So so sleepy

June 6, 2012 7:22 AM

Sometimes during the day, I'll be uncontrollably sleepy. I just can't keep my eyes open. The urge to sleep is so strong that I have momentarily fallen asleep before in the middle of talking to someone, and I mean one-on-one conversion with the person staring at me and me trying very hard not to sleep. Is this normal/how can I fix this?

This isn't a problem with my general energy level. I get enough sleep that normally during the day, I'm not tired at all. The problem happens on both days when I get enough sleep and on days when I am sleep deprived, but more so on the days when I don't get enough sleep. I've noticed that this happens most often right after lunch/dinner/eating.

The two ways that I've found to fix this problem is 1) to take a very short nap (10-20 min) or 2) to walk outside in the cold for awhile. After doing either of these things I go back to being my normal state. The problem is that sometimes the situation/time does not allow me to do either of these two things. On such occasions, I basically have to fight to stay awake, with limited success, and most of the time, I get a headache until I manage to find the time to nap/walk, which may not be until the end of the day, so my whole day's productivity is affected.

I'm wondering if this is normal and if other people also have this problem. And if it isn't (or if it is), what are some possible fixes that might work.

If it's relevant: I do not take special precautions with either diet or exercise, am not currently on medication or supplements of any kind. I'm generally healthy. I plan to start jogging more regularly.

posted by dragonfruit to Health & Fitness (27 answers total)

Best answer: This is not normal. You need to see a Dr and possibly be checked for sleep apnea. This can be dangerous if it happens while driving...
posted by pearlybob at 7:26 AM on June 6, 2012 [6 favorites]

It's normal to be sleepy after you eat. Especially if your meals are carb heavy.

That being said.. it sounds like you're extremely sleepy and that isn't normal. When is the last time you had a blood test and your doctor checked your glucose levels? It could be a sign of hypoglycemia or diabetes.
posted by royalsong at 7:30 AM on June 6, 2012

When I've had this happen during, say, meetings, it means that a) I am not rested, and b) I am extremely anxious.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 7:31 AM on June 6, 2012

There are numerous medical issues that could cause this, and there are also possible solutions. We could speculate about possible causes and solutions but you're better off talking to your doctor about it. It's not something you have to handle on your own.
posted by alms at 7:33 AM on June 6, 2012

Hi, I dealth with all my life. Got laid off for sleeping in the middle of a meeting and basically slept through all my years of school. Doctors told me to exercise and eat well.
Then when I was 25, a doctor referred me to a sleep specialist for testing. Turns out I have narcolepsy. You may want to look it up and see if you have the other symptoms of it. Sleep apnea and other sleep disorders could be responsible for daytime sleepiness.

Probably best to start with blood work - could be low iron, thyroid, etc.

In the mean time... well... to be honest, nothing ever helped me stay awake...
posted by KogeLiz at 7:33 AM on June 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Well, I should offer some advice on staying awake while you wait to see a doctor - even if these didn't help me.

-green tea or coffee
-chewing gum
-Taking a short walk (even to the bathroom) every hour and when you start nodding off
-high protein breakfast and snacks throughout the day
-doing something with your hands
-increase water intake
posted by KogeLiz at 7:40 AM on June 6, 2012

If your friendly enough with your supervisor/teacher, you can explain your situation and ask if iys okay if you can take short breaks.
posted by KogeLiz at 7:42 AM on June 6, 2012

Best answer: This often happens to me if I'm in a school or office environment. I get sleepy in the afternoons and nod off without being able to control it.

I don't have narcolepsy, but what fixed the problem for me was eliminating caffeine entirely, and reducing my sugar intake, as well as eating a protein-rich lunch. If I ate a carb-heavy lunch, I would be nodding off within two hours. I also planned for an afternoon snack right around the worst of the sleepies whenever I could, because the act of getting up and getting the snack helped stave off the nods.

Incidentally, now that I work from home, this never happens, even though I'm back to drinking coffee and eating sugar like a fiend.
posted by annathea at 7:46 AM on June 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I have observed that if I eat starchy, sugary foods I get sleepy, especially if I'm not being physically active. I now know I can't eat pasta at lunch because it will knock me out. Eating low-carb at lunch makes it a lot easier to for me to stay awake during meetings.

Pay more attention to what you eat, like try salad with protein (chicken?) at lunch and see if it helps. No bread or croutons!
posted by lizbunny at 7:49 AM on June 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I never drank coffee until I found myself repeatedly falling asleep in graduate seminars that started after lunch. A South American classmate pointed out that this particular time of the day was halfway between when I got up and when I went to bed, and that my body was craving a siesta. A cup of coffee around 1 solved the problem.
posted by mareli at 8:01 AM on June 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Best answer: There was a great discussion here a while back about getting the hardcore nods during meetings, and I found out I wasn't the only one who could prevent this by making sure I was breathing enough. But talking should be forcing you to breathe enough, unless you're one of those rush-talkers who doesn't. Be mindful of that for a while, to see if that's the deal, and make a doctor's appointment for a check up and to talk about a sleep study.

If you realize you really aren't breathing enough during these conversations (maybe it's a particular kind of conversation?), you might consider if you're suffering from anxiety or maybe just need a few sessions with a voice coach/speech therapist.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:03 AM on June 6, 2012

Unless it was under extreme circumstances — you were up really late, or seriously sleep-deprived, for instance — nodding off involuntarily in the middle of a face-to-face conversation does seem outside the bounds of normal to me. I agree with the folks upthread about seeing a sleep specialist, if only to rule out medical problems that could be causing this.

But barring that, if this turns out to be nonmedical and you just need a practical fix, it sounds like you've got your answer: the things that help are to take a nap or to get some light exercise someplace cold. I'd start experimenting from there. (Do you have to take a walk outside? Would it work to stand up or pace around at your desk? Does eating or drinking something cold help the same way that cold weather helps? What about putting an ice pack on your head or the back of your neck? Does a scheduled nap before you get sleepy help prevent this, or do you have to take the nap when you get sleepy?)

If there isn't a recognizable medical cause for this, then it's likely to be something personal and idiosyncratic, so what works for us might not necessarily work for you. At a certain point, the real question is "How do I incorporate this stuff that I know works for me into my daily routine?"
posted by nebulawindphone at 8:06 AM on June 6, 2012

After eliminating anemia, thyroid issues, sleep disturbances and diet triggers, I'm now on 10mg of Adderall to deal with my fatigue.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 8:43 AM on June 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Definitely talk to a doctor about this. If you want to know about sleep studies, look at my Ask history - I did mine in February and am now using a CPAP device.
posted by SMPA at 8:59 AM on June 6, 2012

Best answer: I get this where there's poor air circulation. Lack of oxygen makes me sleepy. This makes it hard to concentrate during a meeting held in a stuffy conference room, but there you have it. The only remedy I know of (short of leaving the meeting) is drinking ice water.
posted by LN at 8:59 AM on June 6, 2012

Keep a diary tracking what you eat and when you sleep to see if there's a trigger or pattern. Otherwise, be prepared to start slogging through doctors and tests - there are some straightforward tests they'll run first, then you'll get referred to either a neurologist or a sleep clinic depending on your doctor for more testing.

I started sleeping 14-16 hours a day, and falling asleep while standing, in the shower, at the table, just unable to stop overpowering need to sleep right there and then. It turned out to be a rare side-effect of my Mirena IUD. I had it yanked and within a couple of weeks I was back to normal.

It was scary while it happened, and frustrating because the doctors were ruling out all sorts of weird things and it was so inconclusive, because I wasn't otherwise sick. Be prepared for doctors to repeatedly assume you're depressed.

My husband gets intensely sleepy about an hour after certain meals so he either avoids them or plans a nap. Sometimes it's just a quirk of your body.
posted by viggorlijah at 9:06 AM on June 6, 2012

Best answer: I have this happen sometimes if I eat a meal that has a lot of carbs or, even worse, a lot of sugar. Try having your lunch be basically just protein and veggies for a while and see if that helps ameliorate the problem. Even better, have your meal and then IMMEDIATELY take a 10-20 minute walk, or even just go up and down a couple flights of stairs; this can help keep your blood sugar from peaking and then crashing.

But whether those strategies help or not, go to the doctor. If you have insulin resistance or other glucose issues, it's better to know about it sooner rather than later.
posted by KathrynT at 9:59 AM on June 6, 2012

This happens to me once in a blue moon, and upon KathrynT's reflection I wouldn't be surprised if it's after a high-carb or high-fat or high-sugar meal. I cope with it by getting up from my desk and walking a block to the starbucks for something - that usually wakes me up enough to fight off the extreme sleepiness part. I may feel a little draggy still, but the sleepy is gone.

(And don't get anything too caffinated at the Starbucks - that'll just be a sort of boomerang "from one extreme to the other" effect. Just go for tea or chai. Or plain mint herb tea is better - it wakes you up a tiny bit anyway, plus it tastes good.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:09 AM on June 6, 2012

I've been *very tired* myself for a long time. I can easily fall asleep on the bus, on a short flight, in the car, etc. At one point, I realized that, for whatever reason, the sleep I get at night is rarely restful enough for me. Left to my own devices, I might sleep through basically the entire weekend (sleep in, eat something, take a nap, do something, back to sleep). My husband thought it was sleep apnea, I had a night time sleep test, I don't have sleep apnea. However, I recently had a daytime sleep test and passed (or failed?) and hopefully I'm going to get a prescription soon for Nuvagil.

TL;DR - talk to a doctor. If you can see a sleep specialist, that might be the best place to start. Have you had a physical recently? That's also a good idea.
posted by kat518 at 1:20 PM on June 6, 2012

Best answer: I've had this, and it makes me wonder about your situation. When I had this, "well-rested" meant "more than six hours of sleep" and sleep deprived meant "fewer than six hours of sleep". Not sure if you've got better definitions than me, but anything less than 8 hours is wandering into "sleep-deprived" zone.

What helped was to talk to my Doctor about this. We tried some sleep meds (tried Ambien but settled on Rozarem) and Magnesium supplements before bed. I still have coffee during the day, but if bedtime's in less than five hours, I switch to green tea.

During the day I chew gum and exercise.

I'm still sleepy in the middle of the day - as another poster mentioned, it's perfect siesta time - but not to the point where I actually fear dozing in meetings or yawning in someone's face.

So yeah, talk to you doctor - make sure you're doing all you can to ensure the sleep you're getting is as restful as you think, and then take it from there.
posted by Lt. Bunny Wigglesworth at 2:37 PM on June 6, 2012

Best answer: Cutting way back on carbs during the day makes a huge (positive) difference in my afternoon sleepiness. YMMV.
posted by elizeh at 7:47 PM on June 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Go see a doctor.
This is how a friend got diagnosed with epilepsy - she fell asleep in the middle of a conversation. Actually, first she fell asleep in the middle of a convo, then she fell asleep while telling a story to her brother...while she was driving down the freeway.

Sleep study showed it was narcolepsy.
Even if this is isn't narcolepsy, that symptom alone warrants medical evaluation.
posted by vivid postcard at 9:28 PM on June 6, 2012

I used to get sleepy in the afternoon at work, even though I was sleeping close to 8 hours every night.
Then I started allowing myself to sleep more than 8 hours and found that I can comfortably sleep 9 hours a night.
Now I don't get sleepy in the daytime.
posted by exphysicist345 at 11:10 PM on June 6, 2012

See your doctor to get checked for sleep apnea. This condition wakes you up numerous times during the night even though you don't remember it. It also deprives your body of oxygen that keeps you awake and alert during the daytime.
posted by sybarite09 at 7:50 AM on June 7, 2012

Is this an ongoing thing or has it started relatively recently? I experienced this for about a year until I realized it was my allergy medication, which I'd started taking earlier in the day when my work schedule changed (and so the drowsiness I'd never noticed before because it happened at bedtime started happening earlier in the day).

So if you're on any new medications, or have changed time/dosage/frequency of medications, it may be as simple as changing one of those variables (with your doctor's input for RX meds, of course). Otherwise, yeah, if you're getting enough sleep, eating okay, and not taking in unusual amounts of stimulants or depressants, talk to your provider about bloodwork and a sleep study.
posted by rhiannonstone at 12:37 PM on June 7, 2012

Best answer: I agree that you should get this checked out, but as a short term fix when it happens, try sipping from a glass of ice-cold water. The sudden temperature change in my mouth kind of jolts me awake temporarily, and if I keep taking sips every minute or two, it can stop me from falling asleep until I'm out of the meeting, lecture, or other situation where it's inappropriate to take a nap or to implement whatever other methods solve the problem properly.
posted by lollusc at 6:10 AM on June 8, 2012

Response by poster: So the general consensus seems to be to see a doctor, which is what I'm going to do. In the meanwhile, I will make some changes to my diet re:more protein/less carb and sugar, and for the short term the ice water trick seems to be doing the trick. Thank you for the input everyone.
posted by dragonfruit at 10:30 AM on June 13, 2012