It’s 2 pm and I’m partialy collapsed in my chair, eyes almost completely shut, pretending to read something. There’s still so much more I want to get done today… But how? Rest? Drink coffee? Neither seems to work well enough when I’m really tired. 

Do you also experience afternoon slumps? If so, read on. 

This is a tale of my reinvention of the wheel. I stumbled upon an awesome trick and then found out that it’s actually a thing. What? How?

First, some confessions:

• I have sleep issues that I’m working on resolving. The bottom line is that my ratios of light / REM / deep sleep are off.
• I’m a coffee drinker, but I don’t LOVE coffee. I drink it like medicine, to wake up.
• [Unrelated yet fascinating: What I do love is Earl Grey tea with milk, exactly like Queen Elizabeth II. I, too, pour the milk after the tea, because I’m royal like that. Or because I lived in Oxford, England as a toddler.]
• I’m actually sensitive to caffeine. If I don’t maintain a regular daily dose of caffeine, I get terrible withdrawal headaches. In my 20s, I was only drinking coffee at work. I used to get crazy headaches on weekends, and it took me months to realize I had to make myself drink coffee daily.

Despite my morning coffee, I have severe energy lows in the early afternoon. (If you suffer from burnout or deal with chronic stress, you, too, may experience severe energy lows.) Powering through them tends to be futile.

Usually, I try to get up from my desk and do something physical to raise my energy levels. Yet, if I’m really tired, 15-20 minutes after I sit back down, I’m falling asleep again. Literally falling asleep at my desk. This also happened when I worked in an office! You can imagine the jokes…

Working from home, when I have this slump I either take a quick nap or drink another cup of coffee. But like I said, that doesn’t always solve the problem.

I know some people don’t like napping, they get up all groggy. I’m an avid napper. When I found out that Winston Churchill napped his way through WWII, I became a proud one. Another claim to my imagined British heritage… 

Naps work well for me, but they do take time. So often, I prefer the quick-fix of a cup of coffee. 

Yet, there were times when I drank the coffee and still couldn’t keep my eyes open. In despair, I decided to nap, or rather, collapsed. 

The effects were dramatic! I woke up feeling way more refreshed than after either coffee or napping.

Because I like science, I went online to see what I could find out about my brilliant trick. (Another confession: I’m a nerd.) Shockingly, I found out that “Coffee Naps” were all the rage in 2015 and nobody told me!

On the one hand, I’m disappointed that the cool kids didn’t share this, and I had to find out on my own. On the other hand, they already put together all the fancy research for me! If you also self-identify as a nerd, this is for you. If not, skip these bullet points:

• 3-minute SciShow video – sciency!
• 2.5-minute Vox video – even more science! But with super cool vintage photography
• Vox article – same science, for those who prefer to read (=skim, admit it!)
• An actual personal story from the Washington Post – for the cooler kids
• Health.com article – short and to the point

To sum up:

1. Coffee naps work
2. Drink your coffee fairly quickly (a few minutes)
3. Sleep or just rest for 15-30 minutes – I often just lie down and read
4. If you don’t wake up naturally, set an alarm
5. Don’t drink coffee less than 6 hours before your bedtime
6. Consider skipping your morning coffee if you’re used to only one cup a day
7. If you have reflux or irritable bowel syndrome, try green tea instead

Not a coffee drinker? I envy you. There was a time when I slept better and was off caffeine completely. No headaches. Hopefully, that’s in my future, too.

Meanwhile, this is my favorite trick. 

If you think that your fatigue has to do with more than your coffee intake – you might be chronically stressed or burned out. Take this quiz to find out!