Sniffing peppermint oil and drinking something for a bit of pick me up

I wanted to share with you two of the things I used to do in college to help me stay awake in lectures where I was prone to falling asleep:  Aromatherapy and drinking something. 

I had a tendency to fall asleep or have micro sleeps during some of my classes, especially those near my nap times or first thing in the morning, which made it difficult to get anything out of the lectures or have readable class notes afterwards.  However, I discovered two things that helped me stay a bit more awake and keep me from constantly nodding off:  sniffing peppermint oil and drinking water or a hot beverage.

I know, it sounds stupid.  If Concerta can’t keep you awake in class, you have to laugh at the thought of peppermint oil or tea doing any good.  However, for me, these two things made a big difference.

For the peppermint oil, I would put a few drops of peppermint essential oil (not too many or your nose will hurt and your eyes will water) on a Kleenex, and then I would periodically sniff it during class.  I felt weird doing this (I had to wonder, did people think that I was strange? sick?), but since I would nod off otherwise, I was okay doing it. 

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not a big believer in aromatherapy, however, for me, I do feel temporarily more alert and awake after sniffing peppermint essential oil.  It may also be the case that it also helped having to take the Kleenex out of my pocket and stop taking notes, as it would break up the monotony of listening to the lecture that would otherwise put me to sleep.

Finally, we have the drinking part.  I found that if I sipped something during class, it also helped me stay awake a bit better.  Again, I think that most of this had to do with the fact that I was doing something different to break up the note taking.  Changing from note taking to drinking water or tea seemed to help keep me awake longer.  (I know, it sounds difficult to believe, right?)  You know how if you are having trouble staying awake somewhere and kind of nod off but are still working, something like dropping your pencil or having to push your mechanical pencil top to get more lead can jolt you awake again (even though you hadn’t realized that you were about to fall asleep).  For me, I thought a hot beverage worked the best, but a water bottle or something else also helped a little (If you read the article on temperature and Narcolepsy, than you know that drinking hot beverages might help you feel more alert and awake during the day, according to one research study).

I expect that with the aromatherapy thing, other scents might work as well.  Orange is also supposed to have an energizing effect.  I expect that other forms of using essential oil might help as well (such as peppermint tea, lotion, device that puts the scent into the air, etc.), although I haven’t tried any of them.

I have also on occasion used the peppermint oil trick to stay awake in other situations outside of the classroom.

Does anyone else use aromatherapy to help them stay awake?  Thoughts?