Viter Energy Blog

Some law students spend 60 hours a week studying. Those who’ve been through law school advise prospective students to leave the Xbox at home so they’re not tempted with potentially ruinous distraction. How do law students get energy to study so much?

One thing many law school students do not do is party and socialize a lot. This has a doubly salutary effect because the time spent not partying is time they can spend studying. And then they are not out of sorts, hung over or over-tired the next day from partying.

Did you know there’s a thing called computer vision syndrome or digital eye strain, and it affects 50 to 90 percent of computer users? Symptoms include eye strain, eye twitching, red or dry eyes, fatigue, headaches, more work errors and a decrease in productivity. How do you keep healthy eyes during computer use?

If you experience any of these problems while looking at your computer, see an eye doctor. A doctor can make sure if your eyeglass or contact lens prescription is correct. Or if you don’t have corrective lenses they can prescribe some for you.

Many people fall asleep on their commute on the subway, but sleeping on trains isn’t restful and can be dangerous. In New York City, half the subway crime victims were asleep when they were victimized.

The Internet is full of warnings about falling asleep on the train and also advice about how to fall asleep (or stay awake) on a train or bus. It’s kind of conflicted.

Sleeping longer should make you feel great, right? So why does it sometimes make you feel tired? The Sleep Doctor, as Michael J. Breus, is known, answers this question in an article on Huffington Post and on his own Twitter account.

The average person spends about one-third of his life sleeping. As much as people love sleep, maybe you don’t want to spend any more than one-third of your life in it so as not to miss all the excitement.

The top job on this list is physician, which pays internists an average of $194,500 a year. And as physicians progress in their careers, they can earn more than that. This job can be stressful and can require long hours, but it is rewarding not just for the money and prestige but because doctors help people.

The next top awesome job, according to U.S. News and World Report, is dentist. Dentists earned an average of $151,850 in 2020. Again, a lot of education and training are needed, but the rewards go beyond monetary because dentists help people a lot.

How do you get motivated when depressed? Years ago a comedian said she loved being depressed because she slept 20 hours a day and ate ice cream the other four hours. I suppose if she didn’t laugh about this crippling mental illness she would have cried.

If it’s a serious case of clinical depression, you could become so disabled you quit or lose your job, you contemplate or even attempt suicide or you could be overwhelmed by sadness or hopelessness such that you don’t want to do anything.

If you’re getting sleepy at work in the afternoon or after your midday meal, it may be because you’re eating too many calories of carbohydrates, fats and sugars. So how do you avoid getting sleepy after meals?

Certain foods trigger the body to produce chemicals or hormones that induce drowsiness. To stay alert in the afternoon or whenever you have your meal during your shift, eat smaller amounts of food with less carbs, fat and sugars.

The problem of internist doctors and nurses having to work 30- to 36-hour shifts has been ending around the United States as some teaching hospitals and other institutions have initiated 16-hour shifts since 2011. Nevertheless, these people we trust our lives to work long hours overnight. How do doctors and nurses stay awake on the night shift?

The problem really received a lot of attention in 1984, when Libby Zion, an 18-year-old patient, died under the care of residents within 24 hours of being admitted to a New York City hospital. Her father, a New York Times reporter who alerted the media, sued.

Balancing sleep, caffeine and alcohol can be like walking the high wire. The National Sleep Foundation calls caffeine and alcohol “sleep stealers.” But studies show they are beneficial in moderate amounts.

6:38 a.m. That hour comes all too early, especially if people were drinking the night before. It’s the time when the average American awakens after an average night of 7 hours and 36 minutes of sleep. And the first thing most people do in the morning is brew a pot of coffee.

How much sleep should you get? It turns out 7 and a half hours of sleep per night are OK for a lot of people. You can fine-tune your consumption of caffeine in the day and alcohol at night to be sure you get enough high-quality sleep.

A 2015 study of more than 1.2 million people found that folks who drink 3 to 5 cups of black coffee a day have fewer heart problems than those who drink none. People who drink 5 or more cups don’t have any more problems than anyone else.

Two other studies, meta-analyses that collated data from 11 other research articles, found that drinking 2 to 6 cups a day results in a lower risk of stroke disease. One of those meta-studies included data from more than 500,000 participants.

Coffee can help you live longer.

We have good news for lovers of America’s two favorite mood-altering substances, caffeine and marijuana: Caffeine may enhance a pot smoker’s high.

The downside is that caffeine can also increase the chance of becoming addicted to cannabis.

If you often find yourself going to a room in your house only to forget what you’re meant to do, or talking about a movie character you’ve seen so many times but can’t remember the name of, then one thing is going on.

Brain fog.

It’s so easy to dismiss these as simple moments of forgetfulness. But if this happens a lot, then it may be your body sending you a signal to do something and beat brain fog.