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Lunch period is great. However, post lunch tends to be a downer. After we eat, many of us have the sleepy, groggy feelings that is negative towards productivity. This New York Times article answers the reason behind post lunch sleepiness and what you can do to help prevent or reduce it.
Quote:
“Question: Every day after lunch, you find yourself overcome by drowsiness, and you can’t get any work done because you just want to crawl under your desk and go to sleep. Why does this happen?
Answer: This universal phenomenon, known as the “post-lunch dip,” represents a collision of biology and economics.
It is entirely natural for humans to want to go to sleep about seven hours after they have awakened. But as the internal rhythms of the body call out for rest, the efficiency of the modern workplace demands continued exertion.”

Quote:
“Q. If you can’t take a nap, how can you ease the effect of the post-lunch dip?

A. Many people self-medicate their way through the dip with coffee, Dr. Turek said, which helps explain why caffeine is the most-used drug in the world. But responses to caffeine vary, and for some people it can disrupt nighttime sleep.

Another way to push through the dip is to exercise or simply get up and move around the room. If you need to talk to a colleague at another desk, this could be the ideal time.

It also helps to arise at the same time every morning, Dr. Dinges said. He has found that getting up earlier than usual — even as little as a half-hour earlier — magnifies drowsiness in the afternoon.

Above all, it is important to get a good night’s sleep. With that rest as a backbone, Dr. Zee said, “one will naturally begin to feel more alert within a couple of hours” after the dip begins. “Your circadian alerting signal will kick in as the day goes on,” she added, “and it gets higher and higher until about an hour or so before bedtime.” ”

That Yawn After Lunch Is Perfectly Normal [The New York Times]