Strange - doesn't mention Nicotine. I believe in patch or lozenge this has as much affect as caffeine [1]. Note that I'm not advocating smoking, just the nicotine itself.
Unexpected ways to wake up your brain
31–40 of 68 posts
Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain
#32There'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.)
Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain
#33Here's a trick I've been using: if you are driving and start feeling tired, hold your breath. Your brain will go into a bit of a panic mode: "Where's all the O2?!", and you will feel more awake for a short period of time. Do note, that this is a great trick to get you to the rest area 3 miles down the road, not a good way to drive all night long.
If you're alone in the car, try screaming. It creates an adrenaline rush.
But I MUST add that none of these tricks will last for more than a couple of minutes, and after you do them a couple of times, they stop working. Sleepy drivers start "microsleeping", which means they fall asleep for a second or so then wake up without being aware that they did it. The microsleeps gradually get longer until you start noticing---or you die or kill someone else.
Don't take sleepiness on the road lightly. You can use the screaming to get yourself safely to a parking place. If you are this sleepy, pull into a busy parking lot and go right to sleep for 15 minutes (set an alarm). You're unlikely to be bothered by anyone in the first 15 minutes in a very busy, public location. They'll assume you're waiting for someone.
Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain
#34There'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 can easily pack a change of "work clothes" (used to include dress shoes), toiletries, camp towel and lunch in a small backpack or largish messenger bag. Having a shower available is strongly recommended, however. Built-in in hydration for the backpack isn't a bad idea either.
I've gotten lazy and haven't biked in in awhile, but I used to do it every day by heading into work about 30-45 minutes earlier than I would drive, swapping my shower immediately after I got up for showering at work, and compensating for a slightly longer commute. If you compare the amount of time you'd spend driving to a gym, working out, then driving somewhere else, it's a no-brainer, bike commuting kills two birds with one stone and saves you gas money. Or you can try what I did for a while and get up even earlier to bike to the gym, workout, shower, then bike to work, using the cycling as warmup and cool down for the gym workout.
Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain
#35Earlier 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'm not the fit guy at all. I hardly ever exercise. But I sweat A LOT if I use the stairs to go to the floor below. So yeah, all bodies are different.
Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
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'm not the fit guy at all. I hardly ever exercise. But I sweat A LOT if I use the stairs to go to the floor below. So yeah, all bodies are different.
All bodies are different; I read the GP and thought, "yeah, no, I'm in fairly decent shape, and I have to work really hard for a good long while to break a sweat". I never have to use chalk while rock climbing, for instance. I think my body's adaptation at this point is that light physical exertion isn't even a warmup for me any more, and I've burned quite a bit of "insulation" off (biking in to work does make the fridge cold labs feel warmer). That being said, having a shower is another good way to wake myself up, sweaty or not.
Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain
#37Here's a trick I've been using: if you are driving and start feeling tired, hold your breath. Your brain will go into a bit of a panic mode: "Where's all the O2?!", and you will feel more awake for a short period of time. Do note, that this is a great trick to get you to the rest area 3 miles down the road, not a good way to drive all night long.
15 Minutes sleep is a good one. Also, if you are alone, singing along with music.
Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain
#38I've been off caffeine for 2+ years now, I always feel like I've been poisoned when I use it, jittery and completely unable to concentrate. Also interesting that they didn't mention any of the longer acting transporter blockers like methylphenidate or other "performance enhancing" drugs that have been widely reported to improve attention (the button pressing test is actually diagnostic for the action of these drugs).
Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain
#39There'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.
my pet hypothesis is that caffeine catalyzes energy consumption, at the expense of efficiency. that is to say, drinking a cup of coffee in the morning makes me a good worker for 1 hour, then i pay the price over the next 5-7. in contrast, no caffeine means a slower start, but more total "energy" towards work gets produced. basically, i dont think you can top natural energy regulation.
Re: Unexpected ways to wake up your brain
#40Strange - doesn't mention Nicotine. I believe in patch or lozenge this has as much affect as caffeine [1]. Note that I'm not advocating smoking, just the nicotine itself. [1] http://discovermagazine.com/2014/march/13-nicotine-fix
Recently listened to a Freakonomics podcast[1] about how to make people quit smoking. There were two related points that stuck with me.
1. Nicotine can have a lot of positive benefits. As one of their experts stated, “Good drug, bad delivery system.”
2. One of those benefits is a possible anti-depressant effect. So smoking may inadvertently be treating a person’s undiagnosed mental health issue[2], an additional difficulty when trying to quit smoking.
This second point has made me a little more compassionate towards smokers, and to the difficulty of quitting. (As least in theory, still get annoyed when I can smell cigarette smoke on myself after a trip down to the shops because of some smoker on the sidewalk.)
[1] http://freakonomics.com/2014/04/03/how-to-make-people-quit-s...
[2] NOT advocating this as an excuse to continue smoking. There are better treatments.