World Sleep Day
Did you know the main complaint for people with shift work sleep disorder is excessive sleepiness.
Other symptoms include:
- Insomnia
- Disrupted sleep schedules
- Reduced performance
- Difficulties with personal relationships
- Irritability/depressed mood
9 ways around it
So for readers with newborns — or really anyone who has to go to work without enough sleep, here are the nine things I discovered during my most sleep-deprived days that can help you get through a workday with some semblance of productivity, even when you’ve had almost no sleep:
- Set your alarm for the last possible minute; every second of sleep counts when you’re this sleep-deprived.
- Eat breakfast. Especially a breakfast high in grains and proteins, with little sugar.
- Drink four cups of coffee. Heck, even five.
- Get outside, and get natural light as soon as possible.
- Find some time to exercise — even just a token amount.
- The earliest part of your day will be the part when you have the least effects of sleep deprivation. So tackle the hardest things on your agenda first.
- Skip meetings. I should have on that 45 minutes of sleep day — although it did make for a pretty decent story later.
- See if you can scrounge and somehow take a 30-minute nap during the day.
- Last but not least: This whole thing is a one-day solution only. Be sure you get your seven to eight hour minimum of sleep the next day.
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