Top Five Ways to Stay Awake

Everyone has those days where they sleep a little too little, or are just plain tired. To stay awake, some people try the strangest things, like hypnosis, or hurting themselves. However, there are many simpler solutions. Maybe these will help!

1. Drink ice cold water

Emphasis on the “ice cold.” Warm water will only make your body temperature go up, making you more tired. By drinking ice water, or at least chilled water from a source, or a water fountain, you will lower your body temperature, and get an icy feel in your mouth. This will definately help you stay awake, and some people swear that it’s even more powerful than energy drinks or coffee. Just remember that carrying around a water bottle with ice in it is more convenient than getting up and walking to the water fountain every five minutes.

2. Stay cold

The colder you are, the more of a chance you have of staying awake. When you fall asleep, your body temperature increases, making you sleepy. If you’re wearing a coat or sweatshirt, no matter how cozy you feel, take it off. Do everything in your power to make yourself cold. Open the windows, or turn on the AC. Anything helps.

3. Take notes in the margin

No, not those kinds of notes. I mean, record the time, and then how you feel beside it. Do this every minute, it will help you feel more awake. For example, you could write- “9:34 AM, still feeling very sleepy, runny nose, hungry.” Trust me, even though your teachers will stare at you after you hand in assignments, it will help to keep you wide awake.

4. Make yourself uncomfortable

There’s a fine line between uncomfortable and pain, however. You need to not inflict pain, but don’t relax at the same time. Request a harder chair, or sit in a way foreign to you. You might also want to skip lunch, because beside the fact that after eating, your body gets sleepy, you will also be hungry, and that often keeps people awake.

5. Drink energy drinks

Now, there’s one simple rule to energy drinks- don’t stop at one. If you just buy one and drink it, you will crash. Everyone does, you’ll just feel sleepier than before after an hour or two of awakeness. Go out and buy one or two energy drinks. Drink half of one every hour or so, and it will last the entire day. You won’t feel hyper, but you’ll feel awake since you’re not drinking the entire drink at once. My recommendations for energy drinks that work the best are Monster Java, (Not plain Monster, those don’t do too much) Cocaine Energy, (watch out for the burn in your throat with that one) and No Fear energy. You do not want Red Bull, it claims it helps you stay awake, but in my experience, and in all of my friends, it did nothing whatsoever.

Well, those are my five tips to keeping you awake. On a side note, You could also try taking a power nap. This means just taking a ten to twenty minute nap, no more, no less. Any more will result in you having rapid eye movements, (REM) and you will feel even more tired after getting up. Any less, and it won’t do anything to your body. Good luck!