After having food at lunch, everyone feels drowsy and sleepy. This is something natural and no one can deny it at all.
But this is not fine and acceptable when you are working in the office.
This is because the food you eat during lunch plays an important role as it acts as a catalyst and helps in setting an energy level at work.
Providing you with few ways here on how to control sleep in the office.
Image Source: Healthnsleep
Best Tips on How to Control Sleep in Office:
The following mentioned are few tips on how to keep yourself awake when feeling sleepy and tired after eating lunch.
1. Eat healthy and not heavy during lunch:
Whatever you take with you for lunch should not be as heavy, oily and unhealthy food will only make you feel lazy.
This is because the body releases melatonin, a hormone which helps in falling all at night.
This hormone is released less after you have lunch, so, you feel lazy and unwilling to work further.
So, eating light food like the bread with butter, juice etc. will do no harm.
2. Have breakfast properly:
In the morning, before going to the office, you must have proper breakfast as the morning food is the driving force to do well that too with energy.
Also, if your tummy is full, you will not wait for the lunchtime and even you will want to have a light lunch, as the breakfast would have satiated you enough.
So, if you will eat less, you will certainly not fall asleep at work.
3. What to eat?:
Now, the thing is what should be eaten at lunchtime. You should eat anything except the junk food, sugars, salts, flavored food, and preservatives and so on.
Although it flatters your taste buds, also fills you with lots of calories, and fewer nutrients, which is very unhealthy for you and your body.
So, it is better to take food from your home. Mom made food is always healthy and energizes you instead of making you drowsy.
You can stick to whole grain and avoid the processed food, sugar, and the oil.
4. Eat carbohydrates and high protein lunch:
You can have the lunch rich in proteins and necessary carbohydrates. Avoid the starchy food and make sure you are having healthy food.
Some of the food types you can consume are green beans, sprouts, sea vegetables, mustard greens, mushrooms, cabbage, broccoli, onions, bamboo shoots, chestnuts, pumpkins, carrots and so on.
A whole wheat bread, brown rice etc. these things will not only help you stay filled and satisfied the whole day but will also prevent you from sleeping and not concentrating on the work.
5. Eat less and need not gallop everything at one time:
Good snacks will never deplete your energy level but will only increase. So, whatever you eat, eat less.
This is because if you eat less, your body will release less of the melatonin and you will not feel lazy and unwilling to work.
The experts advise to eat after every two hours instead of galloping the whole food at one time. It not only makes you obese but also will lessen the energy level in the body.
6. Exercise a little:
After having lunch, do not just stay seated. Get up and have two rounds in the office or outside the office premises.
This will make you feel better and be refreshing up your spirit. Sometimes sitting in the same environment for the whole day also becomes quite boring and monotonous, which also makes you fed up.
So, after you have your lunch, go for a stride. It will surely not make you feel idle.
7. Listen to your favourite tune:
You can even listen to your favourite songs from your playlist. The songs are the energy booster for almost everyone.
If it is for you too, then listen to it when feeling tired after eating or low at work. The pop music will give you a direct boost and will revitalize you.
8. Play outside:
You must leave your gadgets aside and move out with your colleagues and play any of the outdoor games.
So, these are some of the ways by which you can avoid any sort of laziness, whether it is from the food you eat or from the regular work you do. Follow these steps. These will surely make you feel happy.
Also, when the work will be done after booting yourself, it will no doubt be good and produce worthy output.
Tips to Avoid Uncontrollable Sleepiness After Eating:
Being a bit lazy and sleepy is a regular action we all see in employees at work post-lunch. The pace in which they work reduces slowly and productivity level lowers a bit. This is not something unusual and the main reason for it would be having a heavy lunch.
Having a heavy meal at lunch will obviously make you drowsy. Saying this does not mean you should avoid having lunch, rather you should have something healthy and fulfilling. This can help you be active and recharges your energy levels. Another option you can have is to eat little and in regular short time periods.
The scientific reason for getting sleep post-lunch is that after having your meal, your pancreas will be releasing insulin to manage your blood sugar levels. Now the insulin production will be directly proportional to the amount of meal you intake.
Also if the production of insulin is higher, a sleep hormone is generated and which later converts into melatonin and serotonin in the brain. This finally leads your body to feel drowsy and instigate sleepiness.
Now as you have understood the whole scenario, we have enlisted a few tips to follow in order to remain active and avoid sleepiness at work.
- Do not sit right after lunch for long hours, rather talk a walk
- Chewing gum helps
- Keep track of the foods you eat at lunch
- Drink lots of water
- Have a protein control in your diet
- Avoid junk food rather eat something healthy
- Do not consume more sugar and fat
How to Get Energy Naturally Post Lunch?
Feeling a lower energy level after having a heavy meal at lunch is inevitable. Now there are many options to avoid such condition, one is to have control of your diet as to what you intake during lunch or to follow the below-listed tips. The tips here enlisted help naturally prevent you from falling asleep at your desk post-lunch.
- Physical activity at lunch hour can help
- Take a walk
- Take coffee breaks
- Have a exercise break
- Try few toffies or gums
- Spend little time with animals (literally pets)
- Listen to your favourite music
- Do not get too stressed
- Avoid any type of oil and junk foods
- Walk to your water cooler and have water
- Never skip lunch
- Bring smaller lunch boxes (you can substitute it with fruits and salads during breaks)
- Get enough sleep at night
Sleep after Lunch Advantages:
An adult is said to have the sleep of 7 to 8 hours a day. So, if you are not having enough sleep during the night, then you should first make it a point to have sound sleep.
The lack of sleep at night is likely to make you feel sleepy after eating or having lunch. But sleep after lunch has its own advantages like:
1. Boost your energy:
The sleep after having lunch makes you feel less tired and also acts as an energizer.
If you will not have a sound nap, then you will fail to deliver the best work in an office or may be otherwise. So, it is important to have proper sleep when you feel lazy after having the lunch.
2. Helps in concentration:
When your mind will be fresh, you will be able to feel fresh and that will be shown in the work you do.
The work done with the fresh mind is always appreciable and gives the best output.
So if you feel like not able to concentrate on the work due to the short nap, then it is advisable to have a full sleep after having your lunch. Even a short nap after lunch will help you a lot.
3. The mind is fresh and you are able to generate great ideas:
With the fresh mind, everyone is able to generate good ideas which otherwise is not possible with the tired mind.
So, in order to freshen up your mind, you need to have sound sleep or it may affect your work at the end of the day.
4. You feel happy and enjoy the work:
Lack of sleep will never make you happy. It will only make you sad, less enthusiastic and also you will not be able to enjoy the work.
In order to enjoy the work and give the best in it, you will have to make your mind to work hard and give best and that is possible only when you feel happy from inside and you are healthy the whole day.
5. Improves the health of your heart:
As per the recent surveys, it is proved that a catnap or a siesta which is also known as daytime sleepiness is good for the health of the heart.
Falling asleep on your work desk or dribbling on your sleeve, having a power nap, whatever you have, is good for the health of the working person.
6. You remain lively the rest of the day:
When you have proper food, sound sleep, then you will surely remain lively the whole day and the rest of the work will be done in a better manner.
If you feel very tired and you did not have enough sleep, then surely you will feel like the most exhausted person on the earth.
Also, you won’t be able to do well in your work. You will possess a lazy and not willing to work kind of body language which is not acceptable in the office as it affects the work.
7. You are able to put in double efforts:
The healthy mind will surely help you in putting double efforts in the work and obviously, if the efforts are doubled then the result will also be the best.
So, if you want to give your best in the work, it is essential to have a healthy mind, heart and give your best shot.
Even if you have a power nap of 20 to 30 minutes, you will get up refreshed and stimulated enough that you will feel happy and willing to work.
So, these are some of the points which you can keep in mind while having your lunch. These points will make you realize how important is the day nap for you.
So, if you feel like having a sound sleep in the day after lunch, then do have it or it will only affect the work at the end of the day, which is not appreciated.
Also tarnishes your image in the company, as a result, the future is affected.
Sleep after Lunch Disadvantages:
As everything has two sides, similarly the day sleep after lunch also has both the benefits and the drawbacks.
So, here are some of the points that says one should not have a nap after lunch:
1. It takes the time to come back to reality:
Yup, dude, when you sleep and get up, you are not automatically ready for the work. So, to come back from the sleep and dreams world, you, in fact, everyone takes time to perform better. Or we can say, it takes time to come to our senses.
So, it is better to ignore the sleep and do some exercise like walking for 10 to 20 minutes as it keeps you in senses without taking to the dream world.
2. Affects the health:
Going to bed immediately after the lunch affects your health in many ways.
You get fat and the obesity leads to the number of other health issues like digestion, lung problems, and many other issues.
So, it is better not to invite these deadly diseases into your body and avoid sleep after lunch and dinner.
3. Laziness remains for few initial seconds:
When you get up after sleeping, you do not become active immediately but remain lazy for a few initial seconds.
So, those initial times can be a drawback for you. This is because you never know that in those initial seconds only, someone else grabs the opportunity while you were just coming out of the hangover of the deep slumber.
So, it is again an advice not to sleep. Instead go for something else like talking to friends, playing outdoor games or even listening to songs.
4. Wastage of time:
Sleeping in the office is a wastage of time as you can do lots of small pending work after you are free after having lunch.
Instead of wasting time in sleeping, better to complete your small unwanted works and save the time.
Time once wasted never comes back, so, this should be understood by you. Hence, better not to sleep, rather spend a little more time with the near and dear ones.
5. Communicate and build a friendly atmosphere:
Instead of sleeping and relaxing, you should relax by communicating with maximum colleagues.
This is important because otherwise, you may not get time to speak to all. So, you can utilize this time fruitfully than just snoring and sleeping at work during the break.
When you talk to different people, you build your network, thus helps in increasing knowledge, understanding people.
6. Do something productive:
Doing something which pays you later must be done by you.
Sleeping will do no good to you. So, it is better to work on your weaknesses and make them your strength instead of just sleeping and wasting the precious time.
Final Words:
So, these are some of the points that one should keep in mind while thinking of sleeping immediately after lunch.
Sleeping is not bad but the time after or before must be taken into the consideration, because the wrong time will affect you directly and no one else will have to suffer.
Not just this, when you decide to sleep instead of thinking something productive, you lose your energy in doing something nonproductive.
So, it is better to do something productive and fruitful instead of just wasting the time in having a day nap.
