I got a terrible night of sleep and have an interview this afternoon. What are some things I can do to help my brain?

minorsecond@lemm.ee to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 150 points –

I'm super drowsy even though I had some caffeine. I'm drinking lots of water and eating healthy foods, but is there anything else I can do in the meantime?

How do you make yourself feel better after a poor night of sleep?

Edit: It went well! The director even said, "we should just hire you now!" However, I have one more panel interview. Time for a nap.

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If all else fails, just tell the interviewers something along the lines of

"I was so excited about this opportunity that I wasn't able to sleep last night. I apologize for not being 100%."

Most people have experienced being too anxious/excited to get a good night's sleep, so if you are up front about it, they will probably be more forgiving than if you just try to power through and fail.

Drink a cup of coffee THEN take a 20 minute power nap right after. Caffeine doesn’t clear the chemicals from the receptors that tell your brain you are sleepy. It DOES prevent those chemicals from binding for a while, so drink the coffee and immediately take a nap. Your body will clear up the Chema, and the caffeine will prevent the Chems still floating in your blood stream from making you tired again 20 minutes later

20 minute power nap

Just curious, how do you guys manage to do that? It can take me up to 2 hours just to fall asleep, unless I just woke up in which case I still shouldn't do that because few extra minutes of sleep just totally destroy me for the day.

20 minute Power Nap = lay down, close my eyes, think of nothing for 20 minutes.

It usually takes me an hour + to fall asleep but I still appreciate getting a few minutes to shut down in the middle of a tiring day.

Imagine telling an adhd (or related) to think about nothing.
Might as well ask me to move that mountain over there :p

Move that mountain over there.

Actually, when I think about it, you sort of can. Because the mountain is a part of Earth you can just move the Earth. As you know, every action has an equal and opposite reaction so you can just start walking or running by which you ever so slightly changed the Earth's rotation and kind of moved the mountain along with it.
But actually, speed is relative. So if you're walking (which the mountain probably isn't, at least not in exactly same direction at exactly same speed) the mountain is moving relative to you.
Although you could also probably just kick it. Vibrations are also movements, no matter how small.

But what if you just took a rock from the mountain and thrown it somewhere else? If it's considered a part of mountain, you just moved it relative to Earth which is a big success in this case. I mean, think about a pile of gravel. Take some from one side, place it on the other, it's still a pile of gravel and it is also slightly re-positioned.

Anyway,...

And this is the sort of thought my brain goes through when trying to think of nothing...

Start at 10, count backwards to 1
Count up to 10
Count backwards to 1

Your mind will wander, that’s ok. Recognize it is happening, and focus back on counting.

Dude I am textbook ADHD and totally useless without meds (which is why it takes over an hour for me to even think about sleeping).

You don’t have to give up before you try just because you have ADHD.

You guys should try having kids. You'll learn to fall asleep within moments.

Miracle cure, I tell ya.

Just close your eyes and let your mind wander. Even if you don’t fall asleep you get a large percentage of the benefits. The 20 minutes is because that’s about the best timespan for the body to rest without taking into a deeper slumber that’s hard to wake up from

You're not actually going to sleep, you're "resting" for 20 minutes. It still had a massive impact on your energy level and well being. Anything past that and you run into the danger zone of sleeping too long and waking up mid sleep-cycle and feeling worse.

I never use to be able to nap until I started smoking weed.

Do you smoke before the nap? Or just the active use seems to help you nap in general?

Just the active use in general. I do sometimes have trouble falling asleep but its usually allergy related or my cat won't shut up lol

I personally used meditation techniques to fall asleep faster until I taught my brain and myself the right routine. Don't confuse your brain, Bed=sleep and keep a schedule. From there power naps are easy.

This works, and I'm speaking from experience. Nothing makes a short nap more effective at clearing cobwebs than coffee right beforehand.

If you can manage both, do this and then go for a walk for about 20 minutes before your interview. Physical activity can also help wake up your brain, and a walk shouldn't get you sweating like heavier exercise might. Showing up for an interview sweaty isn't a good look.

Same here. I have drank coffee and gone right to sleep before and its a different kind of sleep.

Before the interview, go outside and look up towards the sun with your eyes closed.

Feel the warmth of the sun radiate on your face and body. Take deep breaths, but hold your exhales until discomfort.

This will trigger your body to wake up and be alert.

Power nap, cold shower, light exercise (brisk walk), and coffee (bonus points if you have l-theanine to take with it, can help w/ the jittery effects).

Yep! I never have caffeine without l-theanine.

l-theanine promotes relaxation and a sense of calm without causing drowsiness or loss of focus, get yours today!

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...do... do we have a /c/HailCorporate yet?

I would go home sick for the day and take a nap, then show up for the interview well-rested. Caffeine will make you feel more alert for a short while, but it won’t really help your brain.

The holy trinity of mental clarity is to take a hike, a shower, and then a nap, cyclically in that order. Best advice that ever reached me. I explain it here, but basically it's like companion planting: hikes get energy flowing and help with exposure, showers/hydration get rid of impurities and inspire epiphanies (I guess the mists do this), and sleep allows your mind to rest but also wander with all of that. If you can't do one, do the other two (caffeine is not good for people, that "wakefulness" is just a high).

Or you could always be like Satoshi Tajiri during his interviews and wing it based on 24 hours of no sleep (he would help with making games for 24 hours and sleep for 12 and repeat the cycle, he even had his bed at the Gamefreak HQ for a time, and one time the BBC or whatever caught him during the end of the 24 and was like "is this a bad time").

I like the suggestion overall because it actually is pretty medically sound, but “impurities“ is just a meaningless term. You have a liver/kidney/etc. to get unwanted things out of your body. Diets and sweating doesn’t “remove” toxins or impurities or whatever buzzword is bouncing around the crunchy world .

By impurities I meant literal impurities, as in you get clean.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone describe taking a shower as “removing impurities” but hey if that’s your intended meaning then cool!

For your future reference, “impurities” is kind of a catchall, meaningless term that health quacks throw around. “Do a juice cleanse, it’ll remove your impurities and toxins.”

Sorry about that. English isn't my first language and I often have to alternate between semantic "modes" if that makes sense.

Don't sweat it, you just unfortunately tripped up on a VERY charged word lol. Again, your advice is good! Getting the body moving and cardiovascular/pulmonary systems cranking is good for waking up and feeling energized. Showers just feel damn good too.

I would say meditation or a power nap, but if you are super drowsy, I think you will likely sleep through it.

You could go for a long walk in a park (ideally close to your interview location) to get your body active and hope that the energy would carry through to the interview instead of tiring you out more.

But the safest option is still to ask to reschedule because of illness. Cold, IBS, migraine, plumbing issue... Your choice.

Edit: so happy that it went well!!

I've an interview schedule in few hours as well.

Try taking cold shower and a coffee afterwards.

First drink a pint of water, your brain needs to be hydrated. But you don't want to be needing to pee during the interview so push the water early and then stop. As for food, carbs will make you sleepier than protein or greens.

Napping would leave me sleepier and disoriented but ymmv.

Napping would leave me sleepier and disoriented but ymmv

Certainly if you're overdoing the naps. If I nap for 20-30 minutes I'm refreshed. 40 and I'm fucked-in-half, worse off, and might not have bothered.

Studies say creatine supplementation can help reduce the impacts of sleep deprivation. There are also some mushrooms that you can get in supplement form that help get your brain working.

I'll take some. I'm already taking it but I'll double up on my dose today.

Not a good answer, but I would try to reschedule the interview.

Otherwise a power nap and/or a cold shower. Plus no food.

1 more...

How do you make yourself feel better after a poor night of sleep?

What I do, I definitely wouldn't recommend. It's definitely unhealthy.
If I feel weak and shaky, I'll dissolve like 15 teaspoons of sugar in a cup of water and drink that. Then flush that down with extra water. Obviously only if I don't need to go anywhere, otherwise I wouldn't drink a lot of water.
But maybe it's not that bad. To be honest, I have no idea how much sugar is in regular soda.

I don’t think that’s worse than soda at all, probably healthier because there’s no additives

That does sound pretty terrible. While sugar can quicken you up in the very specific case that you're literally acutely hypoglycemic, that's also about the only reason to do this.

I take kratom. Really wakes you up and makes you feel mentally quick.

Obviously won't help you now. But in the future you can be prepared.

The gas station stuff? It wakes you up?

You can buy it online, there are different versions but if you take it in small doses it is a stimulant.