Tired

Volturnus

I am pretty busy with college and work I need something to help me concentrate/wake me up when I'm tired. What would be best? Don't advise sleep...

Pete67

A coffee and a 10 minute brisk walk in the fresh air. But what's wrong with sleep?

callaway92

Volturnus wrote: »

I am pretty busy with college and work I need something to help me concentrate/wake me up when I'm tired. What would be best? Don't advise sleep...

Go for a brisk walk/run/gym

shesty

No matter what is suggested, getting more sleep will always win out as the best solution.Everything else is a temporary pickmeup.

Afroshack

Cold shower and a strong coffee.

Volturnus

shesty wrote: »

No matter what is suggested, getting more sleep will always win out as the best solution.Everything else is a temporary pickmeup.

3rd year of comp science pretty insane with how much they want and 9-6 mon-fri and then i do 20 hours in work per week and i need to spend a lot of time outside of college practicing.

Neyite

Mod:

Genuine helpful replies only please. And recommending illegal substances is forbidden site wide, so please don't do that either.

Whispered

Have a look at B vitamins, I always find them great when I need a boost. It'll take a while to see a benefit but get a course and stay on them.

On top of that have a look at your diet and see if there is anything you can improve

seamus

At the end of the day you can't make yourself less tired in the long run by taking any stimulants or doing brain exercises or anything. When you're tired, you're tired. Continually ignoring that has been proven to build up a sleep deficit which can only be correct by sleeping more. So if you're only getting 5 hours sleep a night, at some point you're going to have to make up the difference. And until you do, your ability to function is decreased and your mental health is at risk.

You've gotten the right advice here from other people;

Exercise: 30 minutes of brisk exercise per day. Even if that's getting off the bus one stop early and walking the rest of the way, a short amount of regular exercise will help you get to sleep faster and sleep more soundly.

Food: If you're not eating a balanced diet, if you're snacking or only eating rubbish meals during the day, then your body doesn't have the nutrition it needs to cope and you will feel tired and lethargic. Forget vitamin tablets or berocca or any of that stuff. They're mostly nonsense and are not proven to be at all effective unless you have a diagnosed deficiency.

Sleep: You've just got to sleep. Sacrifice everything in order to sleep. Go to bed at 9pm. Cancel plans with friends and family. Skip meals if you have to. Nothing is more important, and you're not missing out on anything by going to bed.

Stroke Politics

Cut out the blue light from tv, phones and tablets 30 minutes before you go to sleep and read a book instead. The light from electronic devices interfaces with the sleep process.

Get a non-course-specific book out of the library and have it by your bedside.

fizzypish

Volturnus wrote: »

3rd year of comp science pretty insane with how much they want and 9-6 mon-fri and then i do 20 hours in work per week and i need to spend a lot of time outside of college practicing.

Right. My tuppence worth. Some lecturers put together great project/assignments that will work if you put in the effort. Others pick assignments out of their arse that will probably never work. "O but thats what industry is like". No its not gob****e.

If you have a lecturer of this type, don't do the assignments to make them work, do them so you can make a good report.

I have spent hours trying to make something work that never was going to. If it had worked it may have been worth 5% of the grade but the time spent getting that 5% in assignment A could have gotten me 15% in assignment B.
Hard work doesn't necessarily get results. Work smart, not hard. Know when to cut and run. Gluck.

mapaca

Agree with the advice about getting enough sleep, eating well and exercising. Just wanted to add: it might also be worth getting the doctor to check your iron levels as low iron can make you tired. Or just try taking a supplement and see if it helps.

AidanadiA

A short nap/ power nap followed by a coffee and some form of exercise used to help me get through a time in my life where I needed to be awake. After years of training, I can now power nap for 5 minutes and feel great afterward.

njs030

mapaca wrote: »

Or just try taking a supplement and see if it helps.

Don't do this!
Always see a doctor before taking iron supplements, taking it when you don't need to can actually make you tired and cause other more serious health problems.
Blood tests are the only way to know if you need iron supplements.

mapaca

notjustsweet wrote:

Don't do this! Always see a doctor before taking iron supplements, taking it when you don't need to can actually make you tired and cause other more serious health problems. Blood tests are the only way to know if you need iron supplements.

Oh sorry, I didn't know that! Ignore me OP!

shesty

OP.I am really not trying to be rude here but this is a lesson to you in managing your time.

You are going to have to look at how you approach stuff.You are going to have consider can you cut hours of work if possible. And if you have to practice outside of college, you make it a specific slot that is spent in a focused worthwhile way.

You know a million ways to wake yourself, and I am sure people here can tell you a few more.But the fact remains that it's now Sept.You cannot get through an entire college year surviving on coffee/cold showers/supplements/exercise, whatever.It is not sustainable over such a period of time and the wheels will come off eventually.What happens when you get to the end of the year, you have 9-6 hours, 20 hours work, practice and study?What then?

Despite the fact that this may sound patronising I am saying it with two specific experiences in mind.....firstly my own college years which were 9-6 for four years.And secondly doing a part time masters, with a fulltime job and (in the second year) a new baby.I remember being given assignments and listening to full time students around me complaining about how they were going to miss their deadlines for them, when I was working fulltime but had the assignment done and submitted.I had to manage my time.I had to be ruthless in my internet searches for information, in how I planned out my assignments, in budgeting my time for drafting, reviewing referencing and submitting.I had to plan ahead for time spent computer modelling etc.To be fair, it's a skill I had learned through being out at work, but it can be done.

You need to do something similar.If you must keep up 20 hours of work, then you need to look at what your week looks like, and what you are going to do with your time.And you need to figure out how to best manage it.Even better, step back and look at your year, and plan accordingly.Obviously coming up to exams is going to be more stressful and caffeine filled, but you cannot rely on substitutes for sleep for an entire year.It will not end well.

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pwurple

Time management all the way.

Use an online calendar, and get your tasks under control with trello or wunderlist or whatever management tool you want to use.

9-6 course plus 20 hours work still leaves you shedloads of time left even with 8 hours of good sleep a night.
(I suspect you are embellishing the truth here btw, I did engineering, and Comp sci always had less hours than us unless you are adding labs and tutorials etc)


I have done stints of projects where it's 8am to midnight 7 days a week for months, and managed ok, but I adjust my eating.

I'd drop caffeine completely, and keep an eye on food. Eat regularly, small meals every 3 hours, and decently... not snacks. Not too late, not after 7pm. When you stop working, you need to be able to fall asleep.

Paddy Cow

I will go against the grain and say avoid coffee and any caffeinated drinks such as tea, energy drinks or fizzy drinks. Substitute for water. You might have a headache for the first couple of days if you are used to drinking coffee but you will see the benefits of drinking water pretty quickly. If water is too boring, add some cordial.

There is no quick fix or any supplement you can take to counteract tiredness. There are measures you can take. The first is drinking lots of water. The second is keeping a routine. Your college schedule is pretty regular but what about your work? Are you working odd hours at the weekend/during the week?

If at all possible, try to get up and go to bed at the same time every day. Eat at the same times. That will make a huge difference. If your body gets used to having food at regular intervals, you won't have sugar crashes, which make you tired and lethargic. Try and cut out sugary and processed foods.

shesty

I wholeheartedly agree.....caffeine and sugar fixes to keep yourself going make the crashes even worse.Requiring increasing amounts of caffeine and sugar, which then interfere with your diet, sleep etc.I can testify to this.