What to do if you aren't well rested for work

When you’re tired, you can’t provide quality care for your clients. We wanted to share some tips on what to do when you feel too tired for work so you can be a great caregiver.

Below are some tips on how to energize yourself and what to do if your fatigue becomes a pattern.

Tip #1: Take a cold shower in the morning

A proven way to wake yourself up in the morning is a cold shower.

A cold shower gets the oxygen running through your body, and it increases your blood circulation. More oxygen and blood flow are proven ways to wake up your body.

Once you take a cold shower, you will start your day refreshed. This way, you will have enough energy to power through the morning.

Tip #2: Eat well and drink caffeine (if needed)

After you get out of bed and take that cold shower, make sure you eat a protein-filled breakfast. Instead of your typical cereal or toast or no food at all we recommend you:

• Eat some type of protein like peanut butter on toast or eggs
• Have a cup of coffee or tea if you’re a coffee or tea person
• Prepare meals for yourself that make you feel happy to get out of bed.

Eating protein, having coffee, and making meals that make you happy to get out of bed can go a long way to energize you.

For example, if you're a pancake person, prepare them for yourself every once in a while as a “treat” in the morning. This can get your day started on a happy track and encourages you to get out of bed.

We also recommend that you bring meals to work to fuel yourself throughout the day. Another thing we recommend to you is to bring a coffee or tea to work if you would like.

Tip #3: Try to watch how you feel throughout the day

Throughout the day, track how you feel by asking yourself:

• Did you feel fine and then all of a sudden really tired?
• Or, did you end up feeling fine that day after taking a cold shower and eating well?

Asking these questions will help you figure out if food was the cause of your tiredness (for example, if you get tired after a normal meal time). If this is the time you get tired, then you can make sure that the next day you eat  when you begin to feel tired. 

Asking these questions can also help you figure out whether the cause of your exhaustion is related to something else, like general lack of sleep. If you think this might be the case, we recommend that you try your best to get more sleep in the upcoming nights. You should begin to feel better after this.

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Tip #4: Get better sleep that next night

As just touched on, if you felt tired all day, make sure you get good sleep that night. With good sleep, you hopefully won’t experience the same feeling the next day. 

8+ hours of sleep is the amount recommended for most people. A lot of the time, tiredness comes from not getting this 8 hour amount. 

We also know that it’s hard for some people to get 8 hours of sleep, due to busy schedules. Another thing to do if you can’t get the full 8 hours of sleep is: create a pattern of when you go to sleep and wake up

Doing this helps the body to feel less tired because it sets the body on a cycle, which usually helps your body feel more refreshed.

An example of a schedule is: going to bed at midnight and waking up at 6 every morning. Though this isn't the full 8 hours, your body will get used to it. This helps it function much better than if you were running on a more random sleep schedule.

Tip #5: If you're still tired a week later, ask your manager for some advice

Take note of how you're feeling around a week after the first day you noticed that you're feeling tired.

If you're still feeling this way after trying out some of the tips we have listed above, contact your manager and tell them what’s going on 

Your manager cares about your health, and by working together, you can brainstorm ways to fix the issue.

To summarize:

Take a cold shower in the morning. A proven way to wake yourself up in the morning is a cold shower. A cold shower gets the oxygen running through your body, and it increases your blood circulation. Eating protein, having coffee, and making meals that make you happy to get out of bed can go a long way to energize you. We also recommend that you bring meals to work to fuel yourself throughout the day. Another thing we recommend to you is to bring a coffee or tea to work if you would like. This helps it function much better than if you were running on a more random sleep schedule. If you're still feeling this way after trying out some of the tips we have listed above, contact your manager and tell them what’s going on.

We recommend that you

(1) make sure you eat well

(2) get enough sleep

(3) try a cold shower and caffeine if you need and

(4) track how you're feeling or

(5) go to your manager about your problem of tiredness.

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A lot of the time, you just need to change a little something about your day. Once you change a little something, then you’ll start feeling much more energized.

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