If you feel tired most afternoons, you are normal. Studies of office workers and school children show that people work best in the early morning. As the morning progresses, they lose their ability to concentrate, go out to lunch and function way below their capacity for the rest of the day. The best time to use your mind effectively is just after you wake up. When you have to write a report or letter, prepare for an exam, or perform difficult calculations, do it in the morning or shortly after you wake from a nap.
Tiredness is a signal that your brain needs a rest. If you suffer from afternoon tiredness, find a quiet place to lie down during your lunch hour and take a nap. There is no good data to support the often-quoted recommendation that you should exercise when you feel tired because exercise perks you up. Some people report feeling more tired after a meal that contains a lot of sugar or starch, but no one has shown that eating or avoiding specific foods prevents afternoon tiredness. Some people take a prescription drug called modafinil, which has been approved for treatment of narcolepsy, a serious medical condition that causes people to suddenly fall asleep. This can work if you take it only on the rarest of occasions, but no drug replaces sleep as a treatment for tiredness, and as keep on taking it, it can lose its effect. The only effective treatment for tiredness is rest. If you think you may have a sleep disorder that is making you tired all day, see report #G166 on Sleep Apnea.
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If you feel tired most afternoons, you are normal. Studies of office workers and school children show that people work best in the early morning. As the morning progresses, they lose their ability to concentrate, go out to lunch and function way below their capacity for the rest of the day. The best time to use your mind effectively is just after you wake up. When you have to write a report or letter, prepare for an exam, or perform difficult calculations, do it in the morning or shortly after you wake from a nap.
Tiredness is a signal that your brain needs a rest. If you suffer from afternoon tiredness, find a quiet place to lie down during your lunch hour and take a nap. There is no good data to support the often-quoted recommendation that you should exercise when you feel tired because exercise perks you up. Some people report feeling more tired after a meal that contains a lot of sugar or starch, but no one has shown that eating or avoiding specific foods prevents afternoon tiredness. Some people take a prescription drug called modafinil, which has been approved for treatment of narcolepsy, a serious medical condition that causes people to suddenly fall asleep. This can work if you take it only on the rarest of occasions, but no drug replaces sleep as a treatment for tiredness, and as keep on taking it, it can lose its effect. The only effective treatment for tiredness is rest. If you think you may have a sleep disorder that is making you tired all day, see report #G166 on Sleep Apnea.