How to keep a lark awake on New Year’s Eve

The chim­ing clock is yet to come, and I already want to sleep unbear­ably. It’s good for the “owls” — at this time all the fun is just begin­ning for them. And the poor “larks” have a hard time after dark. The sleepy lit­tle head stub­born­ly leans towards the bowl of sal­ad, and it’s not about alco­hol at all.

It’s just that “larks” are arranged this way: they go to bed ear­ly, and nei­ther light nor dawn jumps up, full of ener­gy and cheer­ful­ness. Usu­al­ly this is only a plus: while the “owls” wake up, turn on, tune in to work, the “lark” has already man­aged to roll a cou­ple of moun­tains, turn back one or two rivers, dig three lakes, build a house, a gaze­bo for bar­be­cue and a drink­ing foun­tain. And at the same time plant a tree, a stain on the sleeve and 8 times the child on the pot.

But here’s the ambush — on New Year’s Eve, all the most inter­est­ing begins after mid­night, when the “lark” usu­al­ly already sees at least the sev­enth dream.

Some­thing needs to be done about this! Med­AboutMe offers its help in solv­ing the prob­lem.

What can be done to prevent drowsiness?

Usu­al­ly Decem­ber 31 is not the eas­i­est day for every­one, not just for ear­ly ris­ers. Some­one in the sweat of their face and in clubs of steam is spin­ning in the kitchen, prepar­ing a treat for the New Year. Oth­ers run around all day look­ing for gifts they did­n’t both­er to buy in advance, and are still try­ing to get a man­i­cure and a beau­ty salon. And who works until the evening — for exam­ple, styl­ists and man­i­curists in those same salons. And these hard work­ers get home only in the evening, with­out arms, with­out legs, with­out strength and with only one burn­ing desire — to sleep. Sleep, and burn it all with a blue flame along with the New Year.

But then it gets kind of embar­rass­ing. Run­ning, cook­ing, work­ing, try­ing — and sleep­ing? Netush­ki. Got­ta cheer up. But as?

We offer sev­er­al ways to cheer up, tone and restore vig­or. That was enough for at least half of the fes­tive night. You can try to apply every­thing sug­gest­ed or choose sev­er­al ways to pre­vent drowsi­ness that are most suit­able and enjoy­able for you per­son­al­ly. It is bet­ter not to expect mir­a­cles: even the fairy god­moth­er from the fairy tale about Cin­derel­la can­not turn a tired “lark” into a pep­py “owl”. But some­thing can be done.

Dream

You won’t be able to sleep for the future, but a per­son who has slept the night before will still be able to fight drowsi­ness longer than after chron­ic sleep depri­va­tion. If you man­age to lie down before the start of the feast, at least for 20–30 min­utes, this is gen­er­al­ly won­der­ful.

The main thing is to have time to com­plete­ly relax in this short time, and so that no one inter­feres. Turn off your phone, close your bed­room door, you can even put earplugs in your ears. Lie on your back with a pil­low under your head and release all ten­sion. Relax all mus­cles, includ­ing face, tongue, jaws. Let the whole body go limp, as if you have become a drop of jel­ly in the sun. Stop the thoughts in your head, let there be silence … which will be del­i­cate­ly inter­rupt­ed by a pre-set timer. Do you feel more ener­gized? Yes, but not enough? So, move on.

Self massage

Rub your ears vig­or­ous­ly with your palms. Rub your palms togeth­er vig­or­ous­ly as well. Mas­sage the back of the head and neck, the skin under the hair.

Not bad rais­es the tone and relieves drowsi­ness mas­sage of the fin­gers with a spe­cial nee­dle-spring ring.

Water procedures

Ide­al­ly, you need to take a show­er — mod­er­ate­ly warm, and final­ly cool. If health per­mits, com­plete the pro­ce­dure with a con­trast show­er, end­ing with a cold douche.

If you are afraid to ruin your hair and make­up, you can make con­trast­ing hand baths.

Fresh air

Ven­ti­late all rooms well so as not to sit in stuffi­ness. From the stale atmos­phere will over­take any­one.

Smell

Take advan­tage of aro­mather­a­py. The smell of fresh­ly ground cof­fee, lemon, orange, grape­fruit, berg­amot and oth­er cit­rus fruits, as well as the aro­ma of pine nee­dles, has an invig­o­rat­ing effect.

Coffee, tea and other drinks

You can drink cof­fee, but you should not abuse this drink. One cup of strong cof­fee is enough, but if you drink 3–4 cups, you can get the oppo­site effect: you will uncon­trol­lably pull your­self to sleep.

Not bad invig­o­rates white tea, but you need to be care­ful with it if you have a ten­den­cy to hyper­ten­sion.

It is bet­ter not to exper­i­ment with ener­gy drinks. The harm will be greater than the effec­tive­ness.

But you can drink a glass of lin­gonber­ry juice: the sour taste can invig­o­rate a lit­tle, and lin­gonber­ries them­selves are a good ton­ic.

If there are no con­traindi­ca­tions, you can help the body cope with drowsi­ness by tak­ing a lit­tle extract of gin­seng, eleuthe­ro­coc­cus, Rho­di­o­la rosea, mar­al root. But only with­out fanati­cism, strict­ly accord­ing to the instruc­tions on the pack­age! Oth­er­wise, you can get a pres­sure surge, a heart jump­ing out of your throat and shak­ing hands.

Celebrate right!

• At the table, you should not overeat and get car­ried away with heavy dish­es, may­on­naise sal­ads, fat­ty foods and too sweet dessert.
• It is bet­ter not to abuse alco­hol, oth­er­wise the dream will quick­ly over­take, and you will peace­ful­ly over­sleep all the most inter­est­ing things under the Christ­mas tree.
• Try to move more — dance, go for a walk, any­thing, just so as not to inad­ver­tent­ly warm your­self in a cozy chair. And then you your­self will not notice how drowsi­ness will come.
• Turn on bright lights in the room.
• Let the music be ener­getic, rhyth­mic, not too loud.
• Open win­dows more often to keep the air fresh and not too warm.
• Even if you are at home, stay dressed in smart clothes and shoes: home soft slip­pers and a fluffy bathrobe will lead you under the cov­ers much faster. And the evening dress keeps in good shape and does not allow you to relax.
• If you find your­self feel­ing drowsy, brush your teeth with a pep­per­mint tooth­paste or take mint gum. This will make the body shake up and hold out for a few more hours.

We hope that our tips will help you keep your mind and body in good spir­its on New Year’s Eve.

Hap­py New Year to you, dear “larks”, cute “owls” and every­one who is going to have fun cel­e­brat­ing their favorite hol­i­day! May 2018 bring you hap­pi­ness, love, ful­fill­ment of desires and good health even on the morn­ing of Jan­u­ary 1st.

Expert com­ment

Diana Boivin, MD, Sleep Expert, Cana­da

New Year is prob­a­bly the only day of the year when “larks” envy “owls”. The ear­ly birds are already ready to fall exhaust­ed and fall asleep where they fell, and the “owls” are full of ener­gy and ready to have fun all night long. And in the morn­ing, with a laugh, show pho­tos of “larks” who sur­ren­dered too ear­ly.

For those who are used to get­ting up ear­ly and going to bed ear­ly, it is almost use­less to try to “get enough sleep for the future.” Sleep is not fat at the waist, it will not be pos­si­ble to stock it, unfor­tu­nate­ly. Falling asleep is dri­ven by cir­ca­di­an rhythms, which work in a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent way. A per­son may have a great night’s sleep the night before, but want to sleep at exact­ly the same time as usu­al.

What can help you stay moti­vat­ed:

• A con­trast show­er, and you need to fin­ish with cool water, and after a show­er, rub your body vig­or­ous­ly with a tow­el.
• Relax dur­ing the day and have lunch. A hun­gry and tired per­son greed­i­ly pounces on plen­ti­ful food, quick­ly fills up, and this caus­es drowsi­ness.
• Move more. Try to even sit in such a way that you can’t relax too much: between a soft deep chair and a stool with­out a back, choose a stool. Dance. Get up from the table often — for exam­ple, to help the host­ess in the kitchen or play with the chil­dren.
• Use invig­o­rat­ing aro­mas: mint, cof­fee, lemons, oranges. You can put some essen­tial oil on your wrist and occa­sion­al­ly inhale the scent.
• When you feel tired, dip your hands up to the elbow in cold water, then in hot water and again in cold water.

And don’t try to change your nature overnight. In the end, if you real­ly want to sleep — you need to sleep. Hol­i­days are not there to wear you down and tire you out.

Hap­py New Year to you!