What Can You Do About Being Tired After Lunch?

Have you ever experienced that horrible sleepiness that can come on around 1:30 or 2:00 in the afternoon? It may seem like it happens all the time: you have lunch, you get back to your desk, you settle in to work, and suddenly you feel like you’re about to fall asleep. The post-lunch tiredness explains why some people just don’t seem to get much done in the afternoon and why on your days off you fall asleep on the couch after eating. This is especially true if you have a meal full of carbs or have an undiagnosed thyroid issue or diabetes. So what can you do to battle the post-lunch tiredness?

Watch What you Eat

One thing to do is to be careful what you eat. A lighter meal won’t sit so heavily in your stomach and will be easier to digest. If you eat a lot or eat a meal that’s really heavy, you’ll feel like you want to curl up and nap. Go with something like a light salad, a sandwich, or other foods full of protein. Avoid pastas.

Don’t Overdo the Coffee

Don’t drink a lot of caffeine or coffee during the morning or with your lunch. Doing so means you may hit a sugar crash in the mid-afternoon. Many people try to recover from this by drinking more caffeinated beverages, but that just delays the crash, and you end up in a vicious cycle. Have water with your lunch—many people don’t even realize that they’re mildly dehydrated, which leads to feeling tired.

Go For All-Natural Energy Boosts

If you do want to take a stimulant of some sort, go for something that’s all-natural. Taking a B complex vitamin, for example, can give you a boost of energy. This is actually what’s in most of those 5 hour energy drinks! They have a huge amount of B vitamins in them, but they also contain caffeine. If you want to get the natural energy without that caffeine spike, just grab some B supplements.

Exercise

Do a few little exercises after lunch or throughout the afternoon to keep yourself awake. This is actually a good thing to do anyway if you sit all day. You need to take a break from the computer about once an hour, so use this time to walk around your office for a few minutes or even do a little bit of light exercise. You’ll find that it helps keep you awake, and it keeps you from getting stiff and sore, too.

You may also want to start taking an acai berry supplement. Research has shown that a supplement such as the acai berry may be able to provide you with a number of benefits.

You can buy the best organic acai berry products here.

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These products are not intended to treat, diagnose, or cure any diseases.