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Comment by nlh | Hacker News Reader

Not for me. I can get 10 hours of sleep at night but I'll still hit an afternoon lull post-lunch. I'm sure if I really worked at it I could figure out why (too big a lunch? blood sugar spike?) but regardless, I'm good to go for 6+ more hours w/ a 20-minute nap. Meanwhile everyone else sits and forces their eyelids open, stares at YouTube videos, and downs espresso shots...

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This lull disappeared for me after I stopped eating wheat.

Not saying you'd get the same effect from quitting wheat. But there's decent odds it's something you eat.

Do you have Celiac disease, or did you just decide on your own that wheat is unclean?

There are a few things other than Celiac disease that cause problems with wheat; I've never been able to get a solid diagnosis other than ruling out Celiacs but I know if I have too much wheat, especially in the form of light fluffy baked goods, I get very tired and cranky as well as having digestive issues.

It could be an additive used in commercial baking because I seem to be fine with no-wheat gluten and some forms of wheat,but pragmatically avoiding wheat helps me.

Could it merely be sugar crash from metabolism and starch breakdown?

A lack allergies or what not does not imply that it's healthy to stuff your face with it all day.

EDIT: nevermind, acconrad described the same thing 3 hours ago.

This entire thread is like a WebMD page. Somehow a food coma resulted in a Celiac disease diagnosis. Not that it's impossible, but it's certainly implausible.

Sounds like your lunches include a bunch of carbs, too much sugar, and/or maybe a drink or two. If it happens frequently, habits form.

Get real, guys.

But there isn't a way a doctor can sell drugs they get kickbacks for that...

Plus what would the carb, sugar producing companies say!

I didn't say I have Celiac disease. I said, since I quit wheat, I never get food comas. I used to get them routinely.

I don't know WHY I don't get them. Celiac is not the only issue wheat can cause.

I feel fairly confident in these results. I tested wheat in isolation, repeatedly. I've tested other variables: carbs, sugar, dairy. None of them ever gave me a food coma, in the absence of wheat.

It seems completely reasonable for me to avoid wheat, given the results of my experiments. Why are you so certain I must wrong?

Don't tell me you don't know that gluten, along with any form of sugar or anything else outside the paleo diet,, is not hacker-halal. You should be eating strict paleo or keto lest you die early, bloated and tumescent like that kid from Akira after he started mutating.

Yeah this is due to high GI, fast-acting carbs. I've experimented with this heavily with my lunches - it's always anything that is high GI (potato chips, cookies, any sort of sugary food) will cause that "crash" after lunch. That's why I save carbs for post-workout after my evening workout.

6+ hours of productivity based on a 20 minute nap is a good ROI in my book.

Totally agreed :)

It was eating wheat for me as well. Once I started eating according to the ketogenic diet, I no longer needed naps during the day.

I'm another one of these: stopped eating wheat, immediately needed less sleep.

Does anyone know of any research on this phenomenon? There are obviously lots of anecdotes, but I can't find any studies.

Research on this very subject was cited on a Norwegian show called Pulse, but it's too long since I saw it that I'd be able to find it again. There apparently is a correlation between wheat and sleepiness, for some.

http://webhealthcritic.blogspot.com/2008/12/tired-after-eati...

tl;dr: the insulin spike from high glycemic index foods causes sleepiness, and low insulin sensitivity which can be caused by sleep debt and lack of exercise exacerbates it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postprandial_somnolence

> When foods with a high glycemic index are consumed, glucose is absorbed rapidly from the gastrointestinal tract into the bloodstream, and in individuals with normal carbohydrate metabolism, insulin levels rise concordantly to drive glucose into the body's tissues and maintain blood glucose levels in the normal range. Insulin stimulates the uptake of valine, leucine, and isoleucine into skeletal muscle, but not uptake of tryptophan. ... Uptake of tryptophan by the brain thus increases. In the brain, tryptophan is converted to serotonin, which is then converted to melatonin. Increased brain serotonin and melatonin levels result in sleepiness.

I knew someone who traced it down to this: http://www.wikihow.com/Recognize-Gluten-Intolerance

He's fine as long as he eats gluten free wheat.: http://udisglutenfree.com/products/whole-grain-bread/

He ultimately blames GMOs: http://maninisglutenfree.wordpress.com/2011/07/05/the-histor...

That's biorhythm, it has nothing to do with food intake. You will have a tendency to fall asleep around 2 pm, more or less, everyday, based on your internal clock.

I hacked this with Vitamin D supplements.

How much do you take, and does it really work ? Any secondary effect?

I try to take 10-15,000 IU (of D3 in gel cap) two to three times a week. Yes, it really works in that my blood testing showed the difference. I have seen no side effects, but then I was really, really deficient.

One side benefit: No more symptoms associated with Seasonal Affective Disorder.

YMMV.

Biphasic sleep is built into our sleep rhythms. There is a longer, deeper sleep period at night, and a shorter, lighter sleep period at the opposite time of the day (2-3 pm). This is more or less prevalent for different people, and you don't NEED to nap, but it certainly is not unusual.

I turn into a zombie whenever I eat carbs during lunch.

Try it and see - the next time you go out to lunch, don't eat pasta, bread, potatoes, corn, tortillas, dessert, coke.

Have a steak and green veggies. I can eat an enormous 24oz prime rib plate and not suffer the zombie state that I would if I ate a hamburger and french fries.

Don't discount a burger without the bun, and a mostly greens salad... I'm not strictly paleo, but if I avoid going over 100g or so of carbs a day, I tend to do a lot better.

Might want to have a sleep study done for sleep apnea. Quality of sleep != quantity of sleep.

Tell me about it. Just found out I have sleep apnea. It explains a lot!

(Also means I urgently need to lose some weight.)

Oh shit. So do I. Only a slight problem as I can't use a CPAP or VPAP because I tear the mask right off while asleep. I have some spare weight + Marfan's ENT issue that I found in a research paper. Also don't bother with any surgery, it's like RSI surgery... almost no average net benefit.

Yeah I just started logging everything before consuming... Age too means I've to permanently cut the daily calorie budget and ditch 9 kg (20 lbs) ~ 70M cal.

What about a dental splint? It seems a lot less fuss than a machine pumping you full of air all night.

The "70 M cal" scared me until I realised it was a small c. Still that's ... what ... 2 months on half-rations? :-[

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