaustive diets to which you put it through: It is simply a way to tell you that the sugar levels in your blood have dropped.
Obviously, at that time there is no need to devour three ice-creams and two wafers. Two-three bits of chocolate (dark, preferably) will do the job just fine.
Exercise (in moderation)
If you don’t have the time/ mood/ the money to go to the gym or the swimming pool -which does wonders for sleepiness-, at least take a break from work to walk twenty minutes, go jogging in a park (what do you mean there are no parks?) or go on a ride with your bike.
Don’t overdo it, though, because after some time, when the endorphins will have subsided, you will feel sleepier.
Turn on (more) lights
Half lit up spaces enhance your sleepiness, because your body understands that the time for sleep is coming since the surrounding light is reduced. When you feel your eyes heavy, turn on more lights in the space you’re in -you won’t believe the immediate effects.
