Alaska Sleep Education Center

Sleeping While Commuting

Workers have been experiencing various difficulties due to long commute time. Most often, they find it very stressful, exhausting, and annoying to spend hours on a bus or a train while going to and coming back from work. Very few can actually relax and take an invigorating nap during this ride. If you are also among those who feel that exhaustion affects every part of their life because they have problems with sleeping while commuting, we can help you. We offer you some information about how to use your commute time effectively to relax, get some energy, and prepare for a demanding and tiring day at work.

What are the benefits of sleeping while commuting?

If you do not know how you can benefit from sleeping while commuting and you always look for other activities to make commuting interesting and bearable, here is what you need to remember. Sleep deprivation is a serious obstacle to your productivity, and it can affect your cognitive skills, your mood, forgetfulness, and the ability to focus on daily tasks. The longer you need to travel, the less you sleep. You need more time to catch up with all the errands, manage everything on time, and successfully meet all the challenges of the day. Hence, it is important to be able to use this time for a power nap and prepare for the day ahead.

Here are the key benefits of sleeping while traveling to work:

  • A short nap on your way to work will help you feel more energetic, fresh, and motivated to work once you get to your office.
  • Your colleagues will perceive you as a better co-worker because you will not be lethargic, nervous, and sleepy.

Your colleagues will perceive as a better co-worker if you are not nervous and sleepy. Alt.tag: Colleagues at an office.

  • As we have already stated, it improves your productivity to a large extent.
  • Finally, sitting in front of a computer screen for a considerable number of hours harms your eyes. Sleeping on your way home is an excellent opportunity for your eyes to rest.

Concerning all the above-mentioned facts, it all goes to show that a nap makes everything better even when it implies sleeping on a bus or train on your way to work.

Know that there are some issues as well

Like with a great majority of things in our lives, sleeping while commuting also involves some issues we have to bear in mind. To some, they are a huge obstacle to relax and feel comfortable, while others decide to use the opportunity and take an energizing nap to get some more strength for challenges at work. Eventually, a great number of commuters decide to change their current home location and they start looking for respectable movers like those at heartmoving.com to help them with this endeavor. Their top priority becomes to find a home in the vicinity of their office in order to decrease the stress level caused primarily by sleep deprivation.

Here are the most commonly listed issues:

  • The risk of falling off your seat and getting injured. As unbelievable as it may seem, it happens very often, especially if you are too tired and exhausted.
  • You might miss your final destination if you do not wake up on time.
  • The theft of your personal items is yet another threat you need to be aware of.
  • It is very difficult to find the right posture on a bus or train. Sleeping awkwardly can cause pain in your neck and back, so you will need to come up with the right strategy to avoid this problem.
  • These short naps interrupt your sleep cycle and make it incomplete since there is no deep sleep stage. Consequently, there are days when you will feel more tired after waking up.

All these issues may be a serious problem for a lot of people, but if we analyze the spooky side effects of sleep deprivationit is worth trying to overcome these difficulties when it is necessary to commute on a daily basis.

Useful tips you might want to apply

To be able to get some sleep on a bus or train on your way to work, here are some simple tips you might want to follow. They will help you to be comfortable enough to relax and get a short power nap before you face errands at work.

If it is possible to book a seat on a train, do that by all means. Choose one of those next to a window because you will be able to lean against the window and use your improvised pillow easily. Ideally, you should choose a seat that reclines at least 120 degrees as it will be less demanding to find the right posture.

Problems with falling asleep can be easily solved if you listen to an audiobook or some relaxing music. Furthermore, the noise your fellow commuters make will not harm your sleep. If you want to get completely isolated from the surrounding, an eye mask can be very helpful.

To feel more comfortable and cozy, you can use your coat as a blanket.

Do not forget to set your alarm to go off a few minutes before your stop. Very often, this will be unnecessary because our internal clock gets used to that particular stop, and your body starts waking up always at the same time during your commute. However, having a few minutes to get together and prepare for a short walk to your office is a much better option than waking up abruptly and then frantically collecting your belongings and hurrying to get off.

Conclusion

Sleeping while commuting is the best and the smartest solution if you cannot get enough sleep when you live at a great distance from your office. It takes some time to get used to this habit, but if you try to achieve this consciously, you will have no problems. This is particularly important if you commute long hours every day at least five days a week. Help your body and mind prepare for the challenges and use any spare moments to relax.

If your sleep quality and quantity aren’t what you know they should be, contat your Primary Care Physician and talk with them about finding a solution.  You may need to be tested and treated for a sleep disorder.  If you live in Alaska, call Alaska Sleep Clinic @ 907-357-6700.

Improve Your Sleep. Improve Your Life.

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Alaska Sleep Clinic's Blog

Our weekly updated blog aims to provide you with answers and information to all of your sleeping questions.

Brent Fisher, MBA, FACHE, FACMPE
President and Chief Executive Officer

“Alaska Sleep Clinic has a history of providing the most comprehensive sleep medicine services in the state of Alaska. Its potential has only begun. I am here to take these high-quality, comprehensive services to all Alaskans.”

Experience

Brent Fisher has held leadership positions spanning a wide variety of complex and start-up organizations: manufacturing (pharmaceutical & medical device), software development, hospitals (academic and community), medical groups, consulting, hospice, military, engineered devices, engineered plastics, and private equity.

Publications and Organizations

His writings have been published in various magazines, trade journals, and medical journals, including the Physician Executive Journal, Healthcare Executive, Modern Healthcare, Group Practice Journal, New England Journal of Medicine, and Journal of Healthcare Management (Best Article Award).

He has served on the Board of Directors of professional associations, civic organizations, and businesses.

Hobbies and Activities

Brent enjoys being with his family, serving in the community, hiking, camping, fishing, and hunting.