An expert said Ramadan is a good time for people to be productive as the working hours are shorter, and that made me feel very sleepy.

Muslims fast from dawn to sunset during Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, to empathise with the underprivileged and to hopefully turn a new leaf.

To help those refraining from food and water during the long, gruelling 15 hours during the daytime, companies offer their staff some respite by cutting down the number of working hours to six from the reported ‘10 to 11 hours’ they usually make their staff work.

The short working hours are across the board for all staff, both Muslim and those practising other faiths. A Zoroastrian friend surprised me the other day saying she just loved Ramadan. “Because of the late-night shopping?” I asked. (During Ramadan malls are open till midnight and beyond).

“No, because of the short working hours. By the time I check my email and attend a meeting, it is time to go home,” she said.

When I was gainfully employed, I drove to work sleepily as I had woken up in the middle of the night to quickly grab a bite and then could not get back to sleep because I was so full.

Nutritionists had advised that I should not miss the morning meal (‘suhour’ in Arabic), as it would provide me nourishment through the day and give me zest and vigour to tackle my working day.

Do not consume carbohydrates as it is just fluff food and will vanish by 10 am leaving you ravenous, they said, and advised that I eat slow-digesting foods that have fibre and protein.

So, in an ideal world I would jump out of my bed at 3 am as soon as the alarm clock went off, try to soothe the nerves of the cat that was alarmed by the clock so early in the day, go humming to the kitchen and roast some steel-cut oats, add a dollop of Greek yoghurt, cut a banana, add chia seeds, a tablespoon of peanut butter, a clove of garlic, pinch of cinnamon, blueberries, pomegranate juice, a few leaves of kale, and lastly drizzle honey on top.

On the side, I would have whole meal bread being toasted and to that I’d add slivers of salmon, slathered with a tablespoon of avocado paste and topped with cheese. Do not drink tea at suhour, the nutritionists warn, or drink any other caffeinated drink as they are diuretics.

I looked up that word and it meant those drinks that cause you to urinate and deplete the fluids in your body.

Drink at least two glasses of water, they said. I took their advice and also ate a large slice of watermelon so that I would not feel thirsty, and by the time I finished my meal, everything was sloshing around inside.

But despite all these preparations, by 11 am I usually felt that I was running on empty and everything had slowed down as in the movies, where happy people jump and frolic in slow motion in the green meadows as the sunlight filters through the branches of trees.

Still, the shorter working hours meant that the deadline for filing of stories was much earlier and there was no chance to procrastinate like I usually do, hanging around the coffee machine or in the cafeteria, doing everything possible to delay writing my story.

Experts say that the old norm of making people work 48 hours a week is an outdated concept and it is ridiculous to think that people can work productively for eight hours continuously every day.

Sweden recently reduced work hours to six and found that people were much happier at work. People were also taking fewer sick leaves and there was less stress and anxiety.

Mahmood Saberi is a freelance journalist based in Dubai. You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ mahmood_saberi.