Sleepiness at work

Hi Frechtling,

I’m going to start out by telling you what you don’t want
to hear, so hopefully you won’t be too angry. 😉 . . .

You say “besides taking a nap or getting more sleep at
night, “–but in all honesty, getting more sleep at night
IS the most effective way to prevent sleepiness at work! 🙂

I had a girlfriend who was always tired at work,
always sleepy, always complained about having low energy.
She was always asking me, for things I knew of, to help her
with her tiredness and with her low energy–any qigong
tricks that she could do at work to help her, etc.

Long story short, eventually I tracked the problem to
the fact that she was not getting enough sleep at night
(she was getting 6.5, but really needs 9). Despite
initial resistance on her part, when we corrected that
problem, her tiredness and low energy at work disappeared.
Oftentimes due to unrealistic demands on ourselves,
we fool ourselves into thinking we only need (or can
get by with) less sleep than our body really requires.
So I would encourage you to explore your sleep habits–
and do so honestly–as your main approach to solving
your problem. Everything else is really secondary
in my view and doesn’t really address the underlying
problem.

Assuming you’ve done that, then if you spend a lot
of time sitting at a desk, you should try to get up
periodically–say at least once an hour and move about.

When you sit for too long, your breathing becomes
shallow and your energy becomes stagnant. It can
create a “low energy feeling” even if you are not
actually tired. Simply getting up and moving
around–such as going for a short walk, doing some
movement qigong, some stretching/shaking–these are
all effective methods . . . obviously, you sort of
have to judge what you can get away with at work. 😉
Then during those times when you are sitting at
your desk, try to pay attention to your posture.
Sometimes just by straightening up your posture,
you can open up your chest and lungs. Consequently,
you will feel more energized.

However, if doing any of these things doesn’t
really instantly rejuvenate you, then most likely
the problem is that you are not getting enough
healthy sleep. 😉

Best,
Steven

Hi Jeff,

>>>Yes Steven, I know I have years upon years
>>>of not getting enough sleep.

Somehow I intuitively knew 😉

>>>Currently I don’t have much choice
>>>unless I want to come in to work later,
>>>but then that means less time at home
>>>in the evening.

Boy, I can’t tell you how many times I heard
that from my former gf, ha ha.

Let me just say some general things.
Don’t take them personally as though
they are directed at you. They are just things
that I’ve learned with regard to this situation.
Feel free to take (or not take) any that is
helpful (or resp. not helpful).

The morning is typically not controllable,
because of the needs of work. A later morning
just means a later evening.

The solution is going to bed earlier.

Often we use lights, music, TV, or whatever
extra stimuli to keep our bodies wired past when
they really would like to retire. Thus it is
best to turn all of this off, dim the lights,
and create a quiet environment in the hour or so
before you intend to retire.

Often there is internal mental resistance to
doing this needed change for the body. This mental
resistance is huge. However, the argument from
the mind is mostly nonsense. Typically,
it is chatter of the form: “but if you wind down
and go to bed earlier, you will have ‘less’ free
time in which to ‘enjoy’ your life; I don’t really
want to sacrifice my free time”.

My counter to this is:

1. Resting comfortably in bed is your free time.
It is the time when you get to let go of all demands
and just rest.

2. Learn patience. You can still do some of your
activities. Besides, if you don’t exhaust yourself
during the week, you won’t need to try to “catch up”
on the weekends. You will have more time then and
more free time.

3. There are plenty of activities that we do each
day that we attribute importance to. Some (such
as eating, showering, etc.) are essential; some,
however, are not. They are merely activities that
our mind had decided are important, but they are
ultimately not important at all and just fritter
away the time we have. Cut these activities.
Only spend time on the things that actually matter.

Just some food for thought . . .
If it helps, great. Otherwise, just ignore.

Best,
Steven

>>>Many seem to have problem not having
>>>enough time for their practices
>>>outside their studies or work.

This is an excuse, I feel.

We all invest our time into the things
that we want to. If we didn’t want to,
we’d do something else.

There are usually plenty of things each
of us does, each day, that are really
quite unimportant and inessential, but
we do anyway out of habit. Somehow the
mind creates reasons why they are “important”,
but much of this is nonsense.

What’s really going on is inertia.

It is easier to keep doing what you’re doing,
and complain about how you wished things were
different, than it is to simply start living
your life differently.

In my honest opinion . . .

S

Your kids are important, and they should be.
A lot of time spent there is not only reasonable,
but understandable. It is one of the
sacrifices/joys of being a parent.

This is not what I was referring to as
inessential activities.

Maybe an example with reference to inessential
activities might be in order . . .

Referring back to the ex-gf who “never could
go to bed at a decent hour” and “could never
find enough time” to do the things “she wanted”,
got caught into a situation where the internet
was down at her place for almost two weeks.

Suddenly, she had no problem getting to bed
on time. Suddenly, she had plenty of free time
to do all the activities “she wanted to do”.

Somehow, it was discovered that spending hours
daily: checking email, reading online news stories,
checking financial reports, reading spiritual articles,
etc. all ultimately was not missed and just ended up
being a big time sink.

Not that I’m advocating that people take my advice
too carefully and disappear from the forum, ha ha.
But hopefully you see my point.

The internet/computer is just one example of how
we fritter away our time on things that really
don’t amount to much at all, but for some
reason we feel it is important to continue to
devote a lot of time to it.

Cut away the fat, and you’ll be surprised at how
much time you really have.

Look very carefully (and honestly) and you’ll see
lots of fat to cut away.

S

>>>I think here Steven too firmly promotes sleeping in too bulky blocks.

Not true.

How a person gets sleep, whether it is in one big chunk, or
whether it is segmented is irrelevant. What matters is that
a person is getting adequate sleep for their body’s needs.
Too many people are sleep-deprived–trying to function on too little.

The optimal approach is to simply sleep when you are tired, and
to not sleep when you are not. This is following the natural way.

However, most people due to their lifestyle, due to their needs of
work, etc. can not have the luxury to just go to sleep whenever
they choose. For the most part, only unemployed or self-employed
people have the ability to disregard the clock and simply listen
to their body’s need for sleep. Consequently, for most people,
getting an adequate amount of sleep during their nighttime
bedtime is the only realistic way to obtain vibrant alertness
in everyday life.

If one doesn’t have the needs of society dictating that they
have to be awake during certain periods, then the optimal way is
to simply sleep when tired and to not sleep when not tired.
Since very few people can live this way, however, getting an
adequate full night’s sleep is the second-best option.

Trying clever approaches like qigong, meditation, etc. to dodge
your need for sleep is like smashing your foot into the wall, and
then looking for painkillers to stop the pain. The easier
solution is just to stop smashing your foot into the wall.

Trying to shirk off what your body actually needs for sleep
out of some idea of the mind to be more productive–or simply
because you think you have some clever way to bypass your body’s
natural intelligence–is one of the most fundamental disconnects
from your own intrinsic awareness that there is, in my opinion.

If you can’t even be aware of your body’s true need for sleep,
what you can you be aware of?

Not much.

In my opinion.

S