If you are a victim of that sleepy feeling after lunch and would like to get rid of sleepiness because you still have some work to do, the following tips can work for you.

1. Do take a 15 to 30 minute nap, or even an hour if you are not constrained in time like being in the office. One hour is best according to a Harvard study. You may have been sleepy because you have had a long day the previous day. If you miss some hours in your sleep, your body compensates for the lost sleep time. Don’t drink coffee as this would just worsen your sleep time the next night.
2. Find a medical professional if you always feel sleepy after lunch as a result of you always having difficulty sleeping at night because of insomnia. The underlying reasons must be identified. Experts say hypnosis can help get rid of sleepiness.
3. Drink lots of water. This is especially applicable if you feel tired the reason why you are sleepy. Water provides the medium for your body to cleanse itself of toxins that accumulate in your body causing you to feel tired. Tiredness is the body’s response to stress.
4. Eat less than usual during lunchtime. People who metabolize food slowly tend to feel tired and sleepy. Metabolism is genetically determined so if you have slow metabolism you can do nothing about it except to eat less so your food gets digested easily. You can eat more later if you feel hungry. Almost always, sleepiness happens when you have taken too much food. Getting rid of sleepiness by eating less than usual is also a good diet approach to people who produce less insulin due to diabetes.
5. Wash your face with cool water if your eyes are not tired. Some people spend much of their time working in front of the computer so washing the face is not recommended. Get rid of sleepiness by washing your face with cool water. This wakes the senses up and makes you more alert.
6. Walk around your backyard or if in the office, converse with some co-employees for a while. If your topic is quite interesting, you will forget your sleepiness. Also, movement serves to increase blood circulation giving you more oxygen in your brain setting off alertness.
7. If you are under medication, find out if the drug you take induces sleep. If it does, ask your doctor if there can be a good alternative for it.
8. Avoid boring lectures. If you are a student, find a professor (if you have a choice) who has no track record of putting students to sleep. One indication of a boring lecture is when people start to yawn after a while. Also, schedule your boring subjects in the morning or evening if, again, you have a choice. Get rid of sleepiness by getting rid of boring professors.
9. Inhale fresh air under the shade of trees if you have access. Sleepiness can be induced by the build-up of carbon dioxide in your surroundings. You can feel this when you are with a group of people just sitting there as in listening to a lecture (again). There are stores that sell bottled air with different air ambiance.
10. Get rid of sleepiness by going back to a lifestyle compatible with nature. Since man invented electricity, waking hours became longer. When dusk sets in, it’s actually the time to rest from a hard day’s work. But since there are computers and lights around that keep you awake almost the whole night, your sleep time is lessened. Your body compensates by signaling you to sleep any time the next day, almost always after lunch.

These tips could get rid of sleepiness after lunch and get you up and running in no time, unless you are a victim of narcolepsy, an unexplained disorder. Narcolepsy is extreme daytime sleepiness that may cause muscle weakness. This time you will need to do more research on how to get rid of sleepiness due to narcolepsy. Cure comes to people who persist.