It happens around 3 pm every day

We get home from school at 3.30, if I sit on the sofa I fall asleep so when I sit I have to do so at the dining table 🙃 this has been years and I'm 34!

For as long as I can remember, 2pm is my sleepy time. This has happened since my early 20s, way before I had my daughter.

Between 2 and 4 almost every day, I’m fighting the urge to nap and if I do, it’s the full two hours and I wake up so groggy. I’d love to be full of energy in the afternoon, it’s really annoying!

I have this too. I don't think I'm particularly tired and then suddenly I can't stay awake. If I'm out and about I'll get a bit foggy but if I'm at home I'll sleep wherever I am. Yesterday I put my head on the table and slept. I've laid down on the kitchen floor a number of times too and fallen asleep there. Those times are usually 20 mins but it can take me 2hrs afterwards to feel awake properly.

If I lay down on the sofa when I feel like that I can easily sleep for anywhere from 45 mins to 2 hrs! So I put my alarm on. Again though takes me ages to wake up if it's too short a nap.

I've reduced carbs (as in sugar, bread, potatoes, pasta and rice, NOT vegetables!) together with eating only unprocessed foods and that helped. Not entirely solved, but it did reduce it. Note I'm back to eating everything the mid-afternoon exhaustion is worse again.

A note on carb reducing though to anybody reading: if you have an under active thyroid and reduce carbs too much it can make you so tired you can't function all the time. It can be dangerous. I spoke to my Dr about this and she said most people with under active thyroids shouldn't do Keto. So careful with cutting out carbs, because our brains need them.

HRT fixed this for me. Am 45.

Quite normal. Mine used to start around 2pm. When my child was still a baby and toddler, we would have a sleep for a while and wake refreshed. I did work part time and on the days I worked I was reasonably alert all day. It's strange, isn't it?

I went though a stage of this but since I lowered my sugar intake I've found a huge improvement with my late afternoon energy levels.

I stopped this by no longer eating carbs at lunchtime. Chicken and salad, no crash.

Same for me, im 32. Slim and active, two walks a day with my lab. But I do agree that I don’t get the ebb when I have something to focus my brain on!

Could you be menopausal or perimenopausal?
Regardless, it's still normal in my experience!

I’m a night owl, and I only really function if I have either a lie in or a lunchtime nap. In which cases 3 pm is when I start to wake up and get my best work done. But I think im the weird one.

Sounds incredibly normal for mid afternoon when you have a small child. Especially (if you don’t mind me saying) if you had said child a bit older.

Also if you’re a natural lark I believe that’s a typical dip time.

Not since going on keto over three years ago - no blood sugar drops

You need a siesta. I have a Spanish partner and when ever possible he has a little snooze around 3 or 4 pm for an hour or two. (Not when he’s working as it doesn’t allow) I laughed at this at first but have begun to find it strangely tempting.

*perimenopause- and when I say exhaustion, I mean literally not being able to keep my eyes open, falling asleep parked in my car waiting to pick up from school, or at my desk - not ideal!

Haven't read the thread but I wad like this twice in my life.

First time under active thyroid. Bone crushing tiredness from 1pmish.

Second time vid d deficiency. Exhausted from around 2.30pm, along with muscle aches (felt like it was my bones that were aching)

I was getting this almost every day for at least five years (I'm now 45) and assumed it was just not sleeping enough coupled with premenopause. However, I've changed to a much lower carb diet over the past six months (mainly as I suffered from terrible IBS and many carb heavy things are a major cause for me) and I've noticed that I don't get the afternoon exhaustion any more, so at least for me it is blood sugar related.

I started feeling like this in my mid-forties. It turned out it was the start of perimenopause.

Welcome! You're now at the perfect age to doscover 'Nana naps'....a short afternoon sleep to help you last through til bedtime. These are very different to the 'disco naps' you had in your teens and twenties, which were short afternoon sleeps to help you last through until bedtime.

These sound very similar, the significant difference being that your bedtime is now 11pm, whereas back then it used to be 2am.

OP, reading your thread reminded me that my mother, would take a 20 min nap after lunch everyday. In fact my earliest memory is of her asleep in an armchair, with me sat in my pram and the Home Service playing Listen with Mother, I know it was a Tuesday, as I remember the smell of Windolene and the nets were soaking... and that only happened on Tuesdays. But seriously she took a nap everyday after lunch between 1:30 and 2:00pm.

I do sometimes wish I could catnap like that.

I'm late 40s and I don't get this.

Definitely get hormone levels checked out. Also think about improving your diet- low iron or magnesium can be a factor. I take Floradix tablets and find them gentle.

Also I've had more energy since I've been doing cardio and weight regularly in the gym. I didn't think I was unfit before - I walked quite a lot and did yoga - but doing regular exercise in the gym has made a big difference to my fitness.

Also weight - being overweight means it is more of a strain on your heart & body to do everyday things.

And sleep hygiene - try and get really good quality sleep.

I've had this since I was a teenager - I'm retired now - my "tired time" is usually between 4 and 5 pm. I can push through it, but if I do, I will usually need an early night. I always thought it was a natural rhythm thing. If I go to a different time zone, I still get tired at whatever time locally equates to 4-5 at home.

4.30pm is my nap time and has been for a couple of decades at least (am 54 now).

But- I am a very poor sleeper. I had quite bad insomnia during my 20s and 30s, less bad during my 40s and currently is heading towards bad again.

So napping for me is part of my 'normal'.

Totally normal! I've got a 20 month old DD and, unless I'm busy at work seeing patients or out at school or whatever, I usually have a 3pm slump. I usually go and make myself a cuppa or deliberately get up for a wee walk to the admin office or to the toilet. Sometimes even just wandering around my clinic room helps so I'm getting some movement in!

I'm 34 by the way and had this slump even before DD was born!

3pm is when I have my one coffee of the day!

I always get tired around this time.