How to beat the "Afternoon Crash" ?

[Pawnless Endgame]

I roll out of bed at 08:50 for a 09:00 start, with the laptop in my kitchen. Therefore food available at any time.

Treadmill in my lounge which I can jump on for 5 minutes at a time when the phones aren't ringing.

Weetabix is the cereal of choice.

I treat myself to Maccy D's breakfast once a week. Has to be BACON-egg McMuffin (not sausage-egg!)

 

[200sols]

because tea is at 5:30-6pm

Tea is at 11am, then maybe 3pm. Dinner is the main meal of the day, usually in the evening but sometimes at midday

Personally I like breakfast, lunch and dinner but then again i'm not some northern savage.

This guy knows.

 

[Rroff]

???????? Sure, it could be, but unlikely.

It's totally natural. It's part of circadian rhythms.

Ways to mitigate it - drink less coffee, more water, and eat better and smaller portions for breakfast and lunch.

Google "afternoon slump" for more info.

If it is beyond the point of a mild inconvenience it can very much point to sugar/insulin related stuff - I'm trying to avoid going to much into medical stuff. That isn't to say it is definitely a sign that is what the problem is. (It is also worth addressing early if it is the case as these days there are ways to reverse it very effectively).

I miss breakfast sometimes, tend to have 2 or 3 coffees a day from Pret. When I do eat, bowl of cornflakes for breakfast, ham sarnie at dinner.

Goes without saying really but that doesn't sound like an ideal way to have sustained energy through the day. Again I'd suspect hydration to be fairly high up the list of things you want to improve (might be worth looking at effervescent hydration tablets at least as a temporary fix).

Weetabix is the cereal of choice.

Personally, despite the ads heh, I find Weetabix terrible for energy through the day - just seems too slow energy delivery with a bit of an overall lethargic feel - probably not the most healthy but nothing gets me energy through the bulk of the day cereal wise like coco shreddies.

 

[dlockers]

Ya'll forgetting the number 1 argument us northeners have. At school you had dinner ladies. Therefore, it is dinner.

 

[dirtychinchilla]

I ate McDonalds for lunch. Predicted an afternoon slump, which is now becoming reality. I find it's most related to food.

 

[LiE]

You can try different protocols for taking your caffeine to avoid the crash. I find after a couple coffees if I have a 3rd is makes me sleepy. I now have a green tea around 1-2pm as it contains some caffeine but also L-theanine which helps with some the nasties of too much caffeine.

I've also timed workouts to give me the dopamine hit to help ride out the afternoon slump.

This is the life we live when we habitually ingest stimulants.

 

[Pho]

I very rarely bother with breakfast as I don't have the time (I'm not a morning person; get up at the last possible minute, shower, go)

When I was in the office I used to get really hungry around 1pm. I ended up forgetting to take any food with me a few times and noticed I was weirdly less hungry.

So now I don't bother eating breakfast or dinner ("lunch" ) and have much more energy in the afternoon. Means I can eat a much bigger meal at night which I prefer.

Still drink plenty of coffee though.

 

[moon man]

I have a pleasnt sleepy feeling on my 3pm tea break at work, sometimes have a micro nap,, passes after Afew mins back at work

 

[200sols]

At school you had dinner ladies. Therefore, it is dinner.

You mean 'meal time assistant' surely? Dinner lady is sexist now

 

[Haggisman]

I have lunch at 1.30, so I'm wide awake again at 2

Ya'll forgetting the number 1 argument us northeners have. At school you had dinner ladies. Therefore, it is dinner.

Then why is it called a lunch break? Which you have at lunch time. (Also we had lunch ladies at school).

Bit odd but each to their own. Personally I like breakfast, lunch and dinner but then again i'm not some northern savage.

I'm pretty sure a lack of food and and far too much coffee is whats causing the OP issues. Not enough calories and far too much caffeine.

Oi, less of the "Northern Savages" eh?

I grew up in Glasgow and we had breakfast, lunch and dinner - In my experience it's the Southern fairies that make up these random words for meals.

"What would you like for supper Tarquin?"
"I say Harriet, shall we meet tomorrow for elevenses?"

etc...

 

[chroniclard]

So many wrong'uns ITT

 

[Rroff]

LOL we had dinner ladies at school - but dinner (interchangeably used with tea) was what I had at home at 6pm sharp - and lunch was what was written on the rota. I never even bothered my head about it.

 

[Lysander]

"What would you like for supper Tarquin?"
"I say Harriet, shall we meet tomorrow for elevenses?"

etc...

I like the implication that Harriet is an upper-middle class name.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

Take a nap.

I regularly take a 20min power nap around 13:30 if needed.

 

[dlockers]

Take a nap.

I regularly take a 20min power nap around 13:30 if needed.

Caveat that you're a full time student

 

[Deleted member 66701]

Ya'll forgetting the number 1 argument us northeners have. At school you had dinner ladies. Therefore, it is dinner.

+1

And I'm a southerner (but living in the best half).

 

[LiE]

Caveat that you're a full time student

You mean you cannot just lean back in the office chair and catch some z's?

 

[Deleted member 66701]

Caveat that you're a full time student

I used to do the same when I worked at Hewlett Packard - we used to have rooms outfitted with futons for this very purpose.

Do other workplaces not do this?

 

[gpuerrilla]

My southerner wife and kids now correctly say "tea" for the evening meal after years of training.

On a serious reply to OP - yes I have this too at work. I called it the 3pm burn out where I found it hard to focus after working hard from 9 start. I would often go for a half hour walk on lunch break but it never stopped the 3pm doom.

The older I have got, having a large lunch does make you prone to being tired. But I dont think its a dietary thing at all, more a mental focus egg-timer where the sand just flows out and when its gone..

 

[PC777]

I've been caffeine free for decades, I still get an occasional crash as well working long and late hours sometimes, so giving up caffeine may not solve it for you. Best bet is a 15 min powernap if you can do that at work, I work from home so can do that and work for hours afterwards.

As for down South, it's called lunch and lunchtime but they were/are? still called dinner ladies. But going out for dinner or eating dinner would always mean the evening meal. As for supper and elevenses, they're mostly used in jest as well as they are up North for curious extra meal names from the past. However, it has to be said that supper is still used a lot in Scotland for a general descriptor for food, fish supper, for fish and chips, etc. So the Scots do like their suppers, arguably more than anywhere else in the UK.

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

LOL we had dinner ladies at school - but dinner (interchangeably used with tea) was what I had at home at 6pm sharp - and lunch was what was written on the rota. I never even bothered my head about it.

My school had dinner ladies as well.

However, the 'woke' agenda of the 2020s insist that we must now call them dinner persons.

Or dinner womxn