This Is The Only Sleeping Schedule Every Malaysian Football Fan Needs For EURO 2016
How you choose to sleep will take you a long way.
Published for NESCAFÉ Malaysia, 31 May 2016, 07:11 PM
The good news: EURO season is almost here!
The not-so-good news: The stark difference in time zones means that we Malaysians are gonna have to say goodbye to good, quality sleep for a whole month!
The EURO matches are mostly scheduled for 3pm, 6pm, and 9pm in France... which translates to 9pm, 12am and the ungodly hour of 3am here in Malaysia.
If you're serious about surviving the EURO season, be prepared for some strategic napping… and a whole lot of COFFEE!
NESCAFÉ is already in full football spirit and is giving away some epic EURO 2016 merchandise to lucky fans! Find out how you can score some seriously rare prizes at the end of this story.
Things start off pretty hectic in the Group Matches stage, with 36 matches in total to catch
Matches that fall on Fridays and Saturdays aren't too bad, if you manage to keep the following morning free for some uninterrupted replacement sleep.
Watching matches on weeknights is where the biggest challenge is: not only do you have to stay awake all the way until the final whistle is blown at 4.30am every night, but you’ll also need to actually be a fully-functioning human the next day.
Use this schedule as a guide on the best times to sleep and nap (in Malaysian time):
If you're worried about nodding off halfway through the matches, stay awake with some caffeine in your veins! Have a can of NESCAFÉ Black Roast on hand; there’s nothing like some strong black coffee to keep you up.
There's actually an art to napping that'll help you feel more refreshed when you wake up. Try these hacks:
1. Between-matches nap: It might be hard to fall asleep if you’re worried about missing out on the next match, so make sure you set an alarm!
2. Post-match sleep: There isn’t much time to sleep after the final match before you have to wake up again for work, but luckily, researchers have found that a quality nap of two hours or more can improve alertness for up to 24 hours! For a quality down-time, use white noise to tune out distractions.
3. Lunch-time nap: Use a part of your lunch break to catch up on some ZZZs! Pro-tip: Have an iced coffee right before you nap, like a refreshingly cold can of NESCAFÉ Ice. Caffeine takes roughly 20 minutes to kick in, so the caffeine will start working just as you wake up, leaving you feeling refreshed and alert.
Congratulations, you've survived the Group Stage! It gets easier from the Knockout Phase onwards...
Don't worry, the Round of 16 onwards will be a lot more forgiveable to your sleeping schedule. Plus, there are 2 days of rest between each phase so catching up on some sleep gets that much easier!
Here’s the (less hectic) sleeping schedule leading up to the final match:
The Semi-Finals will coincide with the first few days of Hari Raya Aildilftri celebrations, so make sure you accompany all that lemang and rendang with some coffee to keep up with the festivities! For extra enjoyment, kick it old school and pair your favourite traditional dishes with a can of creamy NESCAFÉ Creamy Roast.
For the Final match, stay up all the way and have a blast!
Highly recommended: Taking a day of leave the next day to recuperate from all the excitement and catch up on some precious shut-eye.
Yeps, we did say a whole lot of coffee’s involved!
If you’re looking for the best way to stock up on coffee, then join the crowd in the Nescafe Dulu, Baru Bola contest!
Running until 30th June, all you’ll need to do is buy a can of Nescafe at participating Petronas stations, and you could stand to win – get this – the Adidas EURO 2016 Official Match Ball! Ready to roll?
Find out more about the contest here.