Women who fall ASLEEP when they EAT
It sounds bizarre, but it’s a genuine medical condition — and it’s wrecking their lives
EVERY day, straight after lunch, Faye Perminsky crawls i nto bed and immediately falls into a two-hour sleep.
Waking up just in time for the school run, she picks up her son Samuel, comes home, has dinner, and can barely keep her eyes open to read him a bedtime story before sinking gratefully back into bed no later than 9pm.
Contrary to what you might think, Faye is not lazy. Nor is she exhausted just from the constant grind of juggling work and motherhood.
The 43-year-old make-up artist from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, has a condition known as postprandial hypoglycaemia, which leaves sufferers overwhelmed with exhaustion immediately after eating.
In a previous administrative job for a media company, Faye would struggle to keep her eyes open after lunch and once even nodded off at her desk.
‘Thankfully, on that occasion, everyone was still out at lunch and hadn’t noticed,’ recalls Faye. ‘I’d had a jacket potato, and soon afterwards felt my eyes start to become heavy and my lids start to close. My vision went blurry and all I wanted to do was sleep. The next thing I knew, I woke up with my head lying on a bunch of files and an hour had passed.’
Faye, a slim size eight, and healthy eater, says some foods are worse than others.
‘Anything substantial makes me headachy and dizzy, and knocks me out as soon as I have eaten it,’ she says. ‘Eggs on toast, a jacket potato, chicken curry and rice, even a sandwich. I eat it and within minutes, I’m desperate to get into bed. The only thing that doesn’t make me so sleepy is salad, but it obviously doesn’t fill me up for long.’
Faye has suffered with this for ten years and for a long time her GP thought it may have been fibromyalgia or ME — myalgic encephalopathy — both characterised by intense physical and mental exhaustion, but it’s only recently that the connection was made between her symptoms and food.
According to Dr Abbi Lulsegged, consultant physician and endocrinologist at King’s College, London, Faye is suffering the symptoms of a ‘ food coma’, otherwise known as postprandial hypoglycaemia or r eactive hypoglycaemia, which is more common than we think.
MANY
of us erroneously ascribe our exhaustion to the stress of life, rather than what we are eating. ‘ Some foods, especially carbohydrates, have a high glycaemic load which means they release glucose more quickly into the bloodstream — just two slices of bread can be broken down in around 45 minutes into two t easpoons of s ugar — and t his provokes an insulin response,’ says Dr Lulsegged.
This increase in insulin is known to lead to excessive sleepiness. Coupled with the feeling of exhaustion — plus other symptoms such as blurriness, shaking, dizziness and heart palpitations, that come after a plummet in blood sugar following a ‘spike’ — can lead to some people experiencing a shutdown of their body that can take a couple of hours to shake off.
Naturally, this constant tiredness after eating has had a knock-on effect on Faye’s nine-year marriage to Richard, 45.
‘If we go out to eat, we go early about 7pm then tend to be back home after an hour and a half because I can’t stay awake in the restaurant,’ says Faye. ‘Then I’ll have to be tucked up in bed by 9pm at the latest.
‘Richard does get upset sometimes because it means we’re not able to spend much time together in the evenings and it’s a passion killer, but he’s used to it now.’
Her lethargy also impacts on her seven-year- old son Samuel and their quality time together.
‘At the weekends and on holiday, we can’t go out for a full day because I have to nap after lunch,’ says Faye. ‘ It means Samuel sometimes has to watch TV or play on his iPad while I sleep, but there’s not much I can do. I’m too wiped out to keep going.’
No one can attest to these feelings of isolation more than Sharon Anne Jackson. When the 42- year- old receptionist from Reading goes out for meals with friends, she will often find herself sinking into a brain fog.
‘I can see their mouths moving as they talk, but I can’t hear what they’re saying properly,’ she says. ‘It’s like I’m drifting away into the background, and all I want to do is close my eyes and go to sleep.’
This foggy state is more likely to occur if she goes out for an Italian and indulges in her favourite food: pasta and garlic bread. ‘My friends notice and ask if I’m OK, but I’ll make my excuses and have to scarper from the restaurant so I can get my head down in bed,’ says Sharon Anne.
While working as a receptionist, she can’t risk nodding off so she makes sure she eats nothing more than a salad at lunchtime and, so far, it’s been successful.
‘It was only after the Christmas lunch last year that I struggled,’ she recalls. ‘I came back to my desk and felt my eyes begin to close, so I went to the toilet and splashed cold water over my face to try to wake myself up.’
The worst offenders for postprandial hypoglycaemia, claims Dr Lulsegged, are white bread, white rice, white pasta, cakes, s weets, muffins and l i quid carbohydrates such as f i zzy, sugary drinks.
‘I always tell my patients who suffer from this to try a high protein, low carbohydrate diet or at least buffer carbohydrates with protein such as chicken, meat, fish or eggs as this keeps your blood sugar steady,’ he says.
‘Usually in three weeks, they see a huge difference in their energy levels and they no longer have these post-food collapses.’ As well as the foods you eat, another contributing f actor may be how quickly your stomach empties after eating.
‘The quantity of food can be just as relevant as the quality,’ says nutritionist Dr Marilyn Glenville. ‘Large heavy meals tend to make you feel tired and smaller meals more often tend to keep you more awake.’
This is something Reena Khan can confirm. The 37- year- old mother has suffered post-eating exhaustion for more than three years and is increasingly fed up with the crippling effect on all aspects of her life.
‘Every day I used to pick up my ten-year- old son, Safwaan, from school and have to take him to my mum’s house because I knew I’d be exhausted as soon as we ate. I would have to lie down,’ she says. ‘This way, we could eat together at my mum’s and I could go and have a 30-minute lie-down while she looked after him.
‘Recently, I’ve started going home after school, but I’ll still need a rest after I eat.’
REENA,
a hypnotherapist from We s t Yorkshire, also turns down invitations to go out for dinner, knowing she’ll spoil it with her post-dinner collapse.
‘Going out for dinner has lost its appeal,’ she says. ‘I’ll go for a drink, but eating in front of people when I’m like this isn’t worth it. Even having lunch with a girlfriend can often be tricky as I’ll find myself switching off when she’s talking and all I want to do is go home and rest.’
She has seen her GP who gave her a blood test and advised she take Vitamin D supplements, but so far, no one has connected her physical exhaustion with her diet.
‘I’m quite slim and have never been overweight, but I love eating Asian food so have lots of chapatis and curries. I also love chicken and roast potatoes,’ she says.
Knowing she can’t risk dropping off in front of her hypnotherapy clients, she’s started to eat more salads and drink vegetable juices.
‘I don’t feel as tired in the day if I eat a salad and a juice,’ she says. ‘It feels like this is my way of controlling it.’
Dr Glenville believes what Reena is doing is the best way of combating postprandial hypoglycaemia.
‘Keep a food diary and write down what foods make you feel more or less tired, and then you can work out what’s good for you,’ she says. ‘Also, try chewing your food more slowly to aid digestion, and pick meals that balance protein with carbohydrates.
‘ Choose unrefined carbohydrates if possible such as quinoa, wholewheat pasta or rice.
‘I’d also recommend not having too long a gap between meals — no more than three hours and to graze on snacks such as nuts, seeds or apples to keep your blood sugar steady throughout the day.’
And if you’re still dropping off, visit your GP.