People use various methods to stay awake, including getting enough rest, consuming caffeine, singing, biting the inside of the cheek, drinking and eating. Sunflower seeds are a popular food to stay awake while driving.
There are many different ways to stay awake, for many different reasons. With busy lives and long days, people are constantly looking for a new way to avoid falling asleep. Whether it’s lectures and conferences, boring office meetings, driving around town, watching television, or waiting for someone or something, people have a tendency to want to fall asleep. This can be detrimental to work or school, or just plain inconvenient. There are ways to combat it, however, and many are cheap, easy, or practical.
The most obvious way to stay awake is to get enough rest. Most people get less than seven hours of sleep, although many doctors suggest around eight. A sufficient amount of rest allows the body to stay active longer before shutting down. Reworking or rescheduling someone’s daily activities is one way to free up time for more sleep.
Probably the most popular way to stay awake in the US, though, is caffeine. The caffeine found in coffee, sodas, energy drinks, and various pills acts as a stimulant for the body. Most forms of caffeine take effect within the body in about an hour and generally last for three to four hours. Although some people choose to drink more than one cup at a time, cups spaced out by hours, both at the beginning and end of the day, will help a person stay awake through central nervous system stimulation.
While driving, many people share many different methods of staying awake. From opening the window, to singing along to music, to biting the inside of the cheek, people will use these simple methods to keep the brain from falling into inactivity and sleep. Some drivers stamp their feet, shake their heads, pinch themselves, or do other things to keep their extremities from moving and their body from relaxing.
Eating and drinking are two other popular ways to stay awake. Often sipping or gulping down a drink will keep a person awake by stimulating the digestive system and the senses within the mouth and nose. The drink can act as fuel to keep a person energized. Another way to stay awake is to hold back your natural urge to go to the bathroom after drinking; discomfort will often keep a person awake until relieved. Eating can also help a person stay awake. This is another tool used while driving, and it can keep your hands and mouth busy and distract the temptation to sleep. A popular food to stay awake while driving is sunflower seeds. A handful of shelled seeds can be placed in the mouth, keeping the hands busy removing the shells and the mouth busy separating the seeds from the shells.
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