Here's How Science Says You Can Avoid A Food Coma

They aren't just a figment of your imagination.

Ahhh, the dreaded food coma. After eating a huge meal, the desire to do nothing but sleep forever might seem like something your brain invented to get out of going back to class/work/doing anything, food comas are totally legit. There's even a scientific term for it—postprandial somnolence. But why does it happen?

There are several explanations, but you can mostly blame it on the way eating changes your circulation. Once food hits your stomach, "blood flow shifts from the muscles and brain into the stomach and intestines," David Levitsky, a professor of nutrition and psychology at Cornell University, told CNN. "And when blood volume goes down in the brain, we get woozy and tired."

According to Levitsky, eating triggers your parasympathetic nervous system, which conserves energy and slows down your heart rate in order to absorb nutrients.

"It's got to be a large meal," Levitsky told CNN. "The parasympathetic nervous system is activated when you eat, but (the extent to which it induces sleepiness) depends on the magnitude of the meal."

Did we lose you at "parasympathetic nervous system"? It basically all boils down to how much your stomach stretches when you eat (AKA gastric distention). The bigger the meal the more your stomach stretches and the sleepier you'll feel.

"If you have a large meal, the (degree of) gastric distention and hormonal stimulation that occurs will make you sleepier than if you had a bowl of soup," Dr. William Orr, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, told CNN.

So other than eating less at meals, what else can you do to prevent this?

  • Chose liquid meals, like soup, over solid ones since they tend to be less filling.
  • Avoid carbs with a high glycemic index like white bread and rice. They're more likely to cause your blood sugar to spike and then crash.
  • Avoid large quantities of protein or fat, since they take longer to digest. Small amounts of protein and fat, however, can help fend off blood sugar crashes when eaten with carbs.
  • Try eating lunch before noon. Due to your natural circadian rhythms, most people get tired in the early afternoon so eating at the same time makes it worse. "Around 1 or 1:30 p.m. is right about when that dip occurs, where we are a little more drowsy," Orr said. "Even if you don't eat lunch, you would still get sleepy due to the circadian rhythm. But when we eat at this time, it's a double whammy."

    If all else fails, you can always pick up a cup of coffee.

    (h/t CNN)

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