I promise I will study after I eat.

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Disclaimer: This blog was written with the intent to educate, not to make you fall asleep. 

 Feeling tired or sleepy after a meal is quite common. But if meals make us drowsy, why do we have trouble falling asleep at night after consuming heavy foods. Most people feel sleepy between 1 pm to 3 pm. But I swear those few hours of sleep in the afternoon is the best nap I have ever had. I always promise myself that I will study or do work after I eat my lunch but end up drooling over my desk. 

Sleepiness is caused by indigestion, overeating, or eating refined foods. There is a medical term for this, it is called Postprandial somnolence or food coma. A food coma occurs when you have refined carbohydrates or a high volume of food . It spikes up the blood sugar and insulin and in turn, makes us feel tired. But the question is why do they make us feel tired? Firstly, it activates PNS(parasympathetic nervous system). There are two types of the autonomic nervous system -one is fighting and flight mode and another is rest and digest mode, eating refined foods or heavy food activates PNS and thus less blood flows to your brain and more blood to the digestive system and due to brain-gut connection one would want to nap. Secondly, when one consumes high-carbs food, amino acids like Valine, Leucine, Isoleucine, and tryptophan get absorbed into the blood and are converted into serotonin and Melatonin which is termed sleep and mood hormone.

*Yawn*

 One of the tips I have heard is to take a power nap but that never works for me I will promise myself 20 minutes of a nap but end up sleeping for an hour or even more and end up even more tired than I was before or take a walk after lunch (which is quite helpful) .

The purpose of this blog is I always wanted to know why I feel sleepy on some days especially when I am doing mental work whereas when I am with my friends or doing something fun I don't get sleepy at all ? That was a question that always stuck with me that made me explore a little deep into why we feel this immense drowsiness in the afternoon alone. Anyway, I would like to end by saying: