Remember the last time you fell asleep on your desk?
And when you realized you were at work and woke up, your seniors standing all around you, with arms crossed and widened gaze at you as if you dropped a gigantic nuclear bomb on earth.
Ha!
Yeah, we get you; in an IT office sleep comes much naturally while you’re working than during insomniac nights when you roll under your blanket and wait hours before sleep finally decides to haunt you.
Sounds like your story?
Wanna know the reasons for falling asleep during the day?
Here we go with the top three scientific reasons for you dozing off at work.
Poor Ventilation
According to a study conducted by the State University of New York and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory of the University of California, an environment consisting of a high composition of carbon dioxide can result in sleepiness. Normally, the outdoor consists of 380 ppm of carbon dioxide as opposed to the close office environment where CO2 is normally 1000 ppm or more.
In the research, they conducted an experiment where the volunteers were first exposed to an open environment and then to the offices with a high concentration of carbon dioxide. Surprisingly, an increased composition of carbon dioxide was found to decrease the performance efficiency of the volunteers. An atmosphere having more than 2500 ppm of carbon dioxide can even exacerbate the condition of the workers.
Now that you know how a poor ventilation can degrade your activeness, next time you feel sleepy in your office, just open your windows. Bless your lungs with some fresh Oxygen and see if your sleepiness goes away.
Or, get some indoor plants.
Caffeine
I’m pretty sure that you might have been suggested almost everywhere that taking caffeine keeps you alert.
Sure, that it does. But, maybe not so much!
Basically, the science behind sleep is that when Adenosine triphosphate attaches itself to the adenosine receptors in the brain, it slows the activity of the nerve cells down which gives you the feeling of drowsiness. The molecular structure of Caffeine is similar to that of Adenosine. Thus, when caffeine reaches the brain, the adenosine receptors mistake caffeine for adenosine and attaches caffeine molecule to itself. But, contrary to adenosine, caffeine does nothing to slow the nerve cells down.
The pituitary gland detects this abnormality and processes it as a possible threat to the system, thereby releasing epinephrine hormone that signals adrenaline glands to produce adrenaline. Your body’s fight or flight system gets activated which is why you feel so alert after taking coffee.
A report published by the National Centre for Biotechnology Information says that the time required for the half of caffeine in-taken to be used up is about 5.7 hours. which means the total time period required to get caffeine off your system is 7 to 8 hours minimum. So, if you're taking caffeine after 1 pm, chances are that you will remain wide awake till late at night. You are more likely than not to get insufficient sleep and thus, feel sleepy the following day too.
Therefore, the next time you feel asleep at work, if it is already past 1 pm, don't make the dreadful sin of drinking coffee. Find out an alternative, like anything as simple as taking a tea break.
The Circadian Cycle
Ever wonder why you feel extremely drowsy after your super crunchy French fries or a scrumptious hot dog?
The reason behind that is not as simple as what you’ve been thinking. It’s a daily biological cycle present in all living beings called Circadian Cycle. This cycle works like a sort of biological clock evolved to regulate the patterns of our sleeping and waking process, feeding, hormone secretion, etc.
Each circadian cycle is the time period of an average 24.2 hours. The circadian system checks and maintains the correct time throughout the day in accordance with the external cues, such as light and temperature, received from the environment. The pigment called Melanopsin present in the Photoreceptive ganglion cells of your retina helps detect the light and its intensity from the environment and sends the signal to the suprachiasmatic nucleus of your hypothalamus. This nucleus keeps sending pulses throughout the day to keep you awake.
But, after you eat a carb-heavy lunch, the byproduct of digestion—sugar—gets circulated throughout your blood vessels. In order to regulate this glucose amount, your pancreas produces insulin which signals the amino-acid tryptophan to move into the brain. This triggers the production of serotonin and melatonin. Melatonin hinders the suprachiasmatic nucleus from producing the alert signal. Thus, there you go feeling like falling asleep suddenly after your heavy meal.
Now that you know why you doze off at your workplace, prevent it using the scientific techniques. After all, you don’t have to go to a science college to understand and apply science to your life, now, do you?