Fainting or Dizziness While Fasting: What to Do Right Away
If you feel faint while fasting, lie down straight away and raise your legs. If you do faint, or nearly faint, break the fast with water or something sweet once you’re fully awake. With diabetes, check your sugar first: under 70 or over 300 mg/dL means the fast ends now.
What to do in the first minute
- Feeling faint: lie flat, legs up on a pillow or chair, loosen tight clothes.
- Diabetic: check sugar. Under 70 or over 300 mg/dL means break the fast.
- Fainted: once fully awake, sit up slowly and break the fast with water, juice or ORS.
- Emergency: no waking within a minute, chest pain, fits, a fall with head injury, or weakness on one side. Call 1122 (Pakistan), 112 (India) or your local number.
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Afternoon dizziness in roza is common. Most of the time it’s a brief head rush when you stand too fast, sometimes it’s the body warning that sugar or fluids are running too low, and now and then it’s something that has nothing to do with fasting at all, which is exactly why it shouldn’t be shrugged off. This guide, part of our Ramzan Health series, walks through what to do right away, how to tell the causes apart, and when the fast has to stop.
Why people feel faint while fasting
Fainting happens when the brain gets too little blood for a few seconds. The brain is greedy. It needs a steady supply, and it switches you off (you collapse) so that you end up flat, which helps blood reach your head again. Clever. Scary, but clever.
In a fast, a few things can bring it on:
- Low fluids. Less water, lower pressure.
- Low blood sugar. Mainly in people on diabetes medicine, but occasionally in others after a skipped sehri and a hard day.
- Heat. Blood vessels in the skin widen to let heat escape, and that pulls a share of the blood away from the brain at exactly the moment it’s already a little short.
- Standing still for a long time, for example in long taraweeh or a queue, while blood pools in the legs.
- Standing up fast after lying or sitting (called postural drop).
Did you know? Soldiers on parade faint. Locked knees, no movement. Gently shifting your weight or tensing your calf muscles pumps blood back up, and the same trick helps in a long prayer.
What to do right away, step by step
- Stop and lie down wherever you are, on the floor if needed. Don’t try to walk to a bed.
- Raise the legs about 30 cm (a pillow, a chair seat or someone’s hands).
- Loosen collars, belts and tight clothing. Get air moving with a fan or open window.
- If you have diabetes, check your sugar now, lying down. Under 70 or over 300 mg/dL: break the fast.
- Wait until the dizziness fully passes, usually a few minutes. Then sit up slowly, then stand in two stages.
- If you actually fainted, or nearly did, break the fast once fully alert. Sip water, juice or ORS, and eat something small.
- If you’re looking after someone who fainted, turn them onto their side if they’re not waking quickly, and don’t pour water into the mouth of anyone who isn’t fully awake.
The general first aid for anyone who faints, fasting or not, is covered in fainting (behosh hona) first aid.
The diabetes check: the 70/300 rule
For anyone with diabetes, dizziness during a fast is a sugar question first. Low sugar (a hypo) feels like shakiness, sweating, a pounding heart, hunger, blurred vision, sudden irritability and confusion. It tends to strike in the afternoon, when medicine taken at sehri keeps working while no food is coming in. Don’t wait it out. High sugar causes thirst, frequent urine, tiredness and, later, dehydration.
Break the fast immediately if your sugar is under 70 mg/dL or over 300 mg/dL, and treat a low with fast sugar such as juice or glucose, then recheck in 15 minutes. People taking insulin or sulfonylurea tablets carry the highest hypo risk and should agree a Ramzan plan with their doctor beforehand; never change or skip a dose yourself. Call 1122 in Pakistan, 112 in India or your local emergency number if someone doesn’t wake within a minute, has chest pain, a racing or very irregular heartbeat, fits, trouble speaking, a drooping face, or weakness in an arm or leg, or hits their head badly when falling. See a doctor the same day if you faint more than once, faint while sitting or lying down, or are pregnant.
If you have diabetes and plan to fast, roza with diabetes lists the questions to settle with your doctor before the month starts.
Fainting while sitting still is never just a normal fasting dizzy spell.
Red flags that point away from simple fasting dizziness
Ordinary fasting dizziness has an obvious trigger, like standing up from the floor after Asr, an hour in a hot kitchen before iftar or a long rakat in a packed mosque, and it clears within minutes of lying down with the legs up. Anything else deserves a second look. The following suggest something else and need a doctor:
- Fainting during exercise or while lying down.
- Chest pain, breathlessness or palpitations before it happens.
- A family history of sudden death at a young age.
- The room spinning (vertigo), which is often an inner-ear problem.
- Confusion that lasts after waking.
- Black stools or vomiting blood, which can mean bleeding.
Preventing it for the rest of Ramzan
Most people who get dizzy in roza can fix it with a few changes. Don’t skip sehri. Drink steadily from iftar to sehri rather than all at once, add a little salt through daal or salan if you sweat a lot (unless your doctor has told you to limit it), and stand up in two stages whenever you’ve been lying or sitting for a while. In long prayers, shift your weight now and then. Keep the afternoon quiet in hot weather. For the full list of warning signs and who should talk to a doctor before fasting, see fasting safely.
BP medicines and water pills can make fasting dizziness worse, so mention it to your doctor, who may adjust the timing for the month. Don’t move doses yourself.
Families often gave a fainting relative a sweet drink and a pinch of salt once they came round. That instinct is sound for someone fully awake. The part to change is splashing water on the face of someone still unconscious; lie them on their side instead and get help.
Questions people ask about fainting in roza
What should be done if someone faints while fasting?
Lay them flat with legs raised, loosen tight clothes and let air in, then, once they’re fully awake and can swallow properly, break the fast with water, juice or ORS. Call for emergency help if they don’t wake within a minute or have chest pain, fits or weakness on one side.
Why do people feel dizzy while fasting?
Usually low fluids, standing up too quickly, heat or long standing in prayer, though in people on diabetes medicine low blood sugar is a key cause and needs a sugar check.
Should the fast be broken after fainting?
Medically, yes, once the person is fully alert. Fainting shows the body is short of something. Ask your scholar about making up the fast.
What is the 70/300 rule for diabetics in Ramzan?
If blood sugar is under 70 mg/dL or over 300 mg/dL at any point in the fast, break the fast straight away. It’s the house rule used by diabetes guidance for fasting.
Is dizziness during taraweeh normal?
Yes, fairly. Shift your weight, tense your calves and sit if needed. Repeated or severe dizziness needs a doctor.
What is the quickest way to stop feeling faint?
Lie down and raise your legs. Within a minute or two, gravity usually brings enough blood back to the brain for the grey, swimmy feeling to lift, and you can then sit up slowly and sip something.
Can low BP cause fainting in Ramadan?
Yes. Fasting lowers fluids, which lowers BP further in people who already run low or take BP medicines, so tell your doctor about it; they decide on any change to medicine timing.
Is it safe for a pregnant woman to keep fasting after feeling faint?
No. She should break the fast and see a doctor the same day, because pregnancy changes both blood pressure and sugar, and fainting needs proper checking for her and the baby.
When is fainting while fasting an emergency?
When the person doesn’t wake within a minute, has chest pain, fits, trouble speaking, weakness on one side, a head injury, or faints while lying down. Call your local emergency number.
Can skipping sehri cause fainting?
It can, especially in heat or with physical work. Sehri with slow carbs, protein and water makes afternoon dizziness far less likely, so even a small plate of roti, egg and dahi eaten half-asleep beats skipping it altogether.