Studying makes me sleepy!

Unfortunately, the above is true. I used to eat to keep me awake when I was studying, which was a terrible habit. I've been trying to find other ways to stay awake, alert and focussed. I stumbled across a blog called Marc and Angel Hack Life, which is totally awesome. They have lists of various things (50 ways to get more done, 60 ways to make life simple again, 75 reminders for tough times, 52 Monday morning stress reduction mantras) which I've printed up and put all around my room!

One of my favourites is "50 Natural Ways to Boost Energy". It has a lot of good suggestions for staying focussed on work. I've been trying to use the ideas when I start to feel sleepy, and I've also come up with a lot of my own.

So, at the moment my top 10 ways of not getting sleepy when studying (in no particular order) are:

1. Stand up, stretch, walk

2. Open a window, cool my room down

3. Energizing breathing

4. Put on some music

5. Shower, wash my face

6. Chew gum

7. Put on an essential oil (I have a few from Neal's Yard that I really like, including one called Energy!)

8. Drink water or tea (I've started drinking coffee which is a bad habit that I want to break)

9. Brush my teeth

10. Make a (reasonable) schedule and try to stick with it

And, of course, sleeping enough at night helps a lot too!

The other thing that's key for me is not to aimlessly spend time on the internet at night. It's when I'm most easily distracted and least focussed, so I often end up wasting a lot of time if I start to go down that route (and that's sleeping time that's getting wasted!)

Do you get sleepy when you study/work for long periods of time at a desk? How do you combat it?