Postprandial sleepiness: objective documentation via polysomnography.
Fifteen normal volunteers were evaluated to assess the effect of a meal on sleep onset latency. The meal was administered in a counterbalanced design on 1 of 2 successive days. Subjects napped 20 min subsequent to the meal (or at the corresponding time on the no-meal day) and 1 h after the initiation of the first nap. Ten subjects completed the Stanford Sleepiness Scale (SSS) on arriving at the laboratory, and just prior to nap 1 and nap 2. Sleep onset latency after the meal was not significantly different from that obtained under the no-meal condition, but was significantly less on nap 1 as compared with nap 2 irrespective of day or meal. SSS did not reveal subjective differences in sleepiness between the initial estimate and the postmeal estimate. Only five subjects showed a decrease in sleep onset latency postprandially (1-11 min). Although group differences in postprandial sleepiness were not documented, the phenomenon was clearly exhibited by certain individuals. Thus, postprandial sleepiness is not an invariable consequence of meal ingestion; rather, it appears to be affected by numerous variables such as hunger, volume of the meal, and meal constituents.
D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D002766:Cholecystokinin / Q000378:metabolism; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D004063:Digestion; D004435:Eating; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007408:Intestinal Absorption; D008297:Male; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology; D012894:Sleep Stages / Q000502:physiology*; D014364:Tryptophan / Q000378:metabolism
D014364:Tryptophan; D002766:Cholecystokinin