Why does reading make me sleepy?

Question

I am an avid reader. When I check out a great book there is nothing that I want more than to go home and start reading it. However, it’s usually late once I’m able to get to it and I often find myself fighting sleep. Why does reading make me sleepy?

Answer 1

Every person is different when it comes to reading. Even if a person is very excited about the book that they checked our or bought, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will have enough energy at the end of the day to stay awake while reading. However, some experts say that it’s more of a natural thing for people to fall asleep while reading at night. This is because our eyes and our brains are required to work so much harder to concentrate and read words written on a page. When you are reading a book, you’re trying to convert what you are reading off of the page into meaningful sentences and paragraphs. When you are doing this, your brain is working harder to distinguish what you are reading.  Your eye muscles also have to put in the extra work to concentrate on the words on the page and at times, this gives you a sleepy feeling.

If you find that you are struggling to see the words on the page, this could also be a reason why you suddenly feel sleepy when trying to read. Talk to your eye doctor about having your eyes checked as you may need glasses so that you are not straining so hard to see the words on the pages.

Comments

So what I thought is right, the reason why does reading make me sleepy is because too much energy is required.

Answer 2

You can get sleepy when reading for a variety of reasons. I tend to have trouble staying awake and reading when I am forced to read something that I don’t particularly enjoy. If the book that I am reading is about science, history, or sometimes autobiographies, I will find myself nodding off or having to read a page over and over again to try to understand the concept of what the words mean. I also seem to struggle if I have had an extremely stressful day. The last thing that I want to do after a long day is to read a book, especially if it’s something that I’m just not that into. I often times find that reading in the early morning or even in the afternoon doesn’t make me sleepy at all. It’s only if I wait until later in the evening to read that I struggle to keep my eyes open for long enough to get past the first page.