How To Stay Awake When Tired

Keep your body active. In addition to stimulating the senses, you can trick your body into putting it into a state that’s quicker than you actually feel. Taking some time to move, touch your earlobes, or rub your hands together can make you feel more alert and more flexible. Here are a few ways you can make your body more active:

• Splash cold water on your face. Try to keep your eyes open when splashing water on your face without hurting your eyes.
• Gently pull down the earlobes.
• Pinch on your forearms or below your knees.
• Hold your hands together and then spread them out again. Do that ten times.
• Gently stamp your feet on the floor.
• Stretch your wrists, arms, and legs.
• Rotate your shoulders.
• Step outside and take a deep breath of fresh air.

Keep your body active. ^[1] You don’t have to run cross country to stay flexible. Just a little physical activity can keep your body awake. There are ways to raise your activity level even when you’re at school or at work, and just a few minutes of exercise can work wonders in waking your body up. Exercise is a way to tell your body that now is not the time to rest. Here are some things you can do:

• Take a walk whenever you can. If at work, choose the long aisle to the dining room, or across the street to buy coffee. If at school, take the long walk to your next class, or even take a stroll around the cafeteria before sitting down to eat.
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator if possible. Unless you have to go to the fiftieth floor, taking the stairs will give you more energy than standing in the elevator. It will make your heart beat faster and make you more flexible.
• Take ten minutes to walk whenever you can.
• Even if you can’t exercise on the spot at the time, you should get in the habit of exercising regularly, at least thirty minutes a day. It has been proven that daily exercise improves your energy levels and keeps you awake.

Start your day with a healthy breakfast. Eat eggs, chicken and a slice of toast. Or you can try oatmeal and yogurt. Add green vegetables to your breakfast, such as spinach, celery, kale. If you don’t like to eat a lot of green vegetables for breakfast, make a glass of juice, or buy a box of juice on the way to school or work.

Eat right. ^[2] Eating the right foods can help boost your energy levels, keep you awake and fuel you up for several hours. The wrong foods will make you feel sluggish, heavy and even more tired than not eating at all. Here are some tips for eating right to boost your energy and help you feel less fatigued:

• Don’t overeat. Instead, eat a few moderate meals a day and snack on snacks whenever you feel hungry. Avoid large meals, starchy foods, high fat and alcohol. All of those foods will make you more tired and bad for your digestive system.
• Don’t skip meals. Even if you are so tired that you don’t feel like eating, not eating will only make you more exhausted.

Bring protein-rich snacks like almonds and cashews with you. Wherever you go, you should bring fruit. Not only is it a healthy food, but at times it can also help you avoid the temptation of foods high in sugar.

• Peanut butter and oatmeal or yogurt snacks.

Use caffeine if necessary. Caffeine will certainly keep you awake, but if you drink too much or too quickly, you’ll get headaches and faint. Have a cup of tea or coffee when you need it, and drink it slowly, or you’ll pass out and/or have an upset stomach.

• Avoid energy drinks. While these drinks are an immediate solution to keeping you awake, in the long run they will make you tired and also disturb your sleep, making you even more tired the next night.

Drink cold water. Drink a lot. Staying hydrated will help you stay awake.

Keep your mind active. Keeping your body flexible and alert won’t help you much if your mind wanders. To do that, you have to engage in mental activity, whether it’s talking or listening to a teacher lecture. Here’s what you can do to keep your mind active:

• If you are in class, try to pay more attention. Write down everything your teacher says and even read it back to stay focused. Raise your hand and answer the questions. If you find something confusing, ask questions. You can hardly feel sleepy while talking to the teacher.
• If you’re at work, talk to coworkers about work-related duties, or bring up stories about history or politics, or even family if you’re on a break.
• If you’re struggling with sleepiness at home, call a friend, write an email, or listen to hot talk shows on the radio.
• Change activities. To keep your mind sharp, try to change activities as often as possible. If you’re at school, you can do this by writing with a new pen, using a highlighter, or getting up to get a drink. If you’re at work, take a break from typing to copy or organize the document.

Effective nap. Take an effective nap. If you’re at home or at work, taking advantage of a quick but effective 5-20 minute nap will give you more energy to keep going. Sleeping more than that can make you more tired for the rest of the day and will also make it harder to fall asleep at night. Here’s how you do that:

• Find a comfortable spot. If you’re at home, a sofa is ideal, and if you’re at work, lean on a recliner.
• Limit distractions. Turn off your phone, close the door, and let everyone know you’re asleep.
• When you wake up, take a deep breath, drink a glass of water and some caffeine to feel energized. Take about three minutes of walking to warm up your body.

Look at the flashing colors. Download an app to your smartphone that displays vibrant colors on the screen. This can stimulate receptors in your brain, keeping you awake. This explains why using something like an iPad before bed can make it hard to get a good night’s sleep.