Morning Energy?

[Summerfly413]

Usually once I manage to drag myself out of bed(some days take longer than others), I'm fairly awake.

Problem is, a lot of times I get to my classes, and man, it feels like the most perfect place EVER to take a nap.
I haven't napped in any of my college classes, though I did manage to fall asleep once in a class in high school. I woke up and everyone was walking out of the door . But a lot of times I have to fight to keep my head up in class and pay attention.

I need to take a two month summer class so I can graduate and get out of there with my AA so I can transfer. I signed up for an 8 a.m. Statistics class that goes until 9:53, Monday through Thursday.

Currently my earliest class is 9 a.m. and I feel pretty sleepy in there. This semester I even slept through my 9:30 class once by accident!

So, I know I should go to bed earlier, but how can I stay awake in my classes? I seem to have a hard time having energy to stay awake in math classes the most.
Are there specific foods I can eat? Stretches? I don't want to fail the class because I'm too tired to pay attention.
I usually tend to eat waffles with peanut butter, or some kind of cereal, maybe some fruit for breakfast. If we don't have any of that, I tend to just find cheeze its or something similar(or not eat, which I know you aren't supposed to do). Oh and I always have a glass of milk in the mornings too.

It doesn't help that most of my classes tend to keep half the lights off, and most classes don't have windows, or if they do the blinds are always down.

[Flying Grype]

You sound like me...

What's your diet like? Iron deficiency can cause that kind of thing -- that turned out to be my problem in second year. Are you eating enough food with iron in it, such as meat or lentils? Changing your diet won't work immediately -- if you are anaemic you might have to be on iron supplements for a couple of months to get back to normal. If this is suspected your doctor will be able to tell with a blood test, and then prescribe the right supplements.

Other than that... yes, go to bed at a decent hour. Sometimes you have to reset your body clock to do that. Get up really really early one day and force yourself to stay awake and not nap. Or go to the gym and get tired before bed. Then if you go to bed at 11 you'll actually fall asleep and have a chance of getting enough hours.

Also try getting up a good amount of time before class. It sounds counterintuitive but sometimes you just need some time for your brain to get working again in the morning. If I got up at 8 for an 8:30 class I just wouldn't be awake yet by the time class started, even with coffee and breakfast. I'm fully awake an hour after I get up and shower.

I used to fall asleep in a certain computer class that was in a basement room with no windows, and where the prof would turn off all the lights so we could watch the screen. You might want to get a full-spectrum or sunlike lamp, and sit by it in the morning before you go to class.

When I was working full-time in the winter and had to get up when it was still dark, it helped for me to get up early and do puzzles while I ate breakfast and sat in the beam of the full-spectrum lamp. These could be math or word puzzles or those computer games where you have to find stuff hidden in a picture. That gets my brain going.

[trailerparkmedic]

Do you drink coffee/soda/etc in the mornings?

I have resigned myself to not being a morning person. I don't care how much sleep I get or how consistent I make my schedule, I am not happy if I have to be awake and at school/work before 9 am. I am convinced that some people do mornings better than others, just like some people do late nights or even noctural living better than others. I worked a 6 am shift for about 6 months, and once I got in the habit of drinking a cup of coffee on the way to work, I could handle it.

You don't even want to know how much coffee I was drinking when I was up at odark thirty in the army!

[Andara Bledin]

What are you eating for breakfast?

If you load up on complex carbs, your body will want to take a nap not long after.

It's the carbs in the usual turkey dinner that cause the sleepiness, after all.

^-.-^

[BookstoreEscapee]

You might want to look at your sleep habits. I just read this article today.

[Evil Queen]

To wake up I drink a cocktail that is equal parts unsweetened orange juice and Ginger Ale (or 7up, or Sierra Mist) followed by a B12 vitamin and a multivitamin.

After several hours drink some slightly sweetened tea, preferably hot.

Lunch should always have plenty of fresh veggies and fruits. After about 2pm, move on to heavier carbs.

[Mishi]

Iron supplement + a multivitamin with 1 cup of coffee + 30 minutes of exercise and then a breakfast that includes some form of lean protein is the only way I can stay awake through the day. I seem to be naturally nocturnal.

[Summerfly413]

I don't think I'm deficient in iron, but it's possible. I was never anemic any of the times I got tested at the doctors. I don't eat very much meat, usually because I don't like to cook, especially meats. I eat veggies and nuts and things which have iron in them.

I don't drink coffee or anything. The only thing I've found to really like that has coffee in it is a vanilla starbucks frappichino that I can buy from a convenience store, but it would be unhealthy to drink that all the time. I get grossed out by the thought of drinking soda so early in the morning. I rarely drink soda as it is, and the sodas that I like are all caffeine free. And I don't want to be one of those people dependent on caffeine, like that guy in the McDonalds commercial.

That article seemed really helpful, so maybe I'll take ideas from that to be able to get up earlier. I always hit the snooze button and my clock in right next to my bed.

[BookstoreEscapee]

That article seemed really helpful, so maybe I'll take ideas from that to be able to get up earlier. I always hit the snooze button and my clock in right next to my bed.

The suggestion of putting the alarm clock in the living room would not work for me. I wouldn't even hear it. My roommate's alarm clock is on the other side of the wall behind my head and I don't even hear that (and she gets up before me). I do have two lights in front of the window that are on a timer, and they come on about 15 minutes before I need to get up, along with the radio on my alarm clock. My phone alarm goes off when I actually need to get up, though I tend to hit snooze two or three times at least. Trying to break that habit but I am a night owl so it's hard.

I don't think iron supplements are a good idea unless you are actually deficient. Better to eat iron-rich foods unless your doctor tells you to take a supplement. You can easily wind up with too much iron in your blood if you are not deficient to begin with, and if you are deficient, you should find out why and treat the cause.

[AdminAssistant]

I just keep my alarm on the other side of the room. I have a radio alarm and prefer it to the ones that sound like an air raid siren. It's a very gentle wake-up. I never hit the snooze alarm; if I'm desperate for more sleep, I'll just reset the alarm.

The SO has an 'air raid' style alarm that scares the crap out of me and likes to hit snooze a lot. We're going to have to discuss that when he moves in.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Get one of those alarms that runs away and you have to find it. Or the one with the puzzle pieces on top that go flying, and you have to put them all back before you can turn it off.

Sometimes I put my phone on my dresser but I tend to just crawl back into bed when it goes off, anyway. And I take it with me.

[Midorikawa]

I'm not a morning person AT ALL. On top of that, my current shift has me getting off friday at 11PM, then back on saturday at 8. If I'm lucky, that's 6 hours of sleep before I have to be up again. It takes at least an entire week to recover from the early days on saturday and sunday, to the point that I'm slowly getting worse and worse.

I've learned to find an alarm clock with an escalating ringer, instead of the air raid siren blare that I get used to and shut off in my sleep. I got to the point with my last alarm that I'd shut it off in my sleep all the way across the room. I also have to have the alarm away from the bed or I'll still shut it off in my sleep.

In addition, it also takes me 2-3 cups of coffee to be awake enough to do my job. Not good when you have heart problems, but I have no other choice really.

[Andara Bledin]

A note on iron and iron deficiencies: Many people who are diagnosed as iron deficient are actually deficient in copper, which is required for the body to process iron. Mineral interactions are why it's best to get your requirements from actual food as opposed to supplements.

^-.-^

[Der Cute]

My advice on getting arse out of bed & functioning:

Get up, shit shower shave etc, and eat a protein-y breakfast. Eggs, cheese, some COMPLEX carbs- whole grain toast or such. No processed sugar. Inject caffeine into body (j/k) (I drink mt. dew, yeah its processed sugar, but with the protein, it works)

After that meal, take a BComplex vitamin. You'll be awake!

Oh, and put about 1.5 hours of out-of-bed time before your class starts. Gets you awake and functional enough to comprehend some info.

Cutenoob