How to Beat the 3 p.m. Slump

Anyone with a sleep-deprived schedule knows it all too well. By INSIGHT Staff | Summer 2017



Anyone with a sleep-deprived schedule knows it all too well; it’s the 3 p.m. slump where your overworked brain and body finally say, “No more, not today; put that spreadsheet away.”

For many of us, this means slinking off to the employee lounge to top off our “World’s Best Accountant” mug with some lukewarm liquid energy (you know, coffee—or whatever else is caffeinated), but experts say we’ve got it all wrong.

By studying chronically sleep-deprived students in a controlled experiment, researchers from the University of Georgia found that 10 minutes of walking up and down stairs at a regular pace is more likely to re-energize your appetite for work than ingesting 50 milligrams of caffeine, or the equivalent of a can of soda.

“We found, in both the caffeine and the placebo conditions, that there was not much change in how they felt, but with exercise they did feel more energetic and vigorous,” says Patrick J. O'Connor, a professor in the department of kinesiology and co-author of the study which aimed to simulate typical office workday conditions.

So there you have it. The best way to beat back the 3 p.m. slump is to schlep up and down the stairs for a bit—or maybe just go for a walk outside since it’s summer and all.