Ok, here's another post for you. Enjoy :)
1. Keep moving
It's never a good idea to sit on your butt and not move while trying to stay awake. Set an alarm about every half hour (if you don't want to wake everyone up, vibrate works fine) and every time it goes off walk around the house a couple times. If you're a fidgetor like me, this isn't as much of a problem but if you're one of those people who can just sit still for an hour, you need to be careful
2. Cold air
It's absolutely impossible to fall asleep when you're freezing cold. Ok, not impossible, but hard. I'm not saying you should turn on the air conditioner in December, but in the summer when it gets stuffy just open up a few windows, turn on a fan, drink iced water. In December just turn off the heat (or turn it down depending on where you live) and replace the heavy blanket with a sheet. Stay comfortable, but don't let yourself get too warm. DO NOT make the house freezing or you'll feel like it's worth falling asleep just so you can prevent frostbite. Also your body expands a LOT of energy keeping your body at a normal temperature and you do not want deplete your energy source. Just keep it cool.
3. Do random crap
If you're staying up late for fun and not for homework, do anything you can think of to keep busy. Watch a movie, play an online game, paint your nails, pick out an outfit for the next day, write hate e-mails to your worst enemy then delete them, research random stuff (this works very well for me; once I typed in "coffee" and spent literally an hour reading a long but interesting article about coffee plants and different kinds of coffee drinks), search videos on Youtube, play a game on Facebook, ect. I have another blog on here about stuff to do when you're bored, maybe you could check that out. If you're staying up to do homework, however, I recommend getting that done ASAP
4. NEVER lye down
If you lye down, you're body thinks you're going to sleep and will start going to sleep. It's best to keep away from your bed, but if you feel the need to go in your room to read sit or stand, and don't use the covers or you WILL get drowsy.
5. Listen to music
This is a good tip. Any music really, obviously a fast beat is best but slow works too. Just turn it up really loudly.
6. Exercise at your own risk
If you feel drowsy, doing a few jumping jacks or sit-ups will help you snap out of it but depending on how in shape you are this could backfire on you. I mean, if you go outside and do a 2 mile jog you're going to want to crash. 5 sit-ups is safer, but if you have no abs it is possible to result in sleepiness.
Your best bet is to do some stretches, to just get up and moving. A bit of exercise will get more adrenaline into your bloodstream but stretching won't wear you out. Even if you're just doing 5 jumping jacks, if you keep dozing off every ten minutes and getting up to do jumping jacks, it'll eventually make you sleepier.
7. Set your alarm clock
If there's no one in your house who will be bothered by it, set your alarm clock. If you don't generally wake up to an alarm, then just set it to something really loud. But if you do wake up to an alarm every day then hearing that ring will make your brain think: Alarm = morning = wake up! But just a sudden loud noise will do the trick. If you don't want to constantly have an alarm going off and risk everyone waking up, then quickly set it if you feel yourself starting to fall asleep.
8.Light
Keep the brightest light possible on at all times. Darkness = night = sleep. Lightness = day = wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey! Simple as that
Bye!! I'll post more later if I think of something else.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Introduction
Hello everyone. My name is Lynn Ultimatihah (no comments please). Now, I don't sleep very much. On a school night I'll generally fall asleep at 11-12 and wake up at 6 or so. On the weekend I'll fall asleep anywhere from 12-3 AM and wake up at 9-11. By the second semester of school, I start pulling all-nighters once a week just to finish my homework. Here are a few tips I've come up with:
1. Coffee, tea, soda, energy drinks, ect
Caffinated drinks are a MUST. It is absolutely impossible for me to stay up past 1 AM without some form of caffeine. Even just a Diet Coke can keep me going till 5 AM at the best of times, but I always need SOMETHING
2. Mints
Mints are not necessary but they REALLY help. The mintier the better. If this is your first late night in a while, I really recommend keeping a roll or two handy because if you start to doze off, which happens easily around 3-4 AM, just popping one in your mouth will give you a minty jolt. I'd assume spicy candy like Hot Tamales would work the same, but I hate spicy thing so I stick to mints. However I don't see how practically singing your tongue would put you to sleep.
3. ABSOLUTELY NO SUGAR. As I said above, Hot Tamales may help but I'm talking about one candy in case you start to doze off. Eating a Snickers bar at 12 AM will just cause you to crash hard by 12:30. Many websites say eating sugar will help but it DOESN'T. I've tried it. For the past three years, I have tried and tried and tried to stay up late on Halloween via Halloween candy and I haven't yet managed to stay up past midnight. Stay away from sugar as much as possible!!!!!!! And all refined carbohydrates, come to think of it
4. Carbohydrates are NOT your body's preferred source of energy
While I'm talking about sugar, I may as well go on about all carbs. The USDA says carbs are your body's preferred source of energy which is NOT TRUE. It is true that if you eat a hamburger with a bun, your body will burn the carbs in the bun before the fat in the hamburger. But then you'll crash 1/2 hour later. Your body burns carbs first to get rid of them. If you drink a glass of wine with that hamburger, your body will burn the alcohol in the wine first, then the carbs, then the fat. What does that say?
Stay away from carbs
5. Fruits, veggies, lean protein. Also try to stay away from fatty foods while staying up late. Saturated fat takes more energy to digest, so you'll feel sleepy while digesting it. Eating food helps a lot, but eat more foods like berries, greens, and chicken and less foods like white bread, lollipops, and hot dogs. Fruit is very good. There are three types of sugar: sucrose, fructose, lactose. Sucrose is found in candy, fructose in fruit, and lactose in dairy. I don't know about lactose, but sucrose gives you a high spike in energy then a huge crash, while fructose keeps energy levels up and steady for several hours at a time. Don't overdo it though; keep mostly to low-sugar fruits.
6. Gum. Some people say chewing gum helps them stay concentrated and alert. I am not one of those people. However I find that chewing gum does help, because i don't want to fall asleep and choke but I don't want to spit it out. Also, any extra movement helps keep your blood flowing, and it's not like you can have gum in your mouth and NOT chew it. Spearmint, peppermint, wintermint, or cinnamon also have the bonus of giving you a minty or spicy jolt.
More later. Bye!
1. Coffee, tea, soda, energy drinks, ect
Caffinated drinks are a MUST. It is absolutely impossible for me to stay up past 1 AM without some form of caffeine. Even just a Diet Coke can keep me going till 5 AM at the best of times, but I always need SOMETHING
2. Mints
Mints are not necessary but they REALLY help. The mintier the better. If this is your first late night in a while, I really recommend keeping a roll or two handy because if you start to doze off, which happens easily around 3-4 AM, just popping one in your mouth will give you a minty jolt. I'd assume spicy candy like Hot Tamales would work the same, but I hate spicy thing so I stick to mints. However I don't see how practically singing your tongue would put you to sleep.
3. ABSOLUTELY NO SUGAR. As I said above, Hot Tamales may help but I'm talking about one candy in case you start to doze off. Eating a Snickers bar at 12 AM will just cause you to crash hard by 12:30. Many websites say eating sugar will help but it DOESN'T. I've tried it. For the past three years, I have tried and tried and tried to stay up late on Halloween via Halloween candy and I haven't yet managed to stay up past midnight. Stay away from sugar as much as possible!!!!!!! And all refined carbohydrates, come to think of it
4. Carbohydrates are NOT your body's preferred source of energy
While I'm talking about sugar, I may as well go on about all carbs. The USDA says carbs are your body's preferred source of energy which is NOT TRUE. It is true that if you eat a hamburger with a bun, your body will burn the carbs in the bun before the fat in the hamburger. But then you'll crash 1/2 hour later. Your body burns carbs first to get rid of them. If you drink a glass of wine with that hamburger, your body will burn the alcohol in the wine first, then the carbs, then the fat. What does that say?
Stay away from carbs
5. Fruits, veggies, lean protein. Also try to stay away from fatty foods while staying up late. Saturated fat takes more energy to digest, so you'll feel sleepy while digesting it. Eating food helps a lot, but eat more foods like berries, greens, and chicken and less foods like white bread, lollipops, and hot dogs. Fruit is very good. There are three types of sugar: sucrose, fructose, lactose. Sucrose is found in candy, fructose in fruit, and lactose in dairy. I don't know about lactose, but sucrose gives you a high spike in energy then a huge crash, while fructose keeps energy levels up and steady for several hours at a time. Don't overdo it though; keep mostly to low-sugar fruits.
6. Gum. Some people say chewing gum helps them stay concentrated and alert. I am not one of those people. However I find that chewing gum does help, because i don't want to fall asleep and choke but I don't want to spit it out. Also, any extra movement helps keep your blood flowing, and it's not like you can have gum in your mouth and NOT chew it. Spearmint, peppermint, wintermint, or cinnamon also have the bonus of giving you a minty or spicy jolt.
More later. Bye!
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