Trying to stay awake at my desk
WHAT ARE
YOU DOING?
Prepping for a big meeting
or presentation
ENERGY DRAIN 2
Preparing for a lunch date
WHAT ARE
YOU DOING?
NIGHT OWL
NO MORE
Say good night to your
nocturnal existence
Going to work out
ARE
YOU SLEEP
DEPRIVED?
ENERGY DRAIN 3
ENERGY DRAIN 4
WILL YOU
BE DRINKING
ALCOHOL?
ENERGY DRAIN 7
ENERGY DRAIN 8
ENERGY DRAIN 6
You were tearing through
your to-do list before lunch,
but now you can barely move
your mouse. That’s because
you’ve become mired in the
circadian trough—also known
as the afternoon slump—
which typically strikes somewhere between 1 and 3 p.m.
“Your levels of cortisol (the
get-up-and-go hormone) are
high in the morning but then
drop in the afternoon,” says
Bowden. Also at play are
your levels of melatonin, the
sleep hormone, which begin
to rise around this time.
ENERGY DRAIN 7
Don’t stop at a java joint on
your way to the bar. Combining alcohol and caffeine can
increase risk-taking behavior,
possibly because the latter
blunts the depressant effect
of the former, according to a
Cedars Sinai Medical Center
review. Plus, the stimulating
effect of caffeine may mask
the feeling of being drunk.
Mixing the two could reduce
your ability to gauge your own
intoxication, making you more
likely to overdo it. When the
energizing effects wear off,
you’ll be sloshed and sleep
deprived—a potentially lethal
combination, says Dr. Edlund.
ENERGY DRAIN 8
While you may think you’re a
free man, you’re really a slave
to your circadian rhythms.
See, your body is going to
command you to start winding down about an hour
before your regular bedtime.
“You’re tired because your
cortisol drops. It’s meant to
be low so you can fall asleep
and your brain can recover
for the next day,” Dr. Cwynar
explains. This is an instance
when you’re supposed to feel
tired—which means you need
a big-time boost.
ENERGY DRAIN 9
Your body is swimming in
hormones—except it’s low
tide for testosterone. Your T
levels peak in the morning
(the reason for your morning
erection) and then significantly drop in the evening,
says Scott Isaacs, M.D., an
Emory University endocrinologist. This hormonal decline
can cause your sex drive to
take a nosedive, he says.
What’s more, it can affect
your overall stamina: “
Testosterone is one of the most
potent energy boosters men
have,” notes Dr. Cwynar.
The same hormone that
helps you perform in the
sack can hinder the other
bedroom activity: sleep.
German scientists found
that testosterone may predispose men to being night
owls. Why? The master
clock in your brain has
male-hormone receptors;
when T binds to them, it can
shift your clock to a later
schedule, says study author
Christoph Randler, Ph. D.
Combine conking out late
with waking early for work,
and you’re looking at serious sleep deprivation. It’s
time to reclaim the night.
LOOSEN UP AT LUNCH
You don’t want to mess with
your T, but you can lower
your cortisol, a stress hormone that peaks later in
night owls, says Michael
Thorpy, M. D., of the Sleep-Wake Disorders Center in
Ne w York City. The trick?
Twenty minutes of tensing
and releasing your muscles
at lunchtime. This can lead
to lower cortisol levels, say
German researchers.
FIGHT IT Bask in the light
To stay out of the trough, join
the blues brothers. In a 2011
Swiss study, men who parked
themselves in the glow of
bulbs that emitted blue light
produced less sleep-inducing
melatonin. Purchase a compact fluorescent bulb marked
“6500K”—an indication of
cool light, which includes
blue waves—and install it in
one of your desk lamps. Turn
the lamp on around lunchtime, and leave it shining
until 5 p.m. “This will stabilize your circadian rhythms
and even improve your sleep
later on,” says study author
Christian Cajochen, Ph.D.
FIGH T I T Take a power nap
Head, meet pillow. Just make
sure you set your alarm: A
2011 study from Ireland
showed that when you doze
late in the day, you’re more
likely to descend into slow-wave sleep, which if interrupted can bring on sleep
inertia (see Energy Drain 1).
So limit your nap to 10 to 20
minutes. Recent Australian
research found that this
interval is brief enough to
keep you out of the slow-wave zone while still allowing sufficient time for the
sleep to work its magic.
FIGH T I T Chew gum
Caffeinated gum is what the
U.S. Army hands out to its
combat soldiers, so it should
be more than sufficient for
your duties as wingman or
DD. For a boost that lasts 3 to
4 hours, says Caldwell, go
with gum that has 100 to 200
milligrams of caffeine, such
as Stay Alert Caffeine Energy
Gum ($8/six-pack, stayalert
gum.com). Gum is an even
more efficient caffeine delivery system than coffee: “You
release all the caffeine in
about a minute,” Caldwell
says. “It’s rapidly absorbed
into your bloodstream
through the blood vessels in
your mouth and throat.”
FIGH T IT Hit the gym
Lift iron to raise wood. “Men
who work out regularly have
higher testosterone and better performance in bed,” says
Dr. Isaacs. A higher baseline
level of the hormone means
the nighttime slump will be
less pronounced—and less
likely to impact your sex life.
Your T rises after just one
workout, so exercise in the
evening before a hot date.
Keep it to about 30 minutes
of weights or an hour of
weights and cardio; going
longer or doing only aerobic
exercise may blunt your testosterone response, a 2012
study from Spain found.
POUR A WARM ONE
When levels of the sleep
hormone melatonin rise,
your temperature drops,
initiating sleep. If you’re a
night owl, your melatonin
spike starts later—which is
where the power of warm
milk comes in. It causes a
spike and then a significant
decrease in body temperature, says MHsleep advisor
W. Christopher Winter, M.D.
RETHINK WEEKENDS
The only way to break your
night-owl cycle is to stick to
your weekday schedule on
weekends, says Dr. Winter.
Since you don’t have the
threat of being late to work,
set up a reward for rolling
out of bed—a special breakfast, say. Eventually you’ll
start waking up earlier on
your own. —JORDAN S WARD
