Why does garlic make me sleepy?

Recently, I bought some garlic pepper (that's black pepper and garlic granules).

And I've been sprinkling it on everything with gay abandon...because I love it, and it's good for you.

I've become very tired over the last couple of days and have been nodding off frequently.

And for like an hour, two hours, not five minutes.

It's a very noticeable difference and obviously since I've been eating the garlic, so I'm assuming it must be that.

But I've had garlic loads of times before - and nothing.

What's going on?

Has it happened to anyone else?

reply to post by CJCrawley


sometimes in those types of spice mixtures they add msg to it to enhance flavor at a cheaper cost to produce and in some people, msg can make them tired. Check the ingredient list, it should be labled but may have trouble seeing it past all the long $20 words no one can pronouce lol

reply to post by CJCrawley


Maybe your turning into a vampire and low amounts of garlic just make you want a nap, where as a full clove of garlic and WHOOF you go up in a cloud of smoke!!!!

Seriously!

I take garlic extract and it doesn't make me sleepy but a meal with fresh garlic will sometimes be followed by a nice nap.
I don't know why but I don't mind it.
Pepper doesn't seem to affect sleep in my experience but I did read recently that it helps to build muscle tissue. I don't know how but it's a subtle effect.

Your garlic/pepper mix may just have been manufactured from some particularly potent garlic.

The idea of checking msg is a good one. It gives me headaches and makes me feel moody.

If you use a lot of garlic, it can thin your blood and you can become a little anemic. It contains sulfur compounds. You would have to be a little anemic naturally for this to effect you though. Garlic will also cause you to excrete some heavy metals because it works that way. Along with the bad metals in the blood also goes some we need, this could also make you tired.

Use moderation when using onion and garlic, they are a condiment with medical benefits. They do help to clean the blood. Just don't use it every day.

Onion and garlic also contain chemicals that can be used to control epilepsy, so they have nervine properties. That can make you tired if you are not use to it.

Thanks for the replies.

All helpful and interesting (apart from the Manc...typical, you can't take 'em anywhere).

There's no MSG in it - just pepper and garlic.

There's something about garlic - quick google and it seems one or two others out there are sleepy after taking it.

I'll ease off.

If it contains flavour enhancer 621, that is what they hide MSG as in foods, but its natural in most things anyway.

Never gotten sleepy from garlic and i eat it raw like bulbs of it when i have a cold. I am the walking dead tho.

reply to post by CJCrawley


IF it is the MSG, here's a linko on the names that corps use to mask the MSG name: Link.

The link to the ATS MSG topic: ATS MSG.

reply to post by CJCrawley


It has been shown that garlic has a vasodilative effect on blood vessels. So here is my opinion of why it might make you feel sleepy, this isn't proven as there's little information out there:

When people enter into deep sleep their blood vessels normally dilate the deeper into sleep they go. It could just be that the garlic is having a similar effect on your blood vessels which your body is not used to which could be making you feel sleepy.

Here's a study showing link between that dilation in skin(heat loss) and onset of sleep:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...

Here is a study isolating the compound in garlic and testing it on animals:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...

This might be another reason garlic has been an old wive's tale cure for things such as migraines, sleep, sexual desire, and a plethora of other things over the years.

Just my opinion.

reply to post by winofiend


Yep. Had it plenty times myself but never experienced a thing apart from garlic breath.

Mystery...

Maybe I've just had too much?

There's no guidelines as to how much you can have, but there must be a point where it becomes toxic.





reply to post by ChuckNasty


It definitely doesn't contain MSG.

Black pepper and garlic granules are the only ingredients listed.

All British food products have to list all the ingredients by law.

Cheers for the link, I'll read it anyway, looks interesting.

reply to post by OrphanApology


Yes, I've been toying with just that thought myself.

I'm pretty clued up on medicine and chemicals, being a nurse, and the link between vasodilatation and sleep wasn't lost on me.

I think that's probably what's behind it, because I've had an awful lot of garlic just lately.

Thanks for the links.

reply to post by CJCrawley


One way you to test it is to exercise which would offset the effect if that's what's happening.

Taking Blood from the Organs
When you begin to exercise, a remarkable diversion happens. Blood that would have gone to the stomach or the kidneys goes instead to the muscles, and the way that happens shows how the body's processes can sometimes override one another. As your muscles begin to work, the sympathetic nervous system, a part of the automatic or autonomic nervous system (that is, the brainstem and spinal cord) stimulates the nerves to the heart and blood vessels. This nervous stimulation causes those blood vessels (arteries and veins) to contract or constrict (vasoconstriction). This vasoconstriction reduces blood flow to tissues. Your muscles also get the command for vasoconstriction, but the metabolic byproducts produced within the muscle override this command and cause vasodilation, as we discussed above. Because the rest of the body gets the message to constrict the blood vessels and the muscles dilate their blood vessels, blood flow from nonessential organs (for example, stomach, intestines and kidney) is diverted to working muscle. This helps increase the delivery of oxygenated blood to working muscle further.

health.howstuffworks.com...

reply to post by CJCrawley


From Google and WebMD: Pepper can react with meds.

I know pepper is a stimulate, maybe the stimulate is acting on your body in a way that makes you sleepy. My wife, for one, has an opposite reaction towards sleeping meds and stimulates. Gave her some powerful OTC stims and it made her sleepy. She can't take the antihistamine sleep aids - causes her to get all wired..

reply to post by CJCrawley


I have garlic nearly every day. I buy the cloves and shred them into or onto food. Black pepper is also used. Never get tired but also never have flu/colds. This is the same for my wife and 4 children.

Have been doing it for years. I also use other herbs in our food. I am not a greenie or health fanatic but the advantages from my perspective outweigh any misconceptions.

As for tiredness I can't give any explanation albeit that we only consume natural products. Garlic has improved our families well being. I do not experience tireness.

Regards Bally.

Hope you don't face your wife/girlfriend when you sleep as your breath must be terrible with all that garlic

reply to post by CJCrawley


Usually when I consume an allergen I get an interior Histamine release which makes me very yawny and drowsy....

I suggest you examine the ingredients in your pepper/garlic mix....if you have consumed both the pepper and garlic separately without issue then there has to be at least one 'excipient' in the mixture you bought that you are reacting to....the manufacturer should have included ALL the ingredients in the mix....I think it's the law....

Read your labels...!

I always have trouble with prepared foods and consumables for this reason....I've learned to cook from scratch with known ingredients....it's much more fun, too.....

Any questions...? Feel free to ask....

Best regards,
Tarasco

reply to post by CJCrawley


By the way....

Try this simple safe experiment...when you are getting that drowsy feeling from something you ate take a 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon (tsp) of Baking Soda in a glass of cold water (warm will make you gag) and see if it lifts the symptoms....

www.woodmed.com...

Best regards,
Tarasco



If you are eating so much garlic that it's approaching 'addiction' levels you may indeed be allergic to it....

lindamelosnd.com...

a reply to: CJCrawley

I am 63 and have had a history of kidney infections. I have been hospitalized 3x with it. I have became immune to most antibiotics over time so that the last hospitalzation, i had to have a pic-line into my heart with the only antibiotic that showed to work. Recently i developed another infection which i feel has not went away. Whenever i get a kidney infection, i get very tired.
I have found that raw garlic seems to help me fight infection. This time i have made up my mind to eat raw garlic every day to see if it clears up the infection.
I have found that raw garlic also makes me sleepy any time i eat it. I suffer from insomnia which i usually take dramamine for every night.
I am going to eat raw garlic just before bedtime and see if it works better than the dramamine.
I haven't ever gotten sleepy with pepper.
I will post again in a few weeks about how the garlic works on my infection and how i feel later on. At this point of years of experiences with doctors and antibiotics, i have more faith in natural herbs and foods.