How to Get Energy Fast (7 Things That Work in Minutes)

If you need to know how to get energy fast, the quickest options cost nothing and take between 10 seconds and 26 minutes. Climb stairs for 10 minutes. Drink a glass of water. Get your face under cold water or your eyes into daylight. If you have half an hour, take a short nap and set an alarm. Each has a study behind it, listed below.

One option is faster than all of them. It fits in a pocket and takes one spray.

Seven ways to get energy fast, sorted by how long they take

• One spray of Dragon Breath: about 10 seconds
• Cold water on your face: under a minute
• A glass of water: a minute or two
• Daylight at a window or outside: 5 to 10 minutes
• Walking up and down stairs: 10 minutes
• A brisk walk: 10 minutes
• A nap with an alarm: about 26 minutes of sleep

Take the stairs for 10 minutes

In 2017, Derek Randolph and Patrick O'Connor at the University of Georgia ran a small trial on 18 college women who slept less than six and a half hours a night. On different days, each woman took a 50 mg caffeine capsule (about a can of soda), a placebo, or walked up and down stairs at a regular pace for 10 minutes, roughly 30 floors in total. The stair walk produced a bigger rise in how energetic the women felt than the caffeine did. The study was published in Physiology & Behavior.

An office stairwell does the job, at a walking pace, with no change of clothes.

No stairs? Walk briskly instead

Robert Thayer at California State University, Long Beach compared a 10-minute brisk walk with a candy bar in 1987. Eighteen volunteers rated their energy over the two hours that followed. After the walk, energy stayed higher for the full two hours. After the candy bar, energy rose at first, then about an hour later tiredness went up and energy dropped. If the vending machine is the plan, the walk to it and back is the better half.

How to get energy fast without caffeine

Coffee takes time to kick in and plenty of people have already had two by lunch. None of these three involves caffeine.

Drink a glass of water

Lawrence Armstrong's team at the University of Connecticut published two studies in 2012 on mild dehydration, around a 1.5% drop in the body's normal water. In the young women they tested, that small drop came with fatigue, headaches and trouble concentrating, and tasks felt harder. The men reported fatigue and tension. If you've gone all morning on coffee and no water, a full glass is the first thing to try.

Put cold water on your face

In 2023, researchers at Bournemouth University and the University of Portsmouth put 33 healthy volunteers into 20°C water for five minutes and scanned their brains before and after. People came out saying they felt more alert and more active. A full cold dip is hard to fit into a workday. Cold water splashed on the face and wrists at a sink is the version most people can do in under a minute.

Get into daylight

A 2022 review in Frontiers in Psychology (Siraji and colleagues, 59 studies) found that brighter white light and blue-rich light raised alertness in daytime studies, with time of day and how long people had been awake shaping the size of the effect. Daylight is the brightest light most of us can get for free. Stand at a window, or take the stairs walk outside and get both.

How to get energy fast when tired from a short night

After a five-hour night, the method with the strongest numbers behind it is a short nap.

NASA tested this on long-haul pilots in 1995 (Mark Rosekind and colleagues). Pilots got a 40-minute window to sleep in their seat while the other crew flew. Those who slept about 26 minutes showed alertness up to 54% higher and job performance up to 34% higher than pilots who didn't nap. Sleep much longer than that and you risk waking groggy. Give yourself about six minutes to fall asleep, set an alarm for roughly 30 minutes, and get up when it goes off.

The fastest one fits in your pocket

Every method above needs something from you: a stairwell, a sink, a window, half an hour. Dragon Breath needs a pocket and about 10 seconds.

It's a 50 ml mouth spray made from chilcuague (Heliopsis longipes), a root from Central Mexico also called golden root. One spray sends a bright electric buzz across the tongue and mouth. Your mouth floods with water within seconds. For a moment there's an earthy, slightly peppery taste, then the tingle takes over and a clean, fresh feeling stays behind. You come out of those few seconds switched on and ready for whatever's next.

In one customer reaction video, filmed moments after a first spray, the customer said "Definitely energized."

People keep it for the moments where 10 minutes isn't available:

• In the car park before training (we cover more of this in our post on natural pre-workout alternatives)
• At 3pm, when the morning coffee has worn off and there's still a full afternoon to go
• Outside the meeting room, right before you walk in

The root is wild-harvested from growth zones the Mara team selects with the help of local elders, then dual-extracted in organic solutions. A spray makes sense for a root like this. The bottle lives in your pocket or bag, a single spray is all it takes, and the extract stays sealed in Miron violet glass, away from air and light, which loose root or powder can't offer. Each bottle holds 250+ sprays. Start with one; once you know the feeling, some people go up to five.

Mexican ethnobotanists (Cilia-López and colleagues) record the root chewed and used as a spice in the region where it grows. Our full guide to chilcuague covers where it grows in the Sierra Gorda, the affinin in the root, and how it's used.

Put a few together

A glass of water, then the stairs, then a spray at the top before you sit back down takes about 11 minutes. On a short night, nap first and do the rest after the alarm.

Dragon Breath considerations

The recommendation on the product page: if you're pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or allergic to plants in the daisy family, ask your doctor before using it.

Questions people ask

What is the fastest way to get energy?

One spray of Dragon Breath takes about 10 seconds. Of the free options, cold water on the face takes under a minute, and 10 minutes of stairs beat a 50 mg dose of caffeine in the University of Georgia study.

How can I get energy fast naturally?

Drink water, get into daylight, and walk for 10 minutes, ideally on stairs. Thayer's 1987 study found energy stayed higher for two hours after a brisk 10-minute walk.

What should I eat for quick energy?

In Thayer's study, a candy bar raised energy for about an hour, then tiredness climbed. A walk outlasted it, so if you snack, add the walk.

How long should a power nap be?

NASA's 1995 pilot study found about 26 minutes of sleep worked best. Set an alarm for around 30 minutes to allow time to drift off.

What does Dragon Breath feel like?

A bright electric buzz across the tongue and mouth, a rush of water in the mouth, then a clean, fresh feeling that lingers.