Do you ever struggle with energy crashes in the afternoon? Maybe you’re managing to get through the first part of the day, or you feel ok in the morning, but by the afternoon your energy is crashing hard. Slumped on the couch, feel like you’re moving through mud, craving bedtime so you can be done with the day.

If your answer was yes, you’re not alone. I hear this all the time from the mums I work with, many of whom assume it’s just normal to feel this way when you’re a mum of young kids or when you’re waking through the night.

Today we’re going to explore the 3 key reasons unrelated to sleep as to why this might be happening, and cover a few simple, actionable steps you can take to stabilise your energy throughout the day.

Disclaimer:

The information provided in this blog is for your personal or other non-commercial, educational purposes. It should not be considered as medical or professional advice. We recommend you consult with a GP or other healthcare professional before taking or omitting to take any action based on this blog. While the author uses best endeavours to provide accurate and true content, the author makes no guarantees or promises and assumes no liability regarding the accuracy, reliability or completeness of the information presented. The information, opinions, and recommendations presented in this blog are for general information only and any reliance on the information provided in this blog is done at your own risk.

Reason 1: skipping meals or not eating enough

Many mothers are guilty of this, and if you’re one of them please don’t feel bad; it’s not your fault. There are many barriers and obstacles in early motherhood making it hard to truly nourish our body with the food it needs.

But what happens to our energy when we skip meals is that we run out of fuel in our tank. We need to fuel this body of ours, especially first thing in the morning when we wake up after that long stretch overnight where we’ve been sleeping (aka a long time without food) and we really need to top up the tank asap.

Our body, from a physiological perspective, is a bit like a machine and we need to refuel regularly, otherwise, it will crash and burn.

Many mum skip breakfast or just eat their kid’s leftovers or maybe just have a coffee, but if we don’t nourish our body first thing in the morning, we might be able to get through until mid-morning, maybe lunchtime if we’re lucky, but soon after that we will start to fade.

For our body to run without energy input (aka food), it needs to create energy from the inside and it does this primarily with the help of cortisol and adrenalin, our stress hormones, who send signals to the liver and muscles to start breaking down tissue stores to convert to energy.

This isn’t a bad mechanism – we want this to kick in during those times when we can’t access food or we need to skip a meal during a busy day, but when we’re doing this routinely we’re starting the day in a more stressful way than necessary. Inevitably, the body will begin to run out of most of its backup fuel reserves, such as glycogen stores, and this is when we might end up noticing our energy begin to crash.

This can happen anytime during the day, depending on what meals you’re skipping or if you’re undereating across all meals, it’s not just isolated to breakfast.

Reason 2: blood sugar imbalance

Energy crashes, especially in the afternoon, are a classic sign of poor blood sugar control. Normally, our body will try to keep blood sugar within a narrow range (think of it like the Goldilocks zone) in order to provide a constant supply of glucose to the cells. Glucose is their preferred fuel source to carry out all their important functions every second of every day.

When glucose gets outside of this range (either high or low) our body detects this as an emergency and will act quickly to bring levels down or up, as needed.

If our glucose level spike, the body will quickly bring them back down, but in the process often overcompensates and they end up dropping too low. It’s on this downward fall that we are most likely to experience related symptoms like energy crashes, along with many other common symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, irritability, sugar cravings, difficulty concentrating, dizziness, blurred vision, and more.

On this downfall, we are very likely to crave sweet foods or starchy carb-rich foods because our body is now trying to compensate for the low blood sugar. And a cycle quickly forms, with us riding the blood sugar rollercoaster – up and down, up and down.

The food we eat can have a big influence on our blood sugar levels. In particular, carbohydrate-containing foods have the biggest impact. This includes sugar, fruit, grains, processed grain products like bread, pasta, cereals, crackers, cookies, cakes, and pastries, as well as starchy vegetables like potatoes.

Many mothers are on this blood sugar rollercoaster from the first meal of the day and it continues all day long. By the afternoon, the rollercoaster finally results in them crashing out.

This problem can be exacerbated by skipping meals too.

Ideally, we are not riding the big, scary rollercoaster, we are on the little babies’ ride that goes slowly up and then slow down. No big spikes and crashes, just gentle calm rolling waves.

See also: 5 blood test every new mother needs

Reason 3: wrong timing of coffee intake

Wait, before you stop reading, I love coffee myself and I’m all for mums having a cup to give them that energy boost for their big day ahead. It’s a tool that we can use to our advantage. But like with any powerful substance that influences our physiology, we need to be aware of the impact it can have so we make informed decisions about consuming it.

The big problem here relating to energy crashes in the afternoon with coffee is having coffee first thing when you wake up.

The reason this timing of coffee leads to an energy crash has to do with the compound adenosine.

Adenosine is produced in our central nervous system and is involved in triggering sleep onset or giving us the sense of sleepiness.

Now, as mums, when we are facing broken sleep, adenosine is going to build up in our system. This will happen if you have one night of bad sleep, but it’s going to be exacerbated for mothers who have multiple nights of broken sleep in a row.

Typically during sleep, our central nervous system will break down and clear adenosine, but with broken sleep, not all of the adenosine will get cleared, which is partly why we feel sleepy and tired the next day.

The alerting and stimulating effect of caffeine comes directly from its interaction with the adenosine receptor, specifically, it blocks adenosine from docking with its receptor, blocking that sleepy feeling.

But if we have coffee as soon as we get up, there’s no opportunity for our central nervous system to clear away some of that adenosine, which it will normally try to do in the morning.

Eventually across the day, our body will clear the caffeine out of circulation and as it does that, the adenosine will be able to dock with its receptor again, leading to us feeling sleepy and crashing out. This happens in the afternoon because this is around the amount of time needed to start clearing the caffeine out of circulation.

When it comes to coffee, the timing is important (as is the dose).

Steps you can take to stabilise your energy (and prevent crashes)

Wait 60 to 90 minutes after waking before you have your coffee

This allows time for the nervous system to clear out some of that adenosine before you pop the caffeine in. This can feel really hard if you’re in the habit of coffee first thing, so the best way to do it is to cut back slowly. Push back the timing of your coffee by 5-10 minutes every few days. After a week or two, you’ll be closer than you imagined you could get

Hot water instead of coffee

Instead of coffee first thing, have a hot cup of water or herbal tea (sounds super exciting, I know!). But the hot liquid can have other benefits for supporting morning energy – hot liquids help our core body temperature to rise, which facilitates morning alertness and energy. Save your coffee for later in the morning.

Don’t skip meals

Aim to consume 3 mains meals, with breakfast being particularly important if your energy is low and crashing in the afternoon

Eat 20-30g of bioavailable protein with every meal

This stabilises blood sugar as well as having many other benefits from being protein replete. See my post on the importance of protein here.

Avoid naked carbohydrates

Try to avoid eating carb-rich foods eaten on their own without protein, fat, or fibre

Let me know in the comments if energy crashes are something you’re currently battling with and whether any of the 3 reasons I explored here today resonated with you. Download my free guide (just below) for 7 simple steps you can take to boost energy, many of which are directly relevant to the reasons we’ve explored here today.

Disclaimer:

The information provided in this blog is for your personal or other non-commercial, educational purposes. It should not be considered as medical or professional advice. We recommend you consult with a GP or other healthcare professional before taking or omitting to take any action based on this blog. While the author uses best endeavours to provide accurate and true content, the author makes no guarantees or promises and assumes no liability regarding the accuracy, reliability or completeness of the information presented. The information, opinions, and recommendations presented in this blog are for general information only and any reliance on the information provided in this blog is done at your own risk.