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A small study in healthy young volunteers suggests that a high sugar load could make you more sleepy. How often have you heard someone - usually early in the afternoon - saying they need a sugar hit? Well if a small study in healthy young volunteers is right, a high sugar load could make you more sleepy. Some studies have found a hit of sugar can improve alertness but there's also evidence that an hour or so later there's a dip. This is despite the fact that there's almost nothing to back up the notion of reactive hypoglycaemia - a low blood sugar. Anyway sleep researchers in Britain gave volunteers who'd been restricted to five hours sleep the night before, an energy drink heavy with sugar and light with caffeine a couple of hours after a light lunch versus a placebo. The people's afternoon sleepiness was unaffected by the energy drink and after an hour or so it got a bit worse. What the study doesn't tell you is what a sugar hit and a dose of caffeine would do for you, although apparently there is some evidence that a cat nap and a coffee combined does work. 
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