Try This Instead of Coffee If You’re Tired

Just doing 10 minutes of this could be better than drinking caffeine, says new study

If you’ve had a poor sleep, the solution is to turn to caffeine for a shot of energy. But a new study out of the University of Georgia has found that you could be better off taking a 10-minute walk up and down a set of stairs.

The research focused on sleep-derived adults who, instead of having caffeine, walked stairs at a regular pace for 10 minutes and reported feeling more energized and motivated than those who’d consumed 50 milligrams of caffeine. The results were published in the Journal of Physiology and Behavior and reported by ScienceDaily.

The study’s co-author Patrick J. O’Connor, of the department of kinesiology at the university, and his colleagues say this is good news for office workers, who can find it hard to pry themselves away from their desks.

Office staff members typically have access to staircases and can use the 10-minute break to refresh themselves and gain focus. O’Connor also pointed out that this exercise can be done no matter the weather and seems to work better than caffeine as a motivator for staff.