A Surprising And Quick Way To Keep Wyomingites Alert

In school, it was always tough coming back to class after lunch. I always needed naptime instead of boring English class, and because of that, I struggled in that class.

I'm going to sound like an old man now, but back in my day, we didn't have a wide selection of energy drinks. If you were feeling sluggish, you could grab No-Doz from the gas station or a cup of coffee. The options were limited.

There's now research showing that there was an item I had access to that would've helped boost my energy and help me with those sluggish days.

Chewing gum.

That would've been a good piece of information to know back then. Even though the school frowned on chewing gum in class, I bet they would've looked the other way if they knew that chewing gum would keep the kid in the back of the class awake.

The multiple-part study was done back in 2015, and the results were surprising.

Consistent with an alerting effect of chewing gum under laboratory conditions, chewing gum during the workday has also been shown to enhance self-reported productivity both in university staff and in university students , consistent with an improvement in sustained attention. Although chewing gum has been associated with increased heart rate in experimental studies it remains unclear if sympathetic nervous system arousal may explain enhanced performance in an everyday working context.

 

People who chew gum habitually report less stress, and chewing gum has reduced anxiety and reported stress  induced by an acute social stressor, although other studies have not found a reduction on acute stress or anxiety

If you're having an issue getting your day started or need that midday pick-me-up, maybe try chewing gum instead of that 5-hour energy.