Sleepy at work

LegacyUser

So... where to start? If I'm bored at work (waiting for calls/emails/something to do), looking at the screen I tend to nod off at times. Would only be a brief snooze. Anything from 10 seconds to a few minutes, but it looks bad if caught, esp if I start snoring

Have had the problem for the last 10 or so years, since maybe 5th year in secondary school, but it only happened then in history class (excellent teacher, but he had a monotone voice). College was "fun", as I'd sometimes fall asleep in class, and miss out on stuff, and have somehow lasted in jobs without getting fired as I did a good job.

Have gone for blood tests, which have not shown anything wrong.

Sleep... does not come easily at night. The less I do, the more the mind races. I've found that if I goto bed at 2am I goto sleep quickly, and then will wake at 7am to goto work. If I goto bed at midnight, I will daydream until about 3am or 4am before getting

to sleep, so "going to bed early" doesn't seem to work for me. If I get a solid 8 hours sleep one night, I'll get either 3 hours the next night, or none. Well, maybe not none, but if it hits 6am, and and I'm up at 7am, I stay up, in case the alarm doesn't wake me.

Caffeine, yup, drink lots of it in the form of energy drinks. Usually drink it after I've felt that I've gone asleep (in work), or before 12 noon, when I know I'll fall asleep. Drinking the sugar-free stuff, as due to the amount that I'd drink, it was having a negative effect on my teeth. Don't tend to drink it all when at home.

As for exercise, I usually hit the gym twice a week. When I was doing a lot of physical work, I'd still find it hard to sleep at night. Having the radio on may help me fall asleep, as the noise drowns out my thoughts, but as I won't hear the alarm in the morning, it's not a long term solution.

Any ideas? I'd love to get a reular amount of sleep every night, so I'd stay awake at work, butno luck so far

Cheap Thrills!

Cut out the caffeine/energy drinks totally. They mess with your system causing the insomnia at night.

Also avoid heavy carbs for lunch (eg:baked potatoes, white bread, baguettes) etc as they cause sleepiness in the afternoon as well.

LegacyUser

Cheap Thrills! wrote: »

Cut out the caffeine/energy drinks totally. They mess with your system causing the insomnia at night.

Agreed. But unfortunately they are the last resort in work. Someone told me that it'd take two weeks for them to get out of my system, but I know I wouldn't that long without caffeine, job-wise. Have gotten a warning, a meeting next week about it, so unless I get awake instantly, I'm f**ked

Cheap Thrills! wrote: »

Also avoid heavy carbs for lunch (eg:baked potatoes, white bread, baguettes) etc as they cause sleepiness in the afternoon as well.

Aye, have started getting brown bread for the past week or so.

LegacyUser

Go to the toilet and sleep in there.

Worked for me for years.

get 10 mins kip in and you;ll feel a whole lot better.

Overheal

I won't give what would probably on amount to an incorrect supposition/diagnosis; but what I will suggest is going to see a psychiatrist and/or a sleep clinic. Outside of caffeine and energy drinks, it may be all in your head.

At work if I feel myself getting sleepy I'll try and find some mechanical labor to do, even if its just taking out the wastebasket or running mail to the post office, etc. - sitting at rest all day does SFA for your metabolism or energy levels.

JuliusCaesar

Sleepy @ Work wrote: »

Sleep... does not come easily at night. The less I do, the more the mind races. (

Seems to be the problem there. look at sleep hygiene, awful phrase but it's what is used.

Jake LeMotta

Woah bro, I totally have the same problem.
Been bothering me for over two years.
I got by when I was in college but now working it is really affecting me.

Exactly the same thing, the mind is racing and I just can't sleep.
If I do sleep early I just wake up in the middle of the night and the mind is racing again.
It sucks!

Do you have a girlfriend bro? When I was younger I had a serious girlfriend I could talk to about anything and it had such a calming affect on me.
Unfortunately now that's not the case - but that's another thread

Edit: Also, what happens for me, three o clock rolls around, bam, I'm out. Its like the brain is saying "Ok, you've been punished enough, now you can sleep"
It used to be two o'clock, then recently three.
Man it sucks so much.

Jake LeMotta

Two posts at two in the morning. This is the affect of the racing mind...

I just want to ask though, and it has just occurred that this may be the case with me.

Is there something your putting off thinking about or doing. Are you being 100% honest with yourself about everything or, as I am just after having an epiphany just as I'm typing this and realizing this is the case with me, is there certain beliefs or something that you have developed through experience that are holding you back from doing something you need to do.

I just realized my mind is racing because there's something I really need to think about alot and get done, but was not doing because of a fear that I had developed previously and have developed with experience.

So I'm going to try and focus my racing mind on doing that, overcoming my fear and see what happens.
Wish me luck!!

nyarlothothep

if ever there was a case for flexitime this is it. Employers don't take into account that people have different cicardian rhythms, remote working would be the ideal situation, the early rise mentality dates back to 17th century notions of day being associated with the rational and masculine and night with the sinister and feminine. The whole if I don't see you there you're not working attitude is a product of the factory mentality of the industrial age. Ah well it will fall on deaf ears, but in any case I too function not in the morning. My brain is fried and I'm pretty useless, 9.30-10 is the earliest I can get up and be working at optimum efficiency. People used to say I looked stoned in school but it was actually because I was so tired, no amount of "forcing" would change my sleep pattern. Needless to say I can't give you any practical advice except symphatize with not being a morning person.

tinkerbell

I dunno if this would help, but have you tried going to the gym later on in the night 5 days a week? Most gyms close at 10 so if you went at 9 for an hour and really wore yourself out, you'd be wrecked when you got home and would hopefully go to sleep pretty quick.

Oh and cut out all the caffeine, no wonder your mind is racing if you're loading up on coffee and energy drinks the whole time.

fend

You could always try the basics first, maybe buy 2 or 3 alarm clocks if your worried you wont hear them... Try putting lavender on your pillow, fire up the radiator before you go to bed so the room is good and hot (turn it off before you go to sleep though ).
Don't leave the radio on, as it will keep you listening to it and therefore keep you awake. Avoid caffeine after maybe 5pm? or even 4pm?

Jake LeMotta

I got it bro. Or this is my theory, which I'm fairly confident in.

You can sleep during the day but find it difficult to do so at night for the following reason.

In the day, the conscious mind is usually active. You can sleep, cause there's nothing on your conscious mind that's bothering you, so when you want to relax, it's possible, cause that part of your mind is not racing so much.

In the night, your subconscious mind is active. But in your case, and as was in my case up until very recently, there is something on the subconscious that is bothering you or that you need to deal with or whatever.
Your awake during the night cause it's at this time that you have access or are more in tune with the subconscious.
When you realize the cause of the disturbance, you can then transfer it to the conscious and deal with it appropriately.

What I needed to do, in my case, was write it down, cause in the morning when the subconscious subsided and the conscious became active again, I couldn't recall or feel what it was.

One thing that considering it logically, may help. Hypnotherapy.
Someone will have access to you subconscious and can determine from asking you questions and so forth, what the source of the disturbance is.
They can let wake you and make you consciously aware of this and you can thus deal with it appropriately.


The conscious mind is often subject to certain barriers as such. You may not want to admit certain things consciously, perhaps due to some beliefs you have; you may feel its not politically correct or mature or something to feel what you do and therefore you bury it in the subconscious and refuse to acknowledge it.
At night though, you may find your more in tune with it or that it seems more prominent on your mind.

So that's my opinion, and for me it was without a doubt the case.

LegacyUser

Overheal wrote: »

I won't give what would probably on amount to an incorrect supposition/diagnosis; but what I will suggest is going to see a psychiatrist and/or a sleep clinic. Outside of caffeine and energy drinks, it may be all in your head.

Googled "sleep clinic", and got http://www.isat.ie/Sleep_Clinics/st__james_sc.htm

The following symptoms indicate that you may be suffering from a respiratory sleep disorder such as Sleep Apnoea:
Loud snoring ***
Cessation of breathing during sleep, followed by an abrupt awakening
Excessive Daytime Sleepiness *
Drowsy driving
Irritability
Difficulty with concentration or repetitive tasks *
Difficulty with staying awake while watching television or reading
Difficulty/impairment of short term memory
Hypertension (High Blood Pressure)
Neck/collar size of 17 inches plus ***

The ones I marked with "***" I agree with fully, as I snore like a train if lying on my back, and have a neck size of 18.5 inches. The two single * star I suppose are linked. I don't have "Excessive Daytime Sleepiness", but I do have "Daytime Sleepiness", but only when working: at home, out and about, etc, no sleepiness. I think due to the lack of sleep & being sleepy in general has my concentration levels at an all time low

Overheal wrote: »

At work if I feel myself getting sleepy I'll try and find some mechanical labor to do, even if its just taking out the wastebasket or running mail to the post office, etc. - sitting at rest all day does SFA for your metabolism or energy levels.

In a past job, I have done that, but in the current one, I don't seem to have the freedom to walk away from my desk, as people keep calling the desk.

Jake LeMotta

I don't know does this apply specifically to the TS but just for future reference for anyone who looks at this thread:

http://www.wikihow.com/Perform-Self-Hypnosis

Can work wonders!

Overheal

sleepy @ work wrote: »

Googled "sleep clinic", and got http://www.isat.ie/Sleep_Clinics/st__james_sc.htm


The ones I marked with "***" I agree with fully, as I snore like a train if lying on my back, and have a neck size of 18.5 inches. The two single * star I suppose are linked. I don't have "Excessive Daytime Sleepiness", but I do have "Daytime Sleepiness", but only when working: at home, out and about, etc, no sleepiness. I think due to the lack of sleep & being sleepy in general has my concentration levels at an all time low

I dont know about all that now. The three symptoms you mark read like minor symptoms, the major symptoms would be drowsiness while driving/reading/watching TV, waking up in the middle of the night because youve stopped breathing, and hypertension.

Im no doctor, nurse, dentist, and I sucked at biology in school, but, Unless you meet a significant number of those symptoms, I wouldnt be Freaking Out. If you're worried, call into them.

In a past job, I have done that, but in the current one, I don't seem to have the freedom to walk away from my desk, as people keep calling the desk.

Cordless phones. I've paced the showroom floor before when I get those old lady customers who wont stop to breathe, telling me about their dog fluffy and the knee surgery he just had and the wall they painted and the problem she's having with the laptop she bought at best buy zzzzzzzzzzz........... true story. All I can do to stop myself from beating my head against my keyboard and doing a faceroll is walk around on the cordless.

*eadaoin

i had a lot of sleeping problems in the past so i know where you're coming from! fortunately i also learned a lot about how to get some decent sleep so you might find some of this information of use

believe me caffeine, energy drinks and sugar are all your enemies. you shouldn't need them to be awake at work if you're sleeping correctly at night and eating a decent diet. if you're actually serious about wanting to get into a proper sleeping pattern then you need to cut them out and give your body a good chance to relax in the evening time. how can you expect a body that's jacked up on energy drinks to fall asleep in the evenings, it doesn't make any sense and if you really mean business then you'll give them up!

caffeine prohibits your body from producing the natural chemicals you need to fall asleep at night. caffeine and sugar are both stimulants and will put your nervous system on edge, some of us are more sensitive than others and just simply wont sleep if there's too much of them in our systems. alcohol is like liquid sugar in the body and is another thing you should avoid if having sleeping problems (don't listen to anyone who tells you to have a glass of wine or a hot whiskey before you go to sleep!).

i would suggest for the moment that you cut out big stimulants so avoid energy drinks, coffee, tea and drinks like coke. if you want to have a sugar fix avoid having them several hours before you go to sleep, so nothing like that after 5 or 6pm.

to keep yourself awake during the day give your body a blood sugar boost by having a snack that mixes carbs with protein, so something like an apple and a bunch of nuts, or a yoghurt with some seeds mixed in. regular snacks like this will keep your energy levels up naturally without the need for stimulants. snacking on sugary things or unhealthy foods will only worsen the sleepiness problem in the long run.

exercise is great for this problem, just don't do it too close to bedtime or you'll still be pumped full of adrenalin!

avoid heavy meals before you sleep, especially ones that are loaded with fast burning carbs like pizza, chips or white rice that sort of thing. at the same time don't go to bed starving!

foods like bananas, turkey, milk and peanut butter all contain a chemical called tryptophan that naturally aids sleep, so often if i can't got to sleep at night i'll have a banana and it does the trick, you might want to try something similar.

you can also try working on some relaxation methods before you sleep, so perhaps try a meditation CD to unwind, having a nice hot bath with some lavender oil in it before you sleep, or having a cup of chamomile tea. and avoid doing anything that's mentally taxing for an hour or so before you go to bed, so no maths puzzles after 10pm!

ok before this turns into a thesis on getting good sleep i'll stop waffling! think seriously about the energy drinks though. it doesn't make any sense for you to say you want to get proper sleep but you don't want to give up the very things which will just make your problem worse! you need to listen to your body and work with it

Mike 1972

Whatever you do it might be worth while seeing a GP anyway so if you subsequently experience any hasstle at work you can get a doctors letter saying that you are being investigated/treated for sleep problems.

Having evidence that youve been seeing a doctor would might make them think twice about taking diciplinary action etc. At the very least it would dispel any notions they might have about your sleepiness being due to too many late nights (out) etc.

Also sleep problems can sometimes be a result of anxiety/depression/stress etc (could even be a viscous circle i.e. worrying about sleep stopping you from sleeping)

BumbleB

Getting plenty of sunlight or light is important for regulating sleep. I work nights and days and when I move from nights to days .I spend at least 3 days in zombie land when my body is telling me to sleep during the day and its not fun.Also you may be sensitive to the amount of co2 in a room.I've always fallen asleep at meetings because of that . Office air isn't particularly good as its recycled and most companies wont fork out for decent systems