Shedding the Afternoon Office Rut

22 ideas to lift your post-lunch spirits and energy in the workplace

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Afternoon Doldrums

If you're like many people, shortly after lunch, your head begins buzzing, your concentration plummets, your eyes droop, and the top of your desk begins to look as cozy as a feather mattress.

No one knows exactly why some people get the midday dips, but there are many plausible theories: the morning surge of hormones has petered out; you've used up a goodly part of your stored energy from last night's sleep; and perhaps most obviously, some degree of "brain tedium," i.e., boredom, has set in. The afternoon doldrums also may have something to do with what you ate for lunch. Not only does the midday meal divert blood from your brain to your gut, but, depending on what you ate, also bumps up levels of the soporific serotonin hormone.

While the midday doldrums are common, they're not inevitable. In fact, if your current daytime program includes such a post-lunch torpor, it's time to write a new program with the tips in this article.

1. Head outside and sit in the daylight for 10 minutes. Better still, have your lunch outside, and divide your break between eating and a walk. Here's why: Your office probably has about 500 luxes of light, which is equal to about 500 candles. That compares with 10,000 luxes at sunrise and 100,000 at noon on a July day. So when the afternoon doldrums hit, go outside and sit in the sunlight. It will help reset your chronological clock, kick down the amount of melatonin (the sleep hormone) your body produces during this circadian dip, and give you a valuable boost of beneficial vitamin D, reducing your risk of osteoporosis as well as various cancers.

2. Take a brief midmorning break for tea, coffee, and/or a snack. Use this time to relax and refocus, but more important, to consume a few calories that you might otherwise eat at lunchtime. Shrink lunch accordingly, which in turn will allow for a smaller, less stupefying midday meal.

3. Snack all day long. Simply snack on nutritious foods whenever you get hungry, rather than eating lunch per se. Then use your lunch break for some kind of exercise, whether it's in the company gym, walking around the campus, or running up and down the stairs.

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