Have you just had a delicious meal, do you suddenly feel tired or become sleepy after eating? This doesn’t happen to you just once, it happens to you practically every time you eat an extensive meal. It is caused by a number of natural processes by which the body responds to food. Why do people become sleepy after eating?

Sleepy after eating

• The afternoon dip
• The quickly digestible carbohydrates
• The influence of hypocretin
• Tips for feeling sleepy after eating

The afternoon dip

You often get up early in the morning to go to work and that requires energy. You may also have little or no time to eat a healthy breakfast, so you just have to have those cups of coffee at work. When lunch time has arrived, your body has already become quite hungry and your stomach is already making gurgling sounds. You eat a lot and you may often eat a meal that is too large and too fatty or a meal with unhealthy carbohydrates. This means that the stomach has to work hard. Energy and blood to power the stomach are taken from all parts of the body, so that digestion can begin. Part of the brain’s blood is also used for this purpose, which makes you feel tired.

The quickly digestible carbohydrates

Quickly digestible carbohydrates or unhealthy carbohydrates with a high glycemic value cause a sharp increase in blood glucose levels. Insulin is produced to protect the body against this. Insulin is normally used to store glucose in the body so that it can be used at a later stage. With a high concentration of blood glucose, the amount of insulin increases sharply to remove the glucose. This causes a dip in the body’s energy level, making you tired. Organs in the body have the priority to keep running, so energy is drawn from other parts of the body, including temporarily from the brain. Unhealthy carbohydrate intake can make you tired. If you then wake up, there is a chance that we will feel hungry again because glucose has been removed.

The influence of hypocretin

Hypocretin, also called orexin, is a so-called neuropeptide hormone, which, as it were, boosts the body. This hormone has an important function in keeping the body awake. It regulates arousal, sleep and food cravings. If we have eaten enough to make us feel full, the hypocretin level will drop, making us sleepy. This is a primal instinct of the body. To illustrate: after the hunt was over, people returned with food, which was then prepared on a campfire. The meat was thoroughly eaten until it was completely full. The body was saturated and needed time to extract the useful nutrients from it. At that moment people went to sleep because the body’s basic needs had been met. So the hunter didn’t have to do anything anymore and therefore the orexin became active to let him sleep. Of course, this principle is still actively present in our body. Due to the decrease in hypocretin in our body after a satiating meal, we tend to fall asleep.

Tips for feeling sleepy after eating

Of course you can start paying attention to what food you consume. Consume carbohydrates with a low glycemic value so that the insulin peak does not occur. It is also important to avoid a heavy or fatty meal. On the other hand, you can of course also allow the body’s reaction. You eat what you want and you feel good about it. If you feel sleepy after eating: well, go to sleep! You will see that after you have closed your eyes for ten minutes, you can go all out again. Don’t try to fight sleep, otherwise you will struggle to stay awake for much longer. Let your body recover by taking a short siesta.

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