Stomach virus timing!

[rebecca1976]

Does anybody know or have any theories why stomach viruses always start in the middle of the night?

[butterfly91]

I've always wondered why too. I think it's because your digestion slows down at night. I don't know I might be wrong

[emj]

I've sometimes wondered whether it's because the body sort of 'slows down' at night and so is not so active in suppressing the effects of the virus. It might also be due to incubation periods correlating between eating during the day (food poisoning) and the night.

[rebecca1976]

I have always thought it could be down to the incubation period, they say it is between 12 and 72 hours, in my experience it has always been between 30 and 36 hours, so if you get infected with the virus at 2pm in the afternoon it is going to hit you 36 hours later at around 2am. Just a theory.

[Erin80]

^ Ditto previous poster! Exactly what I was going to say.

[gumdropper1]

I don't think it's a correct assumption that it always happens in the middle of the night. But most people spend 1/3 of their lives sleeping. So odds are... Then there is the fact that noro generally incubates for about 36 hours, so if you contract it during the day, it will likely hit you at night.

The other thing is that it's not as easy for you to respond to digestive stimuli when you're sleeping. So it's easier to control something digestive during the day but at night you might not wake up until it's too late. Doug

[MaybeBaby]

A few times I have had it in the middle of the night, but the worst ones I have ever gotten were right after big dinners. Awful stuff.

[AoD]

It can hit any given time, it really does just depend on the incubation times. Of the few times I remember v* as a kid, only once did it happen at night. The other two times I remember were during the day or early evening. And I think we all remember kids v* out of the blue in class at school when we were little, so it definitely can happen during the day. Food poisoning from supper is more likely to happen at night though, since you ate late during the day and food poisoning is a few hours after eating said food, usually... But same logic applies, if you ate toxic food at breakfast you'll be ill during the day.

[Dairyfreelife]

It can hit any given time, it really does just depend on the incubation times. Of the few times I remember v* as a kid, only once did it happen at night. The other two times I remember were during the day or early evening. And I think we all remember kids v* out of the blue in class at school when we were little, so it definitely can happen during the day. Food poisoning from supper is more likely to happen at night though, since you ate late during the day and food poisoning is a few hours after eating said food, usually... But same logic applies, if you ate toxic food at breakfast you'll be ill during the day.

I would say most of the time I was ever sick as a child, it was during the day or evening, so never really thought it always happened at night.

[psalm139]

It seems at least in my kids case that pretty much every V was either in the evening or night. Actually I can't remember my kids V-ing during the day. They always seem to be laying around all day almost seem fine than in the evening they go down hill. I think Doug is right we do spend 1/3 of our lives sleeping so the odds are in that favor.

[anna81]

I don't have any theories as to why but my oldest daughter is always around 2am. Whenever I get an sv it tends to start as d in the morning but the last couple of times I have v'ed i the afternoon. My youngest tends to v first thing in the morning when she gets a sv.