How to Stay Awake at Work When You Feel Yourself Fading

Your eyes go heavy at 10:40 in the morning, halfway through a spreadsheet, and the next meeting starts in eight minutes. If you're searching for how to stay awake at work, you want something you can do at a desk without anyone noticing. The list below sticks to moves that someone has tested, with the names and numbers attached, plus the one we keep in the desk drawer for the moment the fade starts.

Why the sleepiness hits at your desk

Short sleep is the usual cause. The National Sleep Foundation figure is 7 to 9 hours a night for adults, and plenty of people run under that for weeks. The job itself can make it worse. The Sleep Foundation's guide to staying awake points out that repetitive, boring work can drag alertness down as much as lost sleep does. The same person who is fine in a busy meeting nods off over a quiet report.

Dim light and sitting still for three hours add to it. Both are easy to change.

How to wake yourself up at work

Get brighter light on your face

In 2008 a University of Surrey team led by Antoine Viola changed the lighting on two office floors for 94 white-collar workers. For four weeks they worked under standard 4,000 K white light, and for four weeks under blue-enriched 17,000 K light. Under the bluer light the workers reported better alertness and concentration and less daytime sleepiness. You can't rewire your office, but you can sit by a window or open the blinds.

Climb the stairs for 10 minutes

At the University of Georgia, Derek Randolph and Patrick O'Connor had female students who slept under 6.5 hours a night either take 50 mg of caffeine or walk up and down stairs at an easy pace for 10 minutes, roughly 30 floors. The stair walk left them feeling more energetic and vigorous than the caffeine did. The study ran in Physiology and Behavior in 2017. The effect was strongest right after the walk, so time it before the task you're dreading.

Without stairs, a brisk lap of the block counts. The Sleep Foundation puts the useful minimum at 5 to 10 minutes of any movement.

Cold water, in a glass and on your face

Lawrence Armstrong's team at the University of Connecticut found that losing about 1.5% of normal body water was enough to give young women headaches, fatigue and trouble concentrating (The Journal of Nutrition, February 2012). Keep a full bottle in sight and refill it every time you get up. A splash of cold water on your face and wrists in the bathroom is the quickest thing you can do when you can't leave the building.

Sit up, or stand up

Slumped low with your head on one hand is how people fall asleep on trains. Sit forward with both feet planted, and take your next call standing.

Time your coffee

Caffeine takes about half an hour to kick in. The Sleep Foundation suggests one cup at the start of a shift rather than small sips spread all day, and nothing within eight hours of bedtime, so tonight's sleep stays long enough for tomorrow.

Take a 10 to 20 minute nap, if your workplace allows it

Nap length decides whether you wake up sharp or groggy. Brooks and Lack at Flinders University tested 5, 10, 20 and 30 minute afternoon naps after a short night (Sleep, 2006). The 10 minute nap came out best overall, with improvements right away that lasted up to 155 minutes. The 30 minute nap left people groggy first. NASA's 1995 pilot study, led by Mark Rosekind, gave long-haul pilots a 40 minute nap window. They slept an average of 26 minutes and showed a 34% gain in performance and up to 54% in alertness.

Set an alarm for 20 minutes, and drink a coffee first if you like. Horne and Reyner at Loughborough University gave 12 sleepy drivers 200 mg of caffeine plus a short nap in a 30 minute break, and simulated driving incidents fell to 9% of the no-treatment level (Psychophysiology, 1997).

Change tasks

If the boring work is putting you under, swap it for 20 minutes of something with people in it. Walk to a colleague's desk instead of sending a message.

One spray for the moment you feel yourself fading

Most of the list above needs a window, a staircase or a quiet room. Sometimes you're on a video call, or about to walk into a review, and your head is starting to drop.

That moment is what we keep Dragon Breath in the desk drawer for. One spray into the mouth and within about 10 seconds a bright, electric buzz spreads across the tongue and mouth. Your mouth floods with saliva. For a second it tastes earthy and a little peppery, then the tingle takes over. When it settles, a clean fresh feeling lingers and you come out of it switched on for whatever's next.

One customer filmed their first spray and said, "Oh wow, the saliva flow." Another, moments after one spray in a reaction video, said, "Definitely energized."

The buzz comes from chilcuague (Heliopsis longipes), a root from Central Mexico also called golden root. It contains affinin, measured at 6.9 to 8.5 mg per gram of root, the compound behind the tingle. Our root is wild-harvested from growth zones the Mara team selects with the help of local elders, then dual-extracted in organic solutions. You can read where it grows and how Mexican families have used it in our full guide to chilcuague root.

A spray suits a workday better than anything loose or powdered. The bottle fits in a pocket or a drawer, holds 250+ sprays, and one spray is all it takes to start (up to five once you know the feeling). The extract stays sealed in Miron violet glass, away from air and light, which keeps the extract at its best down to the last spray.

How to stay awake at work, start to finish

To stay alert at work through a long shift, at any hour, put the pieces in order:

• Open the blinds or sit by a window as soon as you arrive.
• Drink your one coffee in the first hour, and a full glass of water with it.
• Take the stairs for 10 minutes before the task you've been putting off.
• Stand for calls, and walk outside at lunch.
• If you're allowed, nap for 10 to 20 minutes after lunch with an alarm set.
• Keep Dragon Breath in the drawer for the moment you catch yourself rereading the same line.

More quick ways to snap out of it are in how to feel more awake instantly.

Dragon Breath considerations

If you're pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or allergic to plants in the daisy family, ask your doctor before using it.

Questions people ask

How do I wake myself up when tired at work?

Move first. Ten minutes on the stairs left sleep-short students feeling more energetic than 50 mg of caffeine in the University of Georgia study. Then get to bright light and drink a glass of cold water.

How long should a nap at work be?

Between 10 and 20 minutes. In the Flinders University study the 10 minute nap gave the best results overall, and 30 minutes left people groggy first.

When should I drink coffee at work?

Early in your shift, as one cup. Caffeine takes about 30 minutes to kick in, and the Sleep Foundation suggests stopping eight hours before bed.

How fast does Dragon Breath kick in?

Within about 10 seconds of one spray you feel a bright buzz across the tongue and mouth, and your mouth starts to water.