Every day, 2.2 mil­lion Amer­i­cans com­plain of being tired. Most of us chalk it up to hav­ing too much to do and not enough time to do it in, espe­cially dur­ing extra-busy peri­ods. But often the true cul­prits are our every­day habits: what we eat, how we sleep, and how we cope emo­tion­ally. Read on for some sim­ple, recharg­ing changes that can help you tackle all of the energy stealer in your life.

Ener­gize Your Diet

Why is it that fill­ing up on pasta or Chi­nese food for lunch leaves us snacky and sleepy an hour later? Or that falling short on flu­ids makes us for­get­ful and foggy? Fact is, eat­ing habits play a pow­er­ful role in how well we func­tion on every level. Below, six top fatigue-fighting nutri­tion strate­gies to chew on.

* Have break­fast… even if you don’t feel hun­gry. You’ll be a lot perkier: Stud­ies show that peo­ple who eat break­fast feel bet­ter both men­tally and phys­i­cally than those who skip their morn­ing meal. British researchers at Cardiff Uni­ver­sity even found that spoon­ing up a bowl of break­fast cereal every morn­ing is asso­ci­ated with lower lev­els of the stress hor­mone cortisol.

* Eat every three to four hours. Hav­ing three small­ish meals and two snacks through­out the day can keep your blood sugar and energy lev­els sta­ble all day long, says Roberta And­ing, R.D., a spokesper­son for the Amer­i­can Dietetic Asso­ci­a­tion (ADA). Note the word “small­ish.” Super sized meals demand more of your energy to digest, which can leave you feel­ing lethar­gic. At each mini-meal, get a mix of car­bo­hy­drates (which the body uses for energy), pro­tein (which helps sus­tain energy if needed), and healthy fats like those found in fish, nuts, and olives — these fats and pro­tein con­tribute to meal sat­is­fac­tion, so you don’t go hunt­ing for sweets an hour later and wind up with a short-lived sugar high and sub­se­quent crash. A few meal ideas: a low-fat yogurt par­fait with berries and a cou­ple of table­spoons of whole-grain gra­nola; salmon over mixed greens with whole-grain crack­ers; and beef ten­der­loin with a baked sweet potato and asparagus.

* Fill up on more fiber. Fiber has a time-releasing effect on carbs, so they enter your blood­stream at a slow and steady pace, giv­ing your energy stay­ing power, says And­ing. When choos­ing your mini-meals (see above), include fiber-filled options that add up to the daily rec­om­mended 25 to 30 grams of fiber (the aver­age per­son gets only between 10 and 15 grams). Some sug­ges­tions: a bowl of raisin bran (5 grams of fiber per cup); black beans and cheese wrapped in a multi-grain tor­tilla (beans have 7.5 grams per 1/2 cup; one tor­tilla has 5 grams); air-popped pop­corn (3.6 grams per 3 cups); an apple with the skin (3.3 grams); and whole-wheat spaghetti (6.3 grams per cup).

* Fuel your brain with omega-3s. Found in fatty fish (such as tuna and salmon), wal­nuts, and canola oil, these essen­tial fatty acids play a role in keep­ing brain cells healthy and help­ing you feel men­tally alert. Another poten­tial bonus: Omega-3s encour­age the body to store carbs as glyco­gen — the stor­age form of glu­cose (blood sugar) and the body’s main source of stored fuel — rather than as fat.

* Stay hydrated. Water makes up the major­ity of your blood and other body flu­ids, and even mild dehy­dra­tion can cause blood to thicken, forc­ing the heart to pump harder to carry blood to your cells and organs and result­ing in fatigue. Also, ample flu­ids keep energy-fueling nutri­ents flow­ing through­out the body, says Nancy Clark, R.D., author of Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutri­tion Guide­book. To gauge your hydra­tion, Clark rec­om­mends mon­i­tor­ing how often you uri­nate. You should be going every two to four hours, and your urine should be clear or pale yel­low in color. Tip: Besides drink­ing more, you can also con­sume foods that nat­u­rally con­tain water, such as yogurt, broc­coli, car­rots, and juicy fruits, like water­mel­ons, oranges, and grapefruits.

* Watch caf­feine intake after noon. Typ­i­cally, con­sum­ing a mod­er­ate amount of caf­feine — 200 to 300 mg, the amount found in two to three cups of cof­fee — can make you more ener­getic and alert in the hours fol­low­ing, says Anthony L. Komaroff, M.D., a pro­fes­sor of med­i­cine at Har­vard Med­ical School. But when caf­feine is con­sumed in large quan­ti­ties — or any­time in the after­noon or evening — the qual­ity of your sleep that night can take a nose­dive, leav­ing you with heavy eye­lids the next day. One cau­tion for those who are highly sen­si­tive to caf­feine: Although switch­ing to a decaf latte in the after­noon sounds like the answer, researchers at the Uni­ver­sity of Florida found that out of 22 decaf­feinated cof­fee bev­er­ages tested, all but one con­tained some caffeine.

Ener­gize Your Spirit

* We’re all famil­iar with phys­i­cal exhaus­tion, but men­tal strain — sad­ness, bore­dom, worry, anger, and gen­eral stress (the big­gie) — can take an even heav­ier toll on vital­ity, com­pletely wear­ing you out. Life hap­pens, and these dif­fi­cult emo­tions will, too. But if you react wisely, your brain and body will rebound — along with your vim and vigor.

* Splash some water on your face or take a shower when you’re feel­ing burned-out. Some 55 per­cent of study par­tic­i­pants reported using these types of “water ther­apy” to suc­cess­fully increase their energy, accord­ing to find­ings in the Jour­nal of Per­son­al­ity and Social Psy­chol­ogy. Appar­ently, a lit­tle H 2 O refresher can instantly help take the edge off when you’re feel­ing overwhelmed.

* Suit up in a “power” out­fit to beat the blahs. Fight the ten­dency to throw on sweats when you’re feel­ing slug­gish. Although it may seem coun­ter­in­tu­itive to slip into the skirt you save for spe­cial occa­sions, it helps to look in the mir­ror and see an ener­giz­ing image — not a deflat­ing one that con­firms and rein­forces your inter­nal state, says Alice D. Domar, Ph.D., founder and exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Domar Cen­ter for Com­ple­men­tary Health­care in Waltham, MA. Dress­ing for suc­cess will give you a big men­tal boost every time you catch sight of your reflec­tion (or receive a com­pli­ment) through­out the day.

* Vent your feel­ings. Keep­ing fear, anx­i­ety, and stress pent up inside may seem like a grown-up way to deal with these emo­tions. But dis­cussing neg­a­tive feel­ings with another per­son can ease them far bet­ter than keep­ing them bot­tled up; by air­ing them, you reduce their abil­ity to sap your sta­mina, says Komaroff, who is also the editor-in-chief of the Har­vard Health Let­ter.
* Turn on some tunes. Lis­ten­ing to music is one of the most effec­tive ways to change a bad mood, decrease ten­sion, and increase energy. Con­sider this: Run­ners in one study who lis­tened to music while on the tread­mill ran faster than those who jogged in silence — no mat­ter how loud the vol­ume or how fast the tempo, accord­ing to new find­ings in the jour­nal Ergonom­ics. Other research sug­gests that music effec­tively dis­tracts you from feel­ing fatigue. Try burn­ing a CD of your favorite songs and play­ing it any­time you need a pick-me-up. (If you exer­cise, so much the bet­ter — but the music will move you either way.)

* Let go of grudges. Nurs­ing a grudge prompts your mind and body to react as if they’re under chronic stress, increas­ing your heart rate and blood pres­sure and poten­tially result­ing in an impaired immune sys­tem and exhaus­tion over time, accord­ing to a study in the jour­nal Psy­cho­log­i­cal Sci­ence. On the other hand, prac­tic­ing empa­thy and for­give­ness after you’ve been wronged makes you feel as if you’re back in con­trol, which keeps the body’s stress responses in check. The next time you find your­self har­bor­ing ill feel­ings, repeat a stress-relieving mantra to your­self, such as, “For­give­ness makes me a hap­pier and stronger person.”

* Take belly breaths. When we’re under stress, we’re prone to take “chest breaths” — short, shal­low ones, says Domar. Chest breath­ing brings less air into the lungs and reduces the sup­ply of ener­giz­ing oxy­gen to the body and brain, leav­ing you phys­i­cally and men­tally drained. The goal is deep, diaphrag­matic breath­ing — like that of a sleep­ing infant: When you breathe in, your belly should round and fill like a bal­loon; on an exhale, your belly should slowly deflate. Of course, remem­ber­ing to prac­tice deep breath­ing isn’t the first thing on your mind when you’re under the gun, so as a visual reminder, try post­ing a tran­quil pic­ture (such as a pool of water or your kids smil­ing) with the word “breathe” next to your com­puter, or any­where you tend to feel on edge.

* De-clutter a cor­ner. Go through that tee­ter­ing pile of papers or over­flow­ing closet and clear it out. Clut­ter can make you feel out of con­trol and over­whelmed, espe­cially when you’re already feel­ing stressed or down. Plus, sim­ply accom­plish­ing a goal, no mat­ter how seem­ingly minor, can be ener­giz­ing, says Domar.

* Do some good. Acts of altru­ism can lend a lit­tle pep to your step. In fact, one study in the Jour­nal of Health and Social Behav­ior found that vol­un­teer work can boost your energy in six ways: It enhances hap­pi­ness, life sat­is­fac­tion, self-esteem, sense of con­trol over life, phys­i­cal health, and mood.

Get a Restora­tive Rest

When you have a lot to do (um…always), usu­ally the first thing to get squeezed off your agenda is sleep. But miss out on shut-eye and your energy, pos­i­tiv­ity, pro­duc­tiv­ity, and mem­ory are sure to suf­fer. And nearly a quar­ter of Amer­i­can adults aren’t get­ting enough rest, which has led to an epi­demic of day­time sleepi­ness, accord­ing to a poll by the National Sleep Foun­da­tion. The key to buck­ing this trend is to brush up on sleep hygiene. Try these steps for starters.

* Cut back on TV and com­puter time after 8 p.m. If you’re already a night owl (you go to bed late and sleep in on week­ends), the bright light emit­ted from tele­vi­sion and com­puter screens can make falling asleep at a decent hour even harder. The rea­son: Light sup­presses the pro­duc­tion of mela­tonin, a hor­mone secreted at sun­set that tells the brain that it’s night­time, explains John Her­man, Ph.D., direc­tor of the train­ing pro­gram in sleep med­i­cine at the Uni­ver­sity of Texas South­west­ern Med­ical School at Dal­las. And when mela­tonin lev­els are low, your brain is fooled into think­ing that it’s still day­time — and remains rar­ing to go. When­ever pos­si­ble, wait until the next morn­ing to tune in and/or log on. If you must use light-emitting tech­nol­ogy at night, try to turn it off an hour or two before hit­ting the sack.

* Hide your alarm clock. Watch­ing the clock to see how long it’s tak­ing you to drift off or how much time you have left before your alarm goes off can result in a poor night’s sleep, says Kelly A. Car­den, M.D., med­ical direc­tor of the Sleep Health Cen­ter Affil­i­ated with Hall­mark Health at Med­ford in Med­ford, MA. This hyper­vig­i­lance keeps the brain awake and alert and pre­vents you from slip­ping into deep, restora­tive sleep. The easy fix: Set your alarm clock, then either face the num­bers away from you or put it on the floor, in a drawer, or across the room.

* Give your pet his own sep­a­rate sleep­ing space. At night, pets snore, jig­gle their tags, move around a lot, and even hog the cov­ers and bed space. It’s no won­der that 53 per­cent of pet own­ers who sleep with their pets in the bed­room have some type of dis­rupted sleep every night, accord­ing to a study from the Mayo Clinic Sleep Dis­or­ders Cen­ter in Rochester, MN. Con­sider relo­cat­ing your furry friend’s sleep­ing quar­ters to another area, even if it’s just his own bed in your bedroom.

* Lower the ther­mo­stat. For a good night’s sleep, make sure your room is com­fort­ably cool — enough so that you need a light blan­ket. This ensures that your envi­ron­ment is in sync with your body’s inter­nal tem­per­a­ture, which nat­u­rally drops dur­ing the night, accord­ing to the National Sleep Foun­da­tion. Stud­ies sug­gest the ideal sleep­ing tem­per­a­ture is between 54 and 75 degrees; any­thing cooler or warmer may cause you to wake up.

* Skip the night­cap. Alco­hol depresses the ner­vous sys­tem — the sys­tem of cells, tis­sues, nerves, and organs that con­trols the body’s responses to inter­nal and exter­nal stim­uli. So while sip­ping a glass of wine before bed may help you nod off, the seda­tive effects wear off as your body metab­o­lizes the alco­hol, which may cause you to wake up in the mid­dle of the night and have trou­ble falling back to sleep. Alco­hol has also been shown to inter­fere with the body’s nat­ural 24-hour bio­rhythms, caus­ing blood pres­sure to rise and heart rate to race at night when it’s nor­mally calm and relaxed. You don’t have to give up that evening cock­tail entirely to achieve sound sleep — just try to avoid alco­hol within two to three hours of bedtime.

* Get your exer­cise. While sci­en­tists don’t yet under­stand why, aer­o­bic exer­cise has been proved to help you fall asleep faster at bed­time, spend more hours in deep sleep, and wake up less often through­out the night, says Komaroff. At the same time, vig­or­ous exer­cise can act like a stim­u­lant (which is a great day­time ener­gizer), so sched­ule your work­outs in the morn­ing or after­noon, when you need a boost the most.

* Fol­low the 15-minute rule. If you can’t fall asleep, or if you wake up and can’t get back to sleep within about 15 min­utes, get out of bed and do some­thing relax­ing that will help clear your head, such as read­ing, med­i­tat­ing, or knit­ting (but not watch­ing TV or surf­ing the Web). Then, once you feel sleepy again, go back to bed. If you stay put and fret about being awake, you’ll only make your­self more anx­ious — and less likely to catch the z’s you need.

* Write down your wor­ries. Dur­ing the day, jot down any stres­sors that are weigh­ing on you, says Car­den. Then, do some men­tal problem-solving before your head hits the pil­low — or, if you’re falling short on solu­tions, tuck your list away and resolve to brain­storm ideas dur­ing your morn­ing shower or com­mute to work. Just know­ing you’ve estab­lished a plan for tack­ling your to-do’s will make you feel like you’ve made some progress, allow­ing you to relax, drift off — and wake up the next morn­ing ready to take on the day.

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