You’re so predictable. Every day, you run out of steam, lose juice, or otherwise hit the wall at nearly the exact same times.

How do we know? Because it happens to everyone. Okay, maybe not to Kelly Ripa, but to everyone else. In fact, it’s like clockwork, which actually makes sense, because your body clock is part of the problem — when your internal chronometer is out of whack, you feel wiped out. There are other reasons, too. We detail all of them on these pages, and provide a quick fix — or at least a work-around — for each power suck. Consider your energy crisis solved.

You would think that if there were one time you’d feel naturally alert and energized, it would be after 8 hours of resting and recharging. Instead, your mind is mush. Why? Blame a phenomenon called “sleep inertia.” When you first awaken, the parts of your brain associated with consciousness — the thalamus and brain stem — begin firing right away. But the prefrontal cortex, which handles problem solving and complex thought, is like a cold engine — it needs time to warm up.

“Sleep inertia can last for up to 2 hours, although it’s most severe within the first 10 minutes of waking,” says Kenneth Wright, Ph.D., an assistant professor of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado. Wright and his colleagues discovered just how severe in a new study, which shows that the mental impairment caused by sleep inertia is akin to being intoxicated. Adding to your addled state is the fact that you also have a nearly empty fuel tank. “Your brain needs a continuous supply of glucose to function optimally,” says Caroline Mahoney, Ph.D., a research psychologist at the U.S. Army Soldier Center.

Fill it up. Make your morning meal a bowl of instant oatmeal prepared with skim milk. Tufts University researchers recently found that people who ate one packet of instant oatmeal spiked with 1/2 cup of skim milk received a steady glucose infusion, which increased their alertness all morning and improved their ability to process information. And if you aren’t already jolting yourself with java, start; a University of Pennsylvania study shows that a dose of caffeine can combat sleep inertia.

Just don’t let a latte replace a real meal. “It will mask your low blood sugar by temporarily stimulating your brain,” says Dan Benardot, Ph.D., R.D., an associate professor of nutrition at Georgia State University. “But you won’t have done anything to satisfy the need for energy.”

1 p.m. — The Lunchtime LetdownIf your typical lunch consists of carbs à la starch, then you’ve experienced this early-afternoon brain drain. That’s because a high-carbohydrate meal is the surest way to cause your insulin levels to spike — and your concentration to crash.

“A high insulin response will rapidly take too much sugar out of your blood,” says Benardot. “Then your brain doesn’t have enough of its primary fuel, so you become mentally fatigued.”

Order a combo meal. If you can’t (or won’t) limit your lunchtime carbohydrate consumption, work in extra fiber to slow your digestion and the release of insulin, says Susan Kleiner, Ph.D., R.D., owner of the consulting firm High Performance Nutrition. For example, if your noon nosh includes a baked potato, make sure you eat the skin, which is dense with a type of fiber called pectin. “Pectin slows everything down in the gastrointestinal tract,” says Kleiner.

“When food passes more slowly through the intestines, absorption into the bloodstream proceeds in a more timed-release fashion.” (More ways to fortify your lunch with fiber.) In those instances when you give in to a binge, snack on grapes or an apple afterward; either fruit will help stabilize your blood sugar, says Benardot.

Go to the next page to learn how to beat the afternoon slump…

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Tags: university researchers, Dan Benardot, associate professor, mental impairment, fuel tank