How to Stop Feeling Sleepy All the Time and Falling Asleep While Writing

It happens—sometimes you find yourself dozing off while writing. You may even find yourself flat-out falling asleep during your working hours, in the middle of a writing project. Oops!

A writer’s life is a journey of endless experiences and hard-work. Every good piece of writing is a result of deliberate effort and dedication. Some writers write for a living, while others write for their passion. It doesn’t really matter which group you belong because the effort behind producing content and writing articles in tight timelines can build up pressure. This can affect your sleep patterns and health if you’re not careful, which is why it’s important to get a good night’s sleepto rest and refresh your body.

Getting enough sleep is like a magic pill for writers to fight tiredness and fatigue. Sleep is essential for a healthy, creative mind in a writer’s life. But, sometimes the reason you feel sleepy and doze off while working is not because of not getting enough sleep at night. It’s something else entirely.

Why Writers Sometimes Doze Off While Writing

If you are in a creative field where your brain is constantly working and churning out ideas, feeling drained and drowsy is a common occurrence that brings the urge of sleeping. The urge to sleep is not always due to insufficient sleep or bad health. Rather, it can happen in sedentary activities like reading and writing due to the human brain prompting the body to rest every time it feels tired or bored.

And that’s why writers sometimes feel sleepy and doze off while writing.

While common, feeling sleepy right in the middle of work can interfere with your productivity and hinder you achieving your targets on time. Moreover, it can affect the quality of the work you produce. It's important, therefore, to take steps to combat sleepiness during your work hours, while writing.  

Effective Ways to Combat Sleepiness While Working

Here’re some simple, fan and effective ideas to beat feeling too sleepy during the day while writing, so you can do your job as expected and succeed.

1. Get Up and move

Every writer experiences this sleep urges occasionally when writing at their desk. The human brain is designed in a way that if you are not physically moving for more than 15 minutes, it starts to transmit sleep signals to the body. So, to avoid falling asleep while writing, get some physical activities going, like stretching exercises or a short walk outside. As soon as your body gets into action, your brain becomes wide awake and then you can get back to your writing. Make sure not to do heavy workouts as it might make you tired and affect your writing, which you don’t want.

2. Keep yourself hydrated

The first thing you should grab to avoid sleeping while working is water, not coffee. Drinking sufficient amounts of water keeps your body hydrated and brain active. Many times you are dehydrated and don’t even realize it until you drink water. Have a bottle of water with you all the time when writing. Pure water might be too bland for you, so adding some fresh fruits to add flavor to your drink is not a bad idea either. Indeed, water is an energy drink that instantly energizes your brain and helps you write efficiently.

3. Take regular breaks

Experienced writers take regular breaks at certain time intervals during writing. Due to years of experience, they know this habit improves their body processes and brain function. You’ll be able to avoid dozing off and manage your work time better with regular breaks. So, take those short, regular breaks in-between writing so you work in a way that your brain does not feel stressed and overloaded when writing.

4. Try coffee – instant alert booster

Here comes my favorite point to combat drowsiness and sleepiness while working. A shot of caffeine is a great way to stay in active mode. Coffee is an all-time favorite sleep remedy for many people. Caffeine helps you stay alert, attentive, focused and energized. However, heavy drinking of coffee is not good for you because it can have some bad side effects on your health. So, don’t drink too much coffee; drink moderately.   

The effect of coffee lasts only up to a couple of hours. If you are looking for a temporary fix for your sleepiness, coffee is definitively your escape.

5. Listen to bass music

Music therapy is another very effective method for energizing your body and keeping your mind alert. You might have heard that music can help you sleep better. It’s true. The sound of music captures your brain’s attention and prompts it to align your activities with the beat or melody, which is why it can be so effective for managing sleep. Energetic and loud music can help you stay awake and jolt your atertness. Consider listening to fast tracks and music with a lot of bass to stimulate your brain. Afterwards, you can now focus on writing after you’ve refreshed and activated your brain.

In conclusion

Sleepiness usually bothers writers when they have not had a good night’s sleep, which is mandatory to stay active and healthy throughout the day. Find a comfy mattress to ensure you are sleeping well at night. At the same time, watch out for excessive sleepiness as it can be a symptom of a medical condition that requires a doctor's attention.

Losing your precious writing hours due to sleepiness can hurt your career and profession. So, use the aforementioned tips if you have trouble staying awake during the day to avoid sleeping while writing, in addition to taking short power naps during the day to boost your productivity.