Feeling sleepy after eating? There’s a logical explanation

After I eat breakfast, I feel really tired and just want to lie down and take a nap. I am a 71-year-old woman in good health. Any ideas?

We use the Latin-derived term “postprandial somnolence” (which just means “feeling sleepy after eating”) to describe this common situation.

Eating changes the mode of the autonomic nervous system (the part that is not under conscious control) from sympathetic (often called the “fight or flight” mode) to parasympathetic (“rest and digest”). So, it is normal to feel a bit sleepy after eating. Some people are affected more than others, and meal size (but not meal composition) is a determinant of how powerful this response will be.

What is unusual is that you have this at breakfast, which is a time that most people are having a hormonal surge that tends to keep us awake, especially if you have just had a good night’s sleep.

The fact that you are having these symptoms after breakfast (since that’s all you mentioned) makes me concerned that you might not be sleeping well, and whenever I see that, I worry about medical conditions such as obstructive sleep apnea. This is where people have very poor sleep because of frequent awakenings that they may be unaware of.

So, although I think you are just having a somewhatgreater-than-normal physiological response, the next time you visit your doctor, just have a chat about your sleeping habits.

From a pharmacological standpoint, many people use caffeine to get over any morning sleepiness.

I’m a female in my 60s who gets about one cold sore a year. My mother had them, but my father did not, and neither did my brother. My two children never get them, either. Is this an inherited condition that I got from my mother?

What most people mean by “cold sore” is an outbreak of oral herpes (it’s also called a “fever blister”). They aren’t an inherited condition, but most children will acquire the virus from their parents or siblings. It is possible to transmit the virus even when there are no symptoms.

Some people never get outbreaks after the initial infection; some people get them once or twice a year; still others may get them once or twice a month. Sunlight, fever, stress and menstruation in women may cause them to recur. It’s possible there may be a family predisposition toward greater recurrence frequency.

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