Eats

Food has a lot to do with sleep.

Chilly When Waking

When you wake up, your metabolism will be down a little. You’ll feel a little cooler, and a bit discoordinated. If the small chill bothers you, and it’s not the air, eat something nutritious you’ll metabolize (hot or cold doesn’t matter, but chewing gum doesn’t count, because it drops little or nothing into your stomach to digest). Metabolizing works your muscles, and they warm your blood, which gets around.

Unscheduled Spoons

Eat nutritiously. Eat when you feel like it. Keep food and quenchers handy. If you want candy or cake, follow with something real. Warm milk may make you sleepier (assuming that’s even true). Doesn’t sound like you need that. If anything else in your diet has that effect, reconsider. Also said to make you sleepier in the 3–5 hours before sleep of a normal 7–8 hours’ duration are “chamomile tea, . . . cottage cheese, soy milk, plain yogurt, honey, turkey, tuna fish, bananas, potatoes, oatmeal, almonds, flaxseeds, sunflower seeds, whole-wheat bread, peanut butter, low-fat cheese, and tofu” and “a meal . . . high in complex carbohydrates and . . . a small amount of protein”. Don’t need them, either.

Scheduling meals is not a good idea. Tasty cooking is not important. When you’re hungry, just about everything healthy tastes good. When projects engage you, tastes will have to be poisonously wretched before you’ll replace what you munch.

Energy Drinks, Caffeine, Sugar, and Vitamins

Don’t consume sugar just to stay awake. Candy might prop you up but it follows with the opposite effect. That’s what I found when I was nearly exhausted when I took a sugary something. Doctors disagree on this point, but people vary in their exact response to sugar. Nightmares from candy bars or ice cream just before sleep are reportedly possible. It might be better to catch a few winks, even a little early.

I’ve had energy drinks, but not often. The key ingredients are B vitamins, caffeine, and taurine. In moderation, maybe they help a little, but I didn’t try them when I was seriously tired and I doubt they matter much, except that too much can hurt you.

One writer said these interfere with sleep if you take them in the 3–5 hours before sleep of a normal 7–8 hours’ duration: “caffeine, including [in] chocolate”, “alcohol”, the “amino acid tyramine . . . . [including in] peppers, smoked meats, and fish” (“fish” presumably excluding tuna fish), “very heavy meals” within three hours of sleep, and “fatty or spicy foods”. If you try these out, judge for yourself whether they work for you.

And I don’t know how a lot of this stuff will affect you after a boost ends.