8 Obvious But Useful Tips to Fight Fatigue
1. Limit Caffeine Intake
While a couple of cups of coffee in the morning can get you going for the day, make sure you don’t drink too much or too late in the day or it can disrupt your sleep patterns, leaving you more tired in the long run.
2. Eat Breakfast
It is very important to eat something for breakfast every day, even if you aren’t hungry. Your body needs fuel to get going in the morning — glucose in particular. A good breakfast choice is something that has complex carbohydrates, such as a whole-grain and low-sugar cereals, oatmeal or whole-grain toast.
3. Fight Fatigue With Water
When our bodies get dehydrated, we get tired. A good way to tell if you are dehydrated is to peek at your urine. If it is a darker yellow color, that means you are lacking water (your urine should be more clear than yellow). Water is the best way to stay hydrated, but juice and other liquids can work, too. Caffeinated beverages and soda don’t count because they actually act as a diuretic, making you excrete more water.
4. Exercise fight fatigue
Regular exercise can fight fatigue and lead to better sleep at night. It’s better to schedule your workouts in the morning because it can give your body a boost and wake it up when you need it to the most. Avoid working out too close to bedtime because the hormones produced to pump you up will prevent you from falling asleep.
5. Reduce Stress
Stress can put a heavy weight on your shoulders, and that is bound to make you tired. Stress can also cause you to lose sleep, as you toss and turn worrying about this and that. If you take steps to reduce stress in your life, you will probably find that you are more alert and awake as well. Work on meditation, yoga and other stress management techniques.
6. Eat Several Small Meals
To avoid low blood sugar, it is best to eat several small meals throughout the day instead of three big ones. This also helps avoid that tired bloat you can feel after eating a large meal.
Of course, it helps even more if you try to eat healthy food at each of these mini meals. A candy bar at 3 p.m. may sound like a good idea, but the sugar you get from that will only last a short time, and then you will come crashing down. An apple is a better idea.
7. Cut Back on Alcohol
It may seem like a beer or glass of wine at bedtime helps you get to sleep easier, but in reality it isn’t doing you any favors. It may help you fall asleep at first, but it also tends to make you wake up a few hours later and have a hard time getting back to sleep.
8. No Electronics Late at Night
It has been shown that people who stay up late watching TV and working/playing on the computer have a harder time falling asleep. This is because the flickering lights on the screens keep our brains from producing the chemical melatonin, which tells us to go to sleep. This chemical is normally produced at sunset, but the age of electronics has been tricking our brains into thinking it is still daytime long after the sun goes down.
So turn off the tube and read a book for an hour or so before hitting the sack so your brain gets the message that it’s bedtime.
