Let’s not fool ourselves, we have all gone to work some day – probably more than one – without having slept well. It doesn’t matter if it’s because the heat hasn’t let you sleep, if you have insomnia, if worry about something hasn’t let you sleep a wink, or if you’ve gone to a party and decided to get stuck into the job. The point is that you spend the day fighting to keep your eyelids from closing and your head from falling onto the keyboard.
With a lack of sleep we deprive our brain of the proper functioning of the synapse – a communication mechanism between neurons – as it can affect memory and learning. It also influences muscles, ligaments and joints when it comes to restoring and renewing themselves. Just as it reduces our reaction time, coordination, strength, balance, judgment and worsens our mood.
In fact, a study by the University of Oxford – which links lack of sleep to cardiovascular diseases, cancer or obesity and mental health problems – also concludes that not getting enough sleep affects people in the same way as alcohol. The effect of being drunk is very similar to that of going 17 or 24 hours without sleep.
If, despite knowing this, you have gone to work without having slept – the reason does not matter to us – there are some tricks that will make the eight hours ahead of you more bearable. And no, injecting coffee into your vein is not one of them, despite caffeine lovers saying otherwise.
Contrary to what you might think, drinking coffee like crazy can have the opposite effect to the desired one. Sleep specialist and author of ‘The Power of When’, Michael Breus, recommends that we enjoy our usual cup of coffee, but only the morning one.
On the other hand, lack of sleep also triggers the production of cortisol, which causes appetite. And most likely you don’t want a piece of fruit, but rather something much more substantial – something from the machine -. The expert suggests that we replace carbohydrates with proteins, which give a feeling of satiety and maintain constant energy throughout the day. .
According to some research, if you want to wake up from sleep or need a quick alert boost, you should inhale peppermint or rosemary oil. In a study at the University of Northumbria (England), they concluded that mint increases alertness and memory.
While it was determined that exposure to the aroma of rosemary for three minutes alters brain wave patterns and increases mental agility.
Finally, if you feel very tired, try to find some conversation with the person sitting next to you. According to research, published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, 10 minutes of conversation helps experience an increase in cognitive functions, such as attention and flexible thinking.