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Unexpected ways to wake up your brain

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Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain

#11

Post by hgh »

JTon wrote: post #7
sebnukem2 wrote: post #5

There's one thing that fully wakes me up every morning better than a dozen cups of coffee ever would: biking to work.

I'm curious about the logistics behind this. Do you have an issues carrying items to work? Spare clothes, laptop, lunch, etc. Also, do you shower and change once you get to work?

I recently took the plunge and started biking to work semi-regularly as well. Here's a few points that got me going.

Sweat. If you have a shower at work then great. If not there's no reason to go full tilt on the way to work. Relax, go at a reasonable pace to avoid working up a major sweat. We have a shower at the office, but I rarely use it because it's not too hectic of a ride.

Store stuff at work. Drive into work on a Monday and bring clothes and stuff with you and store in a locker or somewhere at work. Then bike the rest of the days and drive home later in the week.

If you can leave your laptop at work the odd day.. you'll enjoy life at home that much more :)

Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain

#13

Post by TrainedMonkey »

sebnukem2 wrote: post #5

There's one thing that fully wakes me up every morning better than a dozen cups of coffee ever would: biking to work.

One thing that wakes me up every morning is not drinking any caffein on regular basis. No coffee, energy drinks, tea, or soda.

Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain

#14

Post by oh_sigh »

JTon wrote: post #7
sebnukem2 wrote: post #5

There's one thing that fully wakes me up every morning better than a dozen cups of coffee ever would: biking to work.

I'm curious about the logistics behind this. Do you have an issues carrying items to work? Spare clothes, laptop, lunch, etc. Also, do you shower and change once you get to work?

When I have plans to bike to work, I usually stage extra sets of work clothes/shoes at my office the day before(when I take mass transit), so I can carry a light load on my bike commute.

Luckily for me, my office provides showers and lockers, a laptop I can keep at home, and free lunch on the premises, so load is not much of an issue for me.

If you do need to carry some stuff, you can always get a pannier(a bag mounted to the side of your rear wheel), which is more comfortable than a bookbag filled with stuff.

Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain

#15

Post by Magi604 »

codyb wrote: post #8
JTon wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious about the logistics behind this. Do you have an issues carrying items to work? Spare clothes, laptop, lunch, etc. Also, do you shower and change once you get to work?

A backpack solves all of those issues. None of that is necessarily very large. As for the shower, some work places have showers. Depending on how much you work out and what the climate is like you may or may not be a heavy sweater after a ride to work. People who work out often tend to sweat more because their bodies adapt to their routines and start to sweat at the slightest hint of physical exercise. People who don…

I used to cycle with a backpack, and it would always make my back sweaty, no matter the weather or the exertion I put into my ride.

Then a couple of years ago I went on a bike tour, so I upgraded my bike and got some actual panniers to store stuff.

The change was amazing! Not only can you carry more, but you also avoid the strain and sweatiness of having a backpack.

Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain

#16

Post by drzaiusapelord »

Anyone else enjoy a very, very short nap? If I'm feeling sleepy I just find a spot to close my eyes for less than five minutes. Once a bit of hypnogogic imagery appears behind my eyelids, I quit, get up and go back to work. I get a few hours of wakefulness from doing just this.

Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain

#17

Post by Magi604 »

Here's a trick I learned in college.

Get something COLD (ice pack, a can of pop from the fridge, bag of ice. Even a swath of paper towels that have been run under a cold-running faucet for a while can do the trick

Place it on your forehead, centered, just above your eyes.

That always jolted me awake for a good 15-30 mins, though your mileage may vary.

I am not sure of the science behind it, though I do remember reading it on some sort of lifehacker-type blog, so I didn't invent this.

Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain

#18

Post by tremendo »

bevan wrote: post #12

If you want to see some of the papers about sage's effect on cognition, I've added them here: http://paleoclaims.com/claims/sage-enhances-cognitive-perfor...

Or, IMO more clearly organized and presented information: http://examine.com/supplements/Salvia+sclarea/

Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain

#19

Post by bevan »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #16

Anyone else enjoy a very, very short nap? If I'm feeling sleepy I just find a spot to close my eyes for less than five minutes. Once a bit of hypnogogic imagery appears behind my eyelids, I quit, get up and go back to work. I get a few hours of wakefulness from doing just this.

There is indeed some evidence that very short naps improve memory consolidation, cognitive performance, and mood: http://paleoclaims.com/claims/short-naps-improve-cognitive-p...

Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain

#20

Post by cbd1984 »

sebnukem2 wrote: post #5

There's one thing that fully wakes me up every morning better than a dozen cups of coffee ever would: biking to work.

Where do you live? Because the climate would put a kibosh on that in a lot of places pretty quick. (Even if you're personally fine with being outside in -20°F (244 K) weather, there are rather serious mechanical issues with biking through deep snow and on glazed ice with a thin layer of loose snow on top.)
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