Afternoon Slump Syndrome – 6 Sure-Fire Ways to Kick A.S.S.
by Susan D'Addario,
Certified Sleep Science Coach
Certified Mind Body Eating Coach
Licensed HeartMath Certified Coach
No surprise - many of us have a hard time staying alert and/or even awake during the mid-afternoon. Clearly there is a daily post-lunch challenge – (sometime between 1-3pm) - to maintain focus and to be productive at work or home. In my more than 3 years as a certified sleep science coach, I’ve come to refer to this phenomena as the afternoon slump syndrome or A.S.S.
Many of my clients assume their afternoon dips are all about having a poor night of sleep. Others are convinced their mid-day drowsiness relates directly to eating a heavy lunch. But, is that what afternoon slump syndrome is really or exclusively about? And, are napping/siestas or having caffeine the only ways to recover from feeling wiped-out?
Before you respond ‘yes’ to the above and then reach for that afternoon cup of coffee or lie down, let’s go over the several causes of A.S.S. and what to do about it. The bottom line quite frankly is the more you deal with A.S.S. without relying on naps or caffeine, the better you and your nighttime sleep quality will be.
The Why’s:
Poor Sleep – This is in fact 1 reason you may experience daytime weariness. However, it doesn’t explain why those of us who have slept well the night before might still feel sleepy at 2pm.
Carb-Loaded Lunches – Yes indeed, when we eat heavy at lunch, particularly loading up on pastas, French fries, chips, breads, etc., we certainly can experience an energy dip shortly thereafter. What’s happening is that eating these types of foods shoots up our blood sugar levels fast and, as the old saying goes, what goes up, must come down. Post meal sugar crashes bring on drowsiness.
Sitting too Long – Imagine this: It’s after lunch, time to get back to work, and we become deeply engrossed in work and concentration. So deep, in fact, that we stop moving. We sit and contemplate at times for an hour or more. Facti: When we don’t move for lengthy periods of time, we actually fake out our brains into thinking we’ve fallen asleep. That incorrect assumption by the brain inspires it to signal for the release of our sleep hormone, melatonin. You get the drowsy picture.
Lack of Strong Light- In the mornings, exposure to strong, white light having a lux value of 10,000 or more which also contains blue light, is one way to let your brain know that a new day has started. Here’s the glitch – the average exposure to lux we get when indoors is 500 and that low lux light in the mornings and afternoons won’t deliver the message to your master clock that it’s daytime. Not having that awareness, the brain is fooled yet again, this time by artificial light, and give the signal for melatonin release.
Dip in Core Body Temp – As part of our natural circadian rhythm, our core body temp dips twice every 24 hours. One of those dips occurs – you guessed it – in the afternoon. When our temperature drops, that cues the brain to signal for melatonin release.
Having covered the varied explanations for why anyone of us might feel sleepy by mid-day, let’s now look at what we can do to feel alert in the afternoons and sleep well at night.
The What to Do’s:
Improve Sleep Quality/Quantity – This could involve contacting your local sleep coach to learn natural methods to start sleeping soundly again at night. And, yes, I offer virtual support.
Change Food Choices – Switching from white colored-processed carbs – brown rice, whole wheat pasta, multi-grain bread can help to ward off a severe sugar-crash and sleepiness. Whole grains take longer to digest than stripped or white grain foods. The longer amount of time it takes to digest these foods the less severe one’s sugar crash will be. If charted, eating white carbs looks like a dramatic, narrow spike up and down, while whole grain digestion/sugar level would come across more as a softer, rolling hill.
Moreover, changing from a complete simple carbohydrate lunch to a blend of whole carbs, veggies, protein, healthy fat also helps one to avoid the afternoon slump.
Move More x 2 – Getting up every 30 minutes or so will let your brain know you’re still awake, as well as serve towards better back health. If need be, consider setting a phone alarm to go off every half-hour to bring you out of deep thought and get you to stand.
Also, if a dropping core body temperature encourages melatonin release and then sleepiness, get up and move to warm up! An effective trifecta method to combat A.A.S. could include: (1) Standing up, (2) Taking a walk outside, and thereby, (3) Get strong light exposure. Woot!
Get Strong Light Exposure – Going outside in the morning, as well as mid-afternoon without sunglasses is the first and most obvious way to accomplish getting strong light. But,what if you can’t get outside? There are 2 other excellent lighting options:
1) Use a sun lamp which easily provides 10,000 lux
2) Wear light glasses. Either alternative method will do the trick!
Drink Green Tea – Okay, so the secret is out. Green tea in the early afternoons – hot or cold – is a great afternoon beverage. First, it has only half the caffeine as a cup of coffee. Second, it contains l-theanine, an amino acid in the green tea leaf which promotes both calm and focus. So, you get the value of a bit of caffeine with the edge taken off, plus heightened focus.
Take a Power Nap – (Making napping last on the list is not by accident.) The problem with naps in general is people take them for too long and frequently too late in the afternoon. Consequently, naps can actually perpetuate insomnia symptoms at night.
But, if you’ve had a poor night of sleep, and if you’ve tried the above options to recuperate without enough relief, then take a strategic power nap. Here’s the deal though: Make the nap work for you vs. against you by keeping it short - no longer than 25 minutes - and completing it in the earlier part of the afternoon - 2:30pmis appropriate for many.
Please experiment with any and all of the above recommendations to see which technique(s) work best for you. More than likely, after implementing one or some of the above strategies you will find that you may have actually succeeded in kicking A.S.S. at least enough without disrupting nighttime slumber.