It’s that time of the year again. During the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims around the world are observing a month-long fast as a practice of religious observance. Since fasting in Ramadan is obligatory for every responsible and fit Muslim, many have to observe fasting at the workplace.
While refraining from eating and drinking during the day is a challenge in itself, the biggest obstacle most people experience when fasting is the drowsiness that often comes when they are working. Blood sugar levels will decrease when fasting, thus make the body weak and the brain difficult to concentrate. No wonder, it leads to drowsiness that could affect your productivity, especially in particular hours susceptible to such sleep attack around 2 to 5 pm.
If on a normal day you can expel drowsiness by drinking coffee or eating snacks to stay awake, then you need to find other ways to get around this issue when you are fasting. Here are 6 ways you can fight off drowsiness and stay fresh while fasting at the office:
See: Stressing about Work Even at Home? Tips to Leave the Work at Work
When fasting, there will be a change in your sleeping pattern because you have to wake up before dawn to eat sahoor. This is why people often feel sleepy in the daytime. To prevent this, you must ensure that you have adequate and quality sleep at night. If there is no urgent need, avoid sleeping late and go to bed faster than usual. Make sure that you have a quality sleep that so you will stay fresh when you wake up in the morning.
Since you do not need to use the break time to eat lunch, you can take advantage of this opportunity to take a power nap. If possible, you can set your alarm for about 5-20 minutes to sleep in your cubicles. You will wake up with a fresh mind and more productive in getting your task done afterwards.
Typical office workers usually spend their time sitting on their desk and staring at the computer screen all the day. This will make the eyes feel tired so you become drowsy easily. To solve this, you need to take your eyes off the screen to the other direction for once in a while. For example, you can change the view toward the street or green trees periodically. This will make the eyes more relaxed.
When the urge to sleep comes, you can try to go the toilet and wash your face with cold water. This method has been proven to reduce sleepiness when working. Cold water also helps you be more relaxed and refreshed so you can concentrate back on your work.
People tend to get heavy-eyed easily if they just sit still in their desk for a long time. Therefore, you can try doing simple office stretches to move your muscles and keep stiffness away. You can also practice light physical exercises such as walking around the office for several minutes. This will help smooth the blood flow and increase the oxygen intake to the brain while driving drowsiness away.
If you start feeling sleepy, you can invite your coworkers to talk for a while. You can discuss interesting topics so you can engage in the conversation and increase your level of alertness and concentration.
Read also: Do You Think Your Job is Meaningless? 3 Ways to Find Meaning in Your Work
