Have you looked into possible causes for your fatigue, exhaustion, and insomnia? It could be worth some investigation (e.g., blood work, sleep study, ADHD assessment).

I used to suffer with broken sleep, and my partner complained about my snoring and heavy breathing keeping him up. Ended up getting tested for sleep apnoea but it came back negative - turns out I just had uncontrolled asthma. I take a preventer inhaler now and I sleep like a log. It’s made it so much easier to get through the day.

Have you had success with “desk” jobs sitting all day

The trick is to not sit all day at your desk. Go for a coffee break and have a short walk outside every now and then. You can also use the Pomodoro technique to break down your work day into small chunks with frequent small breaks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique

I had done jobs with on-call requirements for a long time. No cubicle. No set times, and no sitting around in drugery while I waited. Sometimes on the job there would be many hours of driving to get to a work site, but it was always unique and I liked the actual work.

Once I transitioned into a cubicle job, I found it soul crushing. Ten+ cups of bad coffee a day, no real sense of direction at the job, screen headaches from staring at a computer all day, and mental fatigue that kept me from doing as much physical activity on weekends. There was also a sense of dread where long running projects would be giving me anxiety even on weekends as I’d think about them. It was a quiet but bad spiral for me.

Luckily for me I had skillsets that allowed me to go off and get a non-cubicle job. Not on call anymore, but active enough that I’m not in front of a computer often at all. Now I don’t have any long running projects giving me worries on the weekends, because the work is always done on my end when I leave, which makes me much happier when I’m spending time off. I have somewhat extreme hours, sometimes 16 at a time, but I don’t work more than 3 days at a time, and I will get a corresponding 3 days off. It’s a schedule that I find much easier, because to me the worst part of work is the morning ritual of waking up and getting ready. Doing it five days in a row for Monday-Friday cubicle life was unbearable.

I do everything I can to fill up my off days with activities, which gets me some much need sun and exercise which feeds into making me less tired.

I know not everybody could have made the exact transition I did, but if cubicles are killing you, it doesn’t hurt to look for another option outside of an office.

Wow… Literally nobody has mentioned the easiest solution? Get enough sleep and use a regular bedtime?

Just getting “enough” sleep for a few nights isn’t going to work. You need to go to bed at the same time every night and get enough restful sleep for months so your body is on a schedule. Then you won’t be tired during the day.

If you are, you may not be getting restful sleep and you need to investigate that.

For me, it was a CPAP. I’m physically fit, normal weight, healthy otherwise, but I was having obstructive sleep apnea. Getting a CPAP was a night and day difference, as my sleep is much more restful and restorative.

As others have pointed out, this sounds like a sleep disorder. A healthy person who gets enough sleep should not have trouble staying awake for an 8 hour shift. This can be a serious condition and needs to be checked by a doctor. The good news is sleep disorders - and there are various kinds - can be resolved fairly quickly with treatment. Going straight to stimulants is not the answer. You should start with your primary physician and consider seeing a specialist for a sleep study.

Just so we’re clear are you talking about literally falling asleep? If that’s the case you probably have narcolepsy.

If it’s a matter of your brain staying active enough to be able to engage, without getting frozen, a few things:

• Limit morning caffeine. It’s an upper, and uppers crash down. The down part isn’t so useful for being alert
• Limit the size of lunch
• Avoid inflammatory foods at lunch
• Get a little exercise
• Use pomodoro timer to ensure you take a break before you need one
• Hydrate well

On that last point: breaks are like pain meds: you should take one before the need for one becomes apparent. Keeping to that strict 25-5 schedule is great for keeping me close to peak in terms of my ability to do cognitive work.

For insomnia, the best thing for me is a 5-minute meditation session using a Muse 2 device (consumer neurofeedback training device, about $250 on Amazon). If I’m having recurring insomnia, a 5-minute session on the muse gives me about two weeks of insomnia relief.

Mostly though, I do indeed avoid desk jobs in favor of jobs that have at least some physical activity. My current job is about half desk, half physical work. And lots of face to face interaction too. Interacting with others keeps me energized.

Get a sleep study done

First things first, do you get enough sleep at night?
I work a desk job and do consistently get pretty drowsy around 2pm. I find that eating a lighter lunch and moving around keeps me awake. Take a walk around the building or something, it’s bad for you to sit all day long anyways. I drink an energy drink every day as soon as I get in but I don’t know what effect, if any, it has on my afternoon drowsiness.

When working in an office it was a constant stream of coffee. As soon as cup was empty, go get another.

Work from home now, stopped drinking coffee daily, take an hour nap around 1 or 2 instead.

Im still chronically tired, but feel better in general without the caffeine dependency.

I struggled for a long time before being diagnosed with sleep apnea. I sometimes feel asleep at my desk (not willingly, just passed out) until I got prescribed a CPAP machine.

Now I just need some coffee in the morning and I’m good to go until evening.

Tbh amphetamine

OP I’m sorry all these bootlickers are telling you you’re sick or wrong or bad for not wanting to be awake for a needlessly long “full day” of work. I don’t have a sleep disorder but I can’t do it either. You know how I know I don’t have a sleep disorder? I don’t get sleepy on the weekends.

Anyways here’s how I’ve solved it. What I do is I show up at 10, take a 2-hour lunch break, then leave at 3. They don’t even know I’m gone.

Don’t let these assholes break your spirit, stay strong.