![]() They are as bad for your energy as they are wonderful and glorious and delicious. (And if you really need to hear it: No more bagels. Eggs, whole-grain waffles, oatmeal, whole-grain toast with smoked fish, apples, and pears will all keep your energy level up during the day. If nothing else, you can do a world of good just by redoing your breakfast-food rotation. It's just simple math: Protein plus healthy carbs, like whole grains, plus healthy fats equals energy," says Holly Phillips, the author of The Exhaustion Breakthrough (Rodale). "There are no secret tricks or magic here. And as much as you may want to roll your eyes at your Whole30 friends blowing up your Instagram feed, we bet they don't get as tired as you do. We have every reason to believe that early man had a ton of energy. And while you're at it, make sure your computer screen is no closer than 20 inches from your face-to gauge the measurement, that's about two paper lengths away-to help prevent eye strain, suggests the Occupational Safety & Health Administration. Boom: refreshed eyes, and therefore, body. If your job requires you to, you know, keep your eyes open and generally function, your best bet is to live by a rule of 20: Every 20 minutes, stare at a spot 20 feet away for 20 seconds (get in the habit by setting an alarm on your phone if you won't remember). "Staring at a computer screen for too long can cause eye fatigue, which eventually can cause headaches, dizziness, and overall exhaustion," says Smarandache. But when you're sitting in front of a computer, you blink almost half as frequently, resulting in a case of dry, strained zombie eyes. Whether you know it or not, and we're betting you don't, most of us blink about 18 times a minute. To help your sleep schedule get on track painlessly, make it gradual: Buxton recommends moving up your bedtime by ten-minute increments each night until you hit the seven-hour mark. Basically, seven hours is no longer a lofty goal-it's a necessity. A panel of over a dozen sleep experts reviewed previous sleep studies and "agreed that seven hours is the recommended minimum an adult needs for optimal cognitive, emotional, and physical health," says Orfeu Buxton, an associate professor of biobehavioral health at Pennsylvania State University, scaring us into an earlier bedtime. Even if you think you've somehow cracked the code on circadian rhythms and can bring your A game to work after a mere five hours between the sheets, a bunch of scientists would like to respectfully disagree. Yes, when he was president, Bill Clinton famously slept only four hours a night. "Once you eliminate the interruptions, even through small changes, your brain will reach a calmer state and deeper level of focus in as little as 15 minutes." "We have primed our brains to constantly be anticipating the next interruption, so we have become addicted to those intrusions," says Chapman. For 30 minutes, toggle your phone to airplane mode, put on your biggest pair of noise-muffling headphones (no music, though-your brain has to work to cancel out even white noise), turn off your computer (or at least the pop-up notifications), and stop talking. Just 30 minutes without mental stimulation will allow your brain to focus and overcome fatigue." If you don't have a cozy, snuggly dark cave to crawl into, Chapman suggests creating a bubble of quiet. This doesn't have to be a dire scenario, though: "Our brains reboot very quickly. Texts, iPhones, YouTube, tweeting, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend-they all conspire to "keep our brains on high alert," says Chapman. "Constant distractions rob us of our mental energy," says Chapman, who notes that a tired mind can make the body feel like shutting down. ![]() You might think you know how to focus-and you might be wrong.
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