So you got pizza, pasta, and chicken for lunch. It was a heavy meal and you have had a hearty feast. A few minutes and you start feeling drowsy. You decide to take a nap on your newly-bought Hammock Under Desk HK01 from Flexispot. After a 60-minute power nap, you woke up dizzy, and your stomach aches. So, how did this happen? Does it have something to do with the food that you ate? Or, does it have something to do with the effects of sleeping straightly after eating. A lot of people do this at work. They say taking a nap after eating makes them feel more satisfied. However, they are unaware that doing this can create havoc on their health and safety. In some reported cases, people complain of having acid reflux after waking up from their nap time in the office during their break time at lunch.
Hence, there is a connection between the duration of nap time, consumption of food, and the negative effects to the body of a person who does this habit.
In today's article, we will discuss the:
● things you should never do after eating the reason we get sleepy after lunch
● negative effects of immediate sleeping after meals
● ways to manage nap time after eating with the under desk hammock
So, let us begin now the discussion:
I.Things You Should Never Do After Eating:
This is the habit that most people do after eating especially at lunchtime. It is because most of these people need to go back to work in 1-2 hours so they make the most out of their breaks. Some of them are heavy sleepers hence they tend to forget the dangers of not letting the food digest properly. If you notice, once we try moving a lot after consuming food, we usually get pain in the stomach area. In worst cases, this leads to appendicitis or other gastrointestinal problems. With this, let us know the things that we must avoid so we might not put ourselves in danger.
● Do not eat fruits:
Contrary to the belief that fruits may be healthy options for dessert, consuming them after a heavy meal might cause harm to the liver. In some cases, people who used to do this had acquired liver cirrhosis in the long run. This is because fruits have enzymes that rot some parts of the digestive system especially when they are mixed with solid food items such as red meat. This is similar to how meat exhumes putrid chemicals when they start to rot. Eventually, this may harm the liver which filters most toxins in the body. So, when is the ideal time to consume fruits? Observe the 30-2 rule; 30 minutes before a meal and 2 hours after the meal. This is the right time to intake fruits. Allotting 2 hours before you consume the fruits may give space to your tummy in digesting the food items such as meat and rice.
● Do Not Smoke:
Smokers observe this habit because they say that the heat that comes from the cigarette helps digest food but the truth is they are making themselves in danger of developing cancer.
● Do not Drink Tea:
This is because tea has acid that blocks the absorption of nutrients in the body. So, it is advisable to consume tea an hour before a meal.
● Do not Take a Walk:
Walking after meals can disrupt the function of the digestive system and blocks the absorption of nutrients. You must allow an hour before taking a walk.
Now, after talking about the things that we must not do after eating, we would discuss the reason we feel sleepy after taking a heavy meal. In this part, we would know that consuming food items with a huge amount of carbohydrates is not good. Let us take a look at this reason:
II.Reason we Get Sleepy After Lunch:
After taking a heavy meal at lunch, our pancreas starts to produce insulin which may trigger our 'happy' and 'sleep' hormones. This is the reason we feel sluggish after eating carb-loaded food such as pasta and pizza. With this, what could be the right option? Well, I vouch for the low-carb food but are nutritious enough to satisfy your needs for nutrients. This may lower the carbohydrate content and would make you avoid getting too sleepy. However, the choice would still be up to you especially if the lunch break would be the only time for you to sleep. It is also better to take food or drink that is rich in calcium and protein so you don't have to worry even you go take your nap.
Choosing whether to stay awake or not after a meal is a crucial thing to do but we must be also mindful that doing this might create havoc on our health. Hence, In the next part of our discussion, we will talk about the:
III.Negative Effects of Immediate Sleeping after Meals:
● Weight Gain:
When you immediately go to sleep after eating, your body loses the chance to burn the calories you have consumed. Hence, the possibility of gaining weight that may lead to obesity.
● Heartburn
The acid fluid present in your stomach enters into your food pipes when you immediately sleep after a meal. That's the reason you feel a burning sensation near the stomach and chest when you wake up.
So, looking at these dangers, we must try to find ways how to avoid sleeping right after we finish a meal or if sleeping is something we can't avoid during break time, we must be aware of the right sleeping position after taking a meal. In this last part of the discussion, we will also talk about:
IV. Ways to Manage Nap Time after Eating with the Under Desk Hammock:
One of the ways to manage nap time after eating is the hour that you're going to allot before taking a nap. It is best to spend the first 40 minutes standing up and letting your food digest than another 15 minutes for your nap time. This is best done with the Hammock Under Desk for Office Napping HK01 from Flexispot that is exclusively made for the company's standing desks like FlexiSpot's dual-motor and dual-beam standing desks E1L and EC5. This piece of accessory is durable and can carry a weight of up to 220lbs. So, once you do the right sleeping position which is the left-side lying position (helps you release gas and relieve heartburn), you don't have to worry about falling from the hammock because it could carry you through the nap time.
These are the following guidelines which you may alter if you have better options in optimizing your nap time even after a meal. However, we must still be careful not to cause harm to our digestive system should we decide to immediately go napping after a meal.