We can easily experience the phenomenon of feeling drowsy after eating. Sometimes, we just can’t help but ask, “Why do I feel so sleepy? Is there something wrong with my body? Or is it just an illusion?” Also, when sleepiness is unbearable, will eating and sleeping right away have any negative effects on our health?
Why do people feel sleepy easily after eating?
The human body supplies blood to the digestive parts to digest the food they consume in a comfortable way. Therefore, their extra blood is concentrated in the gut and stomach, and naturally, the amount of blood in the brain decreases. Therefore, until this digestion phase is over, you can feel temporarily sleepy. Additionally, our body raises blood sugar just after eating and then starts to progressively lower it. People experience drowsiness when their blood sugar levels fall, especially if they consume low-fiber diets. Their blood sugar rises and falls dramatically after consuming fiber-rich foods. People sometimes feel sleepy immediately after eating because of the way that insulin moves through the circulation, transporting sugar to cells, which can make one feel drowsy. Numerous other things can make this feeling of exhaustion worse (Resnick, 2022).
What happens if you sleep after eating?
- Heartburn
Someone might ask, “Can’t I just lie down without falling asleep after eating?” The answer to this is that, if you lie down after eating, you might feel good at first, but when you digest your food, you should sit upright or stand. If a person’s stomach is full of food and they do not maintain a straight posture, acid reflux can occur as stomach acid rises through their esophagus.
Heartburn felt in the middle of the chest is the most common symptom of this. Such problems not only make a person feel unpleasant but can also cause sleep disorders.
- Can’t fall asleep.
It is a fact that many people are well aware that it is difficult to fall asleep at night if you consume a lot of caffeine. And drinking alcohol also prevents you from falling asleep well. Eating can make people feel sleepy easily, but it can also prevent them from sleeping well. Depending on what people eat and how much they drink before they go to sleep, they may wake up to go to the bathroom in the middle of their sleep.
- Weight gain
Eating late in the evening poses a number of other risks, such as weakening willpower and clouding judgment, rather than causing tiredness. If you feel hungry at night, you would rather find a package of cookies than make a salad.
Late-night snacks don’t necessarily cause obesity, but habitually eating high-calorie foods as a late-night snack and having less body movement can increase weight, said Laura Giannone, RD and CDN, a consulting nutritionist in Freehold, New Jersey.
“The amount and quality of food that people consume is very important because all food choices affect a person’s overall quality of sleep” (Mugnolo, 2023).
What should I do to avoid falling asleep after eating?
Enough sleep
Enough sleep to reset a person’s drive and control their life’s rhythm helps a lot. When comparing not resting well to getting enough rest, Winter said that plenty of sleep always helps.
Making time to concentrate on eating
If a person totally concentrates on eating when they are eating, they will fully concentrate on the messages their bodies are sending them. Today, a lot of individuals read the news and respond to emails while they eat their lunch. According to Alice Museles, people might feel more at ease and experience how food feels in their bodies if they focus solely on their food while doing nothing else.
Move your body.
Move your body after lunch to keep your blood sugar control, digestion, and energy levels constant. You can walk around the office or walk for 5 to 10 minutes outside.
See the light.
Taking our bodies out into the sunlight and natural sunlight helps control our body’s rhythm and increase our attention. A study that examined the link between mental performance, attention, and light while feeling sleepy after lunch said that external light is more efficient in promoting human brain activity than indoor lighting. Eating lunch by a window with good natural light or taking a walk after eating outside will be effective in waking you up.
Maintain a meal interval.
When eating, a person who is fully focused on their food will also be fully focused on the signals their bodies are sending them. Many people now spend their lunchtime reading the news and responding to emails. Alice Museles claims that if people concentrate only on their food and do nothing else, they may feel more at peace and experience the effects of eating more fully.
Conclusion
It is not an illusion that we feel drowsy more easily after eating. It happens because the blood in our body is actually driven into the digestive period for digestion, and the blood remaining in our brain decreases, causing sleepiness. However, if you fall asleep right after eating, various unhealthy things such as reflux esophagitis and weight gain can occur in your body, so if you are too sleepy after eating, it is wise to go out and take a walk to overcome sleepiness (Khoury-Hanold, 2022).
References
Khoury-Hanold, L. (2022). Here’s Why You’re Sleepy After Lunch. [online] Sleep.com. Available at: https://www.sleep.com/sleep-health/tired-after-eating [Accessed 5 June 2023].
Mugnolo, C. (2023). How Bad Is It Really to Sleep Right After You Eat? [online] LIVESTRONG.COM. Available at: https://www.livestrong.com/article/556026-the-disadvantages-of-sleeping-immediately-after-a-meal/ [Accessed 5 June 2023].
Resnick, A. (2022). Why Do I Feel Tired After I Eat? [online] Verywell Mind. Available at: https://www.verywellmind.com/why-do-i-feel-tired-after-i-eat-food-coma-the-itis-6665547 [Accessed 5 June 2023].
