Why do I feel sleepy when I am full?

Question

I just ate spaghetti (in two large plates), right after eating my lunch... My aunt said if I could just gain weight, I could have turned obese for eating a lot.

But my question is, why do I feel sleepy all of a sudden?

Will it be okay if I sleep now? My mom told me not to, because I had a cousin who died of sleeping right after eating heavy meal.

Answer 1

Your body is focusing energy to digest/metabolize your food. Hence a lot of animals are pretty vulnerable right after they eat a hearty meal. More fatty food you eat, the harder your body has to work to digest, so the more sleepy you get.

Answer 2

Because the blood, which provides nutrients (energy) and oxygen to the body, starts to concentrate on the digestive system, giving a feeling of lasitude to the rest of the body.
So in other words it is something that goes on in our body and after it has been feed it feels relaxed and is completly natural. Why do you think babies fall asleep after they have been feed.
And not to be mean but you WILL NOT DIE BECAUSE YOU ATE A LOT THEN GO TO SLEEP. That is almost impossible and the person who did die had to have someother kind of medical condition or he just died because your body can dye when there is nothing wrong with it and he happend to just eat a lot of food before. Its one of those things that we should feel blessed when we wake up each morning. And you will not become obese because you ate a big dinner or a lot of food that day. At thanksgiving people eat and eat and eat and they do not wake up obese or die in there sleep or else almost everyone who ate would be dead. The worse that could happen is you gain a half pound which is almost impossible in one night. AND yes you may go to sleep now!
Nighty night!
And don't let anyone tell you that if you eat a big meal occasionaly that you will DIE or become OBESE all of the sudden. That is not even funny.
Hope I helped!
Nighty night!

Answer 3

The only way I know to tell you in easy to understand terms of why you get sleepy after you eat is because your body is working overtime to try and digest the food. There is a medical term for it, but I am telling you in the "layman's" terms. Spaghetti is FULL of carbohydrates, which is a complex carbohydrate and it hits the body FULL FORCE and demands everything it can digest from the body. When you eat complex carbohydrates it tells the brain "whoa...we've got to go in overdrive to process this stuff" and in turn it makes the body work harder, hence...YOU get tired. Deep inside your body it is working overtime to digest and "process" this food. It will in turn make you sleepy and tired. A lot of people have heard that when you eat turkey (Thanksgiving dinner) that as soon as you get through eating you want to take a nap. Well, in a way this is true, except it's not because the turkey contains a dose of tryptophan, but because the tryptophan in turkey causes serotonin to be released from the brain causing that sleepy urge. Here is a link that you might find interesting. I knew what they were talking about and STILL found it very interesting. Check this out... http://chemistry.about.com/od/holidaysseasons/a/tiredturkey.htm

Isn't the human body an interesting piece of art??? There's more to it if you really want to know. Some of the things you can find out about the body would blow your mind.

All the best......Donna

P.S. And yes...you can go to bed on a full stomach. Might not be too comfortable, but you can and you will not die. Obviously your cousin had some other medical problem, but it wasn't from eating unless they vomited and aspirated and choked to death. If you die when you go to bed on a full stomach then there would not be one baby alive in the world. They go to sleep on full stomachs all the time.

Answer 4

Hi ,
When we eat ,the body sends some energy to the digestive organs so it can digest the food we ate and convert it into energy .The more food we eat more energy is required to digest it ...thus we end up feeling sleepy .
It is also advised that we DO NOT do intense activities after eating like swimming etc. so the stomach can digest easily .
Hope this solved ur doubt

Answer 5

to answer this question one should understand how the stomach works. So to begin, the stomach needs a lot of energy to break down the food, this in turn makes one feeling lack of energy. But then when the stomach is full it has no extra space to move to break the food into smaller pieces, so it requires a lot more energy than a normal to expand and contract thus making one feel tired and sleepy and in some cases lethargic.

Answer 6

I've experienced this before... And I believe this applies to everybody.

I guess eating too full will just cause most of the blood to be focused at the intestines/stomach for digesting, so... That is what I think, but I ain't sure of this.

Oh and you won't die. I think. Cause I'm still living though I slept many times like that.

Answer 7

you get sleepy when you either ingest a meal that is too high in calorie or not balanced and high carb with little protein and fats. simple carbohydrates are digested rapidly and causes blood sugar to increase rapidly which causes insulin levels spike. when insulin spikes sugar is cleared and the body becomes hypoglycemic and you get lethargic and have less energy. this is exactly why you are supposed to eat balanced meals of protein/carbs/fats and why the majority of the carbs consumed are to be low GI

Answer 8

You ate too much and now your body is having to work hard to digest the food. When you eat the right amount of food, you should feel energized, not ready for a nap.

Answer 9

your body shifts blood and energy resources to digesting the food

i LOVE sleeping after eating. my wife says the same thing about not sleeping, but who cares??

ps. no one has EVER died from eating and then sleeping. including your cousin. parents are always full of bullcrap just so you do what they say

Answer 10

dont worry dear, happens to every 1
and dont get scared that u will also doe.
may be ur cousin have died but there r plenty of people who eat more and dont die