How do you work full-time and stay awake all shift?
A few questions to people who have struggled long-term with fatigue, exhaustion, insomnia, etc.: what do you do to keep awake for a full-time workday? Black coffee, supplements, herbs, drugs/prescriptions, other? None, and it required a lifecycle habit change? Have you had success with "desk" jobs sitting all day, or had to choose a field with physical activity to keep from falling asleep on the job? Does it just "get easier" to wake up and stay up after multiple years of full-time? Before starting full-time I had only been able to get part-time gigs before, but it hasn't taken long for me to notice my biological clock isn't set right and every day I'm not sure if I'm "built" for it. Is anyone? Thanks Lemmy!
Have you looked into possible causes for your fatigue, exhaustion, and insomnia? It could be worth some investigation (e.g., blood work, sleep study, ADHD assessment).
As others have pointed out, this sounds like a sleep disorder. A healthy person who gets enough sleep should not have trouble staying awake for an 8 hour shift. This can be a serious condition and needs to be checked by a doctor. The good news is sleep disorders - and there are various kinds - can be resolved fairly quickly with treatment. Going straight to stimulants is not the answer. You should start with your primary physician and consider seeing a specialist for a sleep study.
Get checked out for sleep apnea! Being bored at work is normal but not being able to stay awake for an 8 hour shift means you are absolutely not getting proper rest when you are sleeping.
While you wait for your appointment, you can try resetting your sleep pattern by taking a solid 5mg dose of melatonin 60 minutes before bedtime for a week and ensuring you have 9-10 hours before you need to be up. I was in bed for 8 hours every night and got a rude surprise when I got a Fitbit for sleep tracking and found out I was only getting 6 hours of sleep in those 8 hours after you subtracted all the time it took me to fall asleep and any night-time wakings. Turns out I wake up 4-5 times a night and don't remember it in the morning. Rolling bedtime back 90 minutes felt like a chore but it was worth it to feel good every day.
Working full days does suck so I tend to try to give myself 2-3 things to look forward to during my shift to split it into 3-4 time blocks. Sometimes they are little candies like Lifesavers or Jolly Ranchers, or 10 min bathroom break with phone game, reading something interesting in Lemmy, taking a walk down to say Hi to someone elsewhere in the building, any little activity that feels like something I want to do, that's not strictly in my job description. Depending on your job you can even plan 6 of them and give yourself something for every hour that not first and last.
Wow... Literally nobody has mentioned the easiest solution? Get enough sleep and use a regular bedtime?
Just getting "enough" sleep for a few nights isn't going to work. You need to go to bed at the same time every night and get enough restful sleep for months so your body is on a schedule. Then you won't be tired during the day.
If you are, you may not be getting restful sleep and you need to investigate that.
For me, it was a CPAP. I'm physically fit, normal weight, healthy otherwise, but I was having obstructive sleep apnea. Getting a CPAP was a night and day difference, as my sleep is much more restful and restorative.
First things first, do you get enough sleep at night?
I work a desk job and do consistently get pretty drowsy around 2pm. I find that eating a lighter lunch and moving around keeps me awake. Take a walk around the building or something, it's bad for you to sit all day long anyways. I drink an energy drink every day as soon as I get in but I don't know what effect, if any, it has on my afternoon drowsiness.
Probably not... I've always heard people get 8 hours of sleep when it's dark, but my whole life I've always had broken sleep that doesn't return to sleep after waking back up, and after years of being unable to sleep consistently at some point I changed approach and just sleep whatever time I get tired. It slightly improved my physical and mental health at the time but my overall tiredness never really reduced, I just don't stare at the ceiling waiting for sleep anymore. The times I get the longest sleep tend to be when the sun is up, which is a disaster for being on-call during daylight business hours.
I used to suffer with broken sleep, and my partner complained about my snoring and heavy breathing keeping him up. Ended up getting tested for sleep apnoea but it came back negative - turns out I just had uncontrolled asthma. I take a preventer inhaler now and I sleep like a log. It's made it so much easier to get through the day.
Most civilised countries will permit you to have a short break after so many hours worked, like morning tea, afternoon tea, coffee breaks, or smokos. Use that time to get away from your work station and do something else.
Even if it is a 10 min break. Stretching during short breaks is always good. During lunch take a small walk to get out of the office.
Have you had success with “desk” jobs sitting all day
The trick is to not sit all day at your desk. Go for a coffee break and have a short walk outside every now and then. You can also use the Pomodoro technique to break down your work day into small chunks with frequent small breaks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique
This applies the when I was working in an office. I'm wfh because of an injury, but will be returning part time next month.
I take my second dose of ADHD medication at 11:30. Right when I start my lunch. I try not to include too many carbs in my lunch because that will make me sleepy.
I also make sure to take the long way back to my desk after using the bathroom to get my blood pumping.
I also drink absurd amounts of coffee and listen to energetic music.
When I am working from home I take a nap during my lunch lol.
When I was working three jobs, I'd go take a nap in my car instead of eating lunch; a thirty-minute nap kept me going for the rest of my shift. I'd have a granola bar for lunch while walking to/from the car.
I struggled for a long time before being diagnosed with sleep apnea. I sometimes feel asleep at my desk (not willingly, just passed out) until I got prescribed a CPAP machine.
Now I just need some coffee in the morning and I'm good to go until evening.
Don't work full time. That's how to do it. Of course, this will mean less money, less stuff, smaller stuff, possibly a change in your social life, maybe even moving to a society with less materialist values. But your quality of life will not suffer, quite the opposite. I speak from experience. Beyond a certain number of hours, work has a cost to one's quality of life. If you are serious about reducing that cost, there is only one way to do it. Work less.
I don't personally have much of an issue with fatigue but my SO has hypersomnia and she had to get on medication to help with it. Might be worth getting a sleep study to see if you have any sleep disorders.
I like to go for a walk at lunch, get some fresh air. If I've bought a lunch then I go to the park to eat while walking around, if I'm buying then I pick a slightly further away place.
It is worth seeing if you get used to it though, everyone struggles with a full time job to start with, especially if it's a starter job, low effort, repetitive, probably below you in the long term. As you get into a routine it gets better, adding responsibilities makes it better, even getting to know people so you have more chats makes it better.
OP I’m sorry all these bootlickers are telling you you’re sick or wrong or bad for not wanting to be awake for a needlessly long “full day” of work. I don’t have a sleep disorder but I can’t do it either. You know how I know I don’t have a sleep disorder? I don’t get sleepy on the weekends.
Anyways here’s how I’ve solved it. What I do is I show up at 10, take a 2-hour lunch break, then leave at 3. They don’t even know I’m gone.
Don’t let these assholes break your spirit, stay strong.