Why am I tired after lunch? 4 things to check before blaming carbs

Every day's the same, you go out of your way to prep or pick a respectably healthy looking lunch, wanting to do something good for your body.

Then somewhere between 2 and 3 pm, your brain seems to have left the building. Yet you still have hours of work in front of you.

We mostly tend to blame carbs first, and it's understandable knowing they literally are recommended to have for dinner as they can promote better sleep, but often there's another overlooked culprit.

Your lunch may be taking the blame for a dip your body clock already had in the diary.

Human sleep research has found a genuine mid-afternoon drop in alertness and performance linked to our circadian rhythm. Researchers have observed this during controlled routines where food intake was spread across the day, helping separate the dip from the lunch itself.

So this 2 pm sleepiness often isn't connected to your lunch alone, and can even be natural to your body rhythm.

Next, let's find out whether anything else in the day, and around lunch, is making that natural dip much bigger: