Getting Sleepy After Eating

Does anyone ever get a charley horse type of cramp in their throat around the thyroid area along with the sleepiness?

I am currently trying both drinking more water and a short walk before I eat lunch to avoid the overly sedative effect of small food amounts. I hear low blood pressure may be a result of dehydration (coffee and desk induced). So I am going to jiz up the metabolism a bit since I sit at a desk all morning, drink double the water to coffee and see how I go. Still of course removing carbs from the lunch......

I have been suffering from this 'syndrome' for about four or five years now. Perhaps surprisingly, it tends to affect me more during the day rather than in the evening. The degree of sleepiness seems to vary without always being predictable, but generally, if I eat enough to reduce my hunger by ANY amount, I will feel tired. Not surprisingly, a heavier meal, especially loaded with carbohydrates, will almost knock me out to the extent that I'm often physically unable to keep my eyes open.  That isn't an exaggeration; after such a meal I wouldn't dare drive a car, for instance, and I will usually sleep for several hours, even though I may have enjoyed eight hours of good sleep the night before.  Not surprisingly, I usually try to avoid eating during the day.
I cannot recall exactly when it started, although I am reasonably confident that there was no sudden event or illness that triggered it. Having said that, this tiredness after eating did appear to coincide with the onset of succumbing to several common colds, one after the other, throughout the auutumn and winter months. This is something else that never used to happen to me; I have never been what one would describe as particularly susceptible to illnesses or infections. I tend to believe that their is a link between the two things (the multiple colds and tiredness after food), but not that one is the cause of the other.
As others have said, I do not believe that the tiredness is 'normal' in the sense that it's neither possible nor desirable to attempt to treat it. The fact that it seems to be non-serious , and that it may be not uncommon, is only a small consolation.  There is quite possibly a link with age - I'm fifty - and lifestyle; I'm not as active as I used to be, and my diet is far from perfect. I live in a rather dark and gloomy flat in central London, not much sunlight gets in. I realised some years ago that I genuinely suffer from a mild degree of 'Seasonal Affected Disorder' (S.A.D.), Could this also be a contributory factor?
Lastly, I should add that for years I have suffered from a moderate degree of what I'll term 'gastric inefficiency', symptoms of which are comparitively mild IBS, acid reflux and generally a less than brilliant digestive system. However, it's important to emphasise that these symptoms pre-dated the tiredness after eating by decades
Basically, I think that there are quite probably a variety of factors at work here, but which are most significant, how they interact with each other and what we may be missing is far from clear. Sorry to be long-winded, just attempting to establish some possible common ground here.

I know how you feel, I am going throught this also, i will eat something and soon after i can not function at all. I cant keep my eyes open and i fall asleep for hours, i woke up had breakfast and passed back out! then i feel weird all day and get really disoriented. My fianc'e is in cullinary school and her chef instructor said it sounded like a reaction to gluten, or a food allergy and the only way to know is to go to the Dr. changing foods didnt work since we dont really know whats causing it. Trust me this is not normal!

This thing seems to be so common that it could almost have its own forum. FWIW, I don't think that there is any one single cause (at least not for most people), which is why reading even the most helpful posts is of limited usefulness. No offense intended, but in the apparent absence of expert medical knowledge (does anyone know of a doctor who has the solution to this? Surely s/he would be world famous!) we who suffer from this condition need to collate a reference database of, among other things, common factors such as a complete list of symptoms, our medical history, and other potentially relevant information that might finally help to narrow down some common causes and, hopefully, cures.
What makes this sleepiness after eating worse? How consistent is it? Does anything actually help with any worthwhile degree of repeatable reliability? How old were we when it began? Does anyone remember experiencing this during childhood? (I'd bet almost no-one) Are any of us seriously overweight, rather than just a bit? (Again, I've an odd feeling that surprisingly few of us are actually obese). How many of us have other digestive difficulties such as acid reflux, IBS, or just frequent indigestion? Do we suffer from a general lack of energy a lot of the time in addition to this difficulty staying awake after eating? What tests/treatment have we received, if any?
If anyone sees this post and can point to a newer thread, or perhaps even a dedicated forum, please do so. Otherwise, please don't be shy about posting here. I've seen this issue come up so many times, and so many people seem to be experiencing these frustrating (and sometimes actually debilitating) symptoms, that the more information we can gather the more likely we are to come up with some answers.
Thanks and good luck.

Here are two things that help me when this happens. First, go for a walk after eating, even if you feel very tired. Walking really, really helps. It doesn't have to be very far. There is something happening in our bodies that isn't quite right, whether it is the particular food, hormones not quite right, whatever. Walking helps.
If you are at work and can't leave your desk, then kick your feet, take deep breaths and sit up very straight. If you don't feel embarrassed, make arm circles too. All this gets your systems going. For whatever reason, you need to counteract that sluggishness with something energetic. Remember this: Energy begets energy. Illogical? Perhaps but it DOES work.

the walking does help alot.. but I found I had a chromium and magnesium deficiency and this is very common. I use 2 product that have made a big difference. I am so happy I figured it out.

That's really interesting! Last year I had all these allergic reactions, seemed like to everything I ate. then I started drinking mineral water, after reading about magnesium deficiency! And voila! like magic a huge lessening in the reactions.
Wish one of the doctors I saw would have mentioned these connections...

@ kathyjoane1: How did you find out that you were deficient in these minerals? And what are the products you're taking?
Barb V: I agree with you re the walking. Like others, I can 'push through' the tiredness barrier, but it can take quite a while before it dissipates, and I'm often still lacklustre and lethargic even after the actual sleepiness has eased off. The closest I have to a theory is that it's a symptom of slow metabolism/inefficient digestion, but I could be wrong. It's so frustrating..

Lensman: Something that helped me track down problems of several kinds, because, oh no, it couldn't be just ONE problem, was to keep notes on everything I ate, did, stressed about. I constantly went over the notes (this was for the allergies) seeing when problems occurred, and what preceded it. Some connections were immediate - others over periods of three days. This really helped me to tune in deeply to what my body was telling me. All the doctors go on is some sort of average person, you really have to solve this yourself - and it takes work, let's call it devotion. Also, some days are just going to be better than others. A big e-hug to you.

BarbV: Thanks for getting back. You're right, of course, there are no easy answers, and it's great that you're making progress. I also kept careful notes for about a year, after I finally discovered something that actually did work - staying away from floury carbohydrates! This belated realisation that my various symptoms weren't just random, and that doctors DO miss obvious connections, encouraged me to look further, but the flour link remains my biggest breakthrough. There are other foods that I have difficulty with too, such as rice, but flour - especially if it also contains yeast - is by far the worst. Thank goodness for potatoes! I'm not coeliac or diabetic, but I do have several symptoms of both conditions. Also, if I do succumb to temptation (which ocassionally amounts almost to craving) and eat, say, a plate of pasta or toast, I find it almost impossible to stop until I'm so bloated that have to throw up. Yes, it IS disgusting, but I think it's important to give a full picture. My abiding memory of mealtimes, for years before I realised the cause, was of finishing my meal feeling horribly bloated but still craving more. Does this sound familiar to anyone else?
But avoiding bready foods, whilst making an instant and enormous improvement to my digestion, doesn't help with the sleepiness after eating. I've been more or less flour-free for a decade now, (apart from ocassional relapses) and it is in fact only during this time that I've started experiencing this debilitating sleepiness after food. It feels as though there must be a link here, i.e. the same digestive difficulty in metabolising ingested food, just without the acid reflux and bloatedness caused by bread.
I should explain here that I'm not whining, and I apologise if it seems as though I'm attempting to commandeer this thread. I'm just hoping that maybe some of what we write here might strike a chord with someone else, which in turn might lead to a discovery. Having only oneself as a case history makes for VERY slow research, as it's almost impossible to know what might be relevant, what is coincidence, etc.
To finish, I'll add that I am an alcoholic, abstinent for the past twenty years (it was a case of stop drinking or die, really that bad). I mention this only because I believe there may be at least a partial link with my other metabolic/digestive symptoms, and that perhaps others have a history of alcoholism in the family? Quite possibly not, but it's worth asking. Just looking for common ground again..
Good luck everyone.
EDIT: Thanks kathyjoane1, you posted while I was typing.

You are spot on with your response

Hello everyone,

maybe you might need a glass of orange juice to help aid in digestion or some fruit juice to decrease the the load on your body.

Oz: Thanks for the post. I'm also 5'11" and was about 180lbs when I was your age. Now 50, I'm about 20lbs heavier, partly due to middle age, and partly because I stopped smoking a couple of months ago, since when I've put on 10 lbs.
I share many of your symptoms, though not the 'facial deformation' thing you describe; that sounds very strange. Have you had it checked out? Anything diagnosed?
Also, I don't suffer from noticeably speedy loss of muscle, beyond the fact that if I don't excercise I'll soon lose 'tone' like most people. I too get periodic nasal blockage at night (worse in winter) but it doesn't usually last more than a week at a time. It's tempting to lump all one's symptoms together in the hope that they have a common cause, but I actually doubt if this is the case, and I'm sure that many of them are just unrelated individual idiosyncrasies, possibly as variable and inexplicable as personality. For example, my nighttime stuffiness might be a result of mild catarrh, whereas in your case it could be a symptom of something else entirely. And for both of us, it's quite likely unrelated to the tiredness after eating.

As to causes, I've had similar thoughts. My thyroid results also came back within 'normal' range, though as usual you have to wonder how wide are their diagnostic parameters, and how reliably these can be universally applied to all subjects (patients). It's very frustrating to read of a condition that matches your own symptoms almost exactly, and then the test results come back negative. Candida was (is?) also a possible culprit for me. Yeast seems to play a part in my digestive issues, yet I can eat any amount of mushrooms with apparent impunity, and vinegar has no noticeable ill effect. As usual, like with Type B Diabetes and Coeliac Disease, many of the Candida symptoms fit me precisely, yet other supposedly major symptoms are frustratingly absent. It's a case of having some of the symptoms of several conditions, yet none are 100%.

Gluten intolerance is also a definite 'biggie' for me, which has become worse over the years. Took until I was nearly 40 to realise what it was, since I'd had my digestive problems investigated so many times over the years and I just assumed that anything that obvious would have been picked up, which it wasn't.  But.. just to be really frustrating, pasta - which is of course pure wheat - doesn't 'hurt' me as much as bread usually does (bloatedness/acid reflux/IBS etc). This is why I think that for me yeast is a significant factor; pasta absolutely doesn't agree with me, but it's not as bad as it would be if gluten was the sole culprit.

As an aside, I have learned to be very wary of websites which demonise certain conditions/foodstuffs etc. To read some of these, you would think that their villain of choice, be it Candida, Aspartame, White Flour etc, is responsible for half the medical conditions known to science. And it's both worrying and infuriating that these sites all seem able to quote numerous examples of 'evidence' to corroborate their theories, from apparently reliable and qualified sources. And they all seem to speak with such conviction and authority that, paradoxically, it's hard to take any of them seriously because they come across as too fanatical, and you know that they can't all be right. 

I think we're on our own with this, which is why I'm going to compile a condensed history of my symptoms and treatments etc. I'm reluctant to do this; apart form anything else, it smacks of self obsession. But I honestly feel that it's the only way forward, so that we can all compare notes and maybe narrow things down. It may yet be that there really are umpteen different causes for this food/tiredness thing, and that it's just down to individual body chemistry. But I'm hoping that this isn't the case, especially as I'm pretty much convinced that this tiredness is only a symptom of something else. At the moment I'd put my money on digestion/metabolism.