Why do you feel sleepy more often when fasting ?
While fasting, most of you have to keep up with your daily activities. Apart from thirst, hunger, and perhaps weakness, sleepiness is also one of the challenges of doing activities in Ramadan. Some people feel sleepy more often during fasting.
Actually, what causes someone to feel sleepy during fasting?
Causes of sleepiness during fasting
Some people feel sleepy more often during the fasting month, especially during the day.
The main cause of sleepiness during fasting may be due to changes in sleep patterns.
During the fasting month, you have to wake up earlier than usual for Suhoor. You may also sleep later in the night due to the various activities you do after breaking the fast and performing Tarawih prayers.
Sleeping later and waking up earlier means you get less sleep. At least one study suggests that during Ramadan, an average person loses 40 minutes of sleep.
As your sleep time decreases, your REM sleep phase will also decrease. In fact, this REM phase is very important to get quality sleep. This is what might cause you to feel sleepy more often during fasting.
In addition to changes in sleep patterns, changes in diet can also cause you to feel sleepy more often during fasting.
The reason is, during fasting, the average calorie intake of a person will decrease by 300 calories. If not balanced with a balanced nutritious diet, this will certainly affect the energy produced.
When the body only has a little energy, you get tired faster and feel sleepy faster.
How to overcome sleepiness during fasting
When fasting, you need to keep doing your normal activities. Therefore, you need practical ways that can help you overcome sleepiness during fasting.
Here are some things you can do to get rid of sleepiness during fasting:
1. Move
Moving is one of the most practical ways to overcome sleepiness during fasting.
When fasting, your body will make adjustments. On the first day, you may feel weak.
However, keep exercising lightly, such as stretching. You can also walk or practice certain breathing techniques.
This will help you re-energize and feel refreshed.
Avoid exercising too strenuously as it can cause weakness and drowsiness.
2. Walk outside
Have you ever felt that a dimly lit room makes you more sleepy? This is because light and sleepiness are interconnected.
One of the ways you can overcome sleepiness while fasting is by walking outside, more precisely exposing yourself to sunlight.
This is because light, especially sunlight, affects the body's internal clock. Exposure to sunlight during the day can keep you awake.
Simply take a short walk around your place of activity to rejuvenate your body.
3. Listen to fast-paced music
To overcome the sleepiness that attacks during the fasting month, you can also listen to songs with a fast tempo.
The calm atmosphere plus the lack of sleep makes you more easily sleepy. Listening to music with a fast tempo can help make the brain "busy" again so that sleepiness goes away.
4. Wash your face
Washing your face is always recommended when you're trying to get rid of sleepiness. This is because the cold water touching your skin can re-energize you and make you feel refreshed.
It's also a good idea to take a leisurely walk after washing your face to keep your body feeling energized for some time.
5. Take a nap
To overcome sleepiness during fasting, of course, one way is to try taking a power nap. However, you need to pay attention to the duration of the nap.
To get rid of sleepiness, you can simply take a 20-minute power nap. This can help you feel refreshed and focused.
Avoid napping for too long as it can make you dizzy and weak, and even disrupt your night's sleep.
In addition to the methods above, you should also pay attention to your intake during sahur and iftar. This is because both will affect the quality of your sleep and energy, which in turn will affect your sleepiness.
When breaking the fast, avoid foods and drinks high in sugar, foods high in salt, processed foods, fatty foods, fried foods, and foods that are too spicy. These types of foods can make your body work longer to digest them, thus disrupting sleep.
Meanwhile, when breaking the fast, try to eat foods that are digested slowly such as foods high in fiber, complex carbohydrates, and low-fat animal protein, and healthy fats that can maintain stable energy levels. That way, you won't feel tired easily which causes sleepiness during fasting to appear more often.
Thank you for reading this article. Have a nice day.
