Uncontrollable sleepiness after eating
Feeling drowsy after eating, is it really tired or sleepy?
Check yourself, you may have these two diseases
Xiaozhi became obsessed with playing games at some point, and often invited three or two friends to “fight” until late at night or even all night. Over time, she developed the habit of living vigorously at night and sleeping soundly during the day.
Seeing that school is about to start, in order to adjust her biological clock, Xiaozhi decided to temporarily put down the game and develop the habit of going to bed early and waking up early. But the strange thing is that although the quality of sleep at night is not bad, but at noon, after eating, I will feel sleepy, and the same is true in the evening.
Xiaozhi was a little worried that her body had problems due to staying up late for a long time. In fact, in daily life, many people will feel sleepy after eating. What is going on?
I feel sleepy after eating, what’s the matter?
[Uncontrollable sleepiness after eating]
I believe that many people have encountered sleepiness after a meal, especially after lunch, against the bright and warm sunshine, drowsiness will come to your door. This phenomenon is a normal physiological phenomenon, and generally does not need to be deliberately adjusted and corrected.
This is because people need to digest the food after eating, and a large amount of blood in the body flows from the main organs to the gastrointestinal tract, causing brain ischemia and causing sleepiness .
In addition to insufficient blood supply to the brain for a period of time, blood viscosity will aggravate this “meal” sleepiness. This is because the blood circulation speed becomes faster after a meal, and the symptoms of insufficient blood supply to the brain of people with thicker blood are more obvious.
Therefore, people with viscous blood cannot resist sleepiness after lunch, and usually have to take a nap, otherwise they will have no energy throughout the afternoon. In addition to the performance of drowsiness after lunch, people with high blood viscosity will feel dizzy and weak after waking up in the morning, and they cannot regain energy even after sleeping for a long time. [1]
In addition to the above two reasons, there are also these reasons that can lead to food sleepiness.
Diabetes
[Uncontrollable sleepiness after eating]
Excessive blood sugar in diabetic patients will cause the insulin receptors of the cells to stop receiving insulin, and the excess insulin will cause excess glucose to accumulate in the blood. It’s a vicious cycle that overloads the organs and leaves them without rest.
Especially when the blood sugar peaks after a meal, it is most obvious , so food sleepiness occurs.
Postprandial hypotension
[Uncontrollable sleepiness after eating]
Postprandial hypotension refers to the hypotension that occurs after meals, and generally occurs in middle-aged and elderly people . Our body can regulate blood pressure on its own, but the ability of the elderly to regulate blood pressure is reduced , so the ability to maintain blood pressure after meals is reduced, leading to hypotension.
How to alleviate “meal sleepiness”?
It is hard to be sleepy after eating, but there is still work to do, which is the most uncomfortable. Food sleepiness can be prevented or alleviated through the following ways.
Control food intake
[Uncontrollable sleepiness after eating]
It is recommended not to eat too much for each meal, and it is better to be seventy percent full, so that the digestive organs will not take up too much time for the blood. In addition, it is better to eat coarse grains, beans, and potatoes, supplemented by vegetables, fruits and other foods with high dietary fiber content, because these foods are easy to digest and nutritious.
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Afternoon nap
[Uncontrollable sleepiness after eating]
If you are an office worker, you can take a short break for about 15 minutes after lunch . You don’t have to go to sleep, even if you just sit on your desk for a while with your eyes closed. Doing so can not only effectively relieve the state of drowsiness, but also regulate the pressure in the body and improve work efficiency in the afternoon.
Drink more water
[Uncontrollable sleepiness after eating]
Drinking water can effectively prevent brain hypoxia caused by too thick blood . Sufficient water in the body is more conducive to the normal operation of the brain.
After eating, don’t lie down immediately. The food we eat will enter the digestive tract along the esophagus due to gravity. But if you lie down at this time, it may cause acid reflux, causing acid heartburn and other discomfort.
In addition, lying down or sitting down after eating will slow down the peristalsis of the gastrointestinal tract and take longer to digest food, which is not good for the health of the digestive tract.
After eating, be careful not to exercise immediately, because exercise will disperse the blood to other places, which is not conducive to the concentrated digestion of the stomach. It is recommended to wait at least one hour after meals before exercising .
Further reading: Drowsy without lack of sleep, may be serious spleen deficiency
Gao Sande, attending TCM physician in the Department of Miscellaneous Diseases of Guangzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said that many people who are prone to sleepiness after meals mostly suffer from spleen deficiency. The spleen is the organ responsible for digestion in the human body. When the function of the spleen itself is not enough to complete the task of digestion, it needs to use qi and blood from other places to help, which will lead to hypoxia in the brain and cause drowsiness . [2]
In addition to sleepiness after meals, spleen deficiency has other manifestations.
Anemia.
People with spleen deficiency have poor digestion and insufficient absorption of nutrients, resulting in poor blood circulation and insufficient blood nutrition. resulting in anemia.
Body fat.
After the function of the spleen and stomach is weakened, the metabolism in the body slows down and the vitality of the body weakens. The body’s demand for calories also decreases, but the total number of calories people consume has not changed, which will cause fat to accumulate in the body, leading to obesity.
The spleen is the source of qi and blood biochemistry and plays a very important role in the human body. Therefore, spleen deficiency cannot be ignored.
If you are also accompanied by symptoms such as cold extremities, distending pain in the lower abdomen, loose stools, etc., you can eat some yang nourishing things such as ginger and pepper . If you want to take traditional Chinese medicine, you need to take it according to the doctor’s advice under the guidance of a doctor.
Feeling sleepy after eating, it seems that everyone has experienced this feeling. Some people worry about this every day, fearing that it is a disease. But for healthy people, this is just a normal physiological phenomenon. However, there are also many diseases that can cause sleepiness after meals, so we must pay attention to distinguishing them and treating them in time.