When it comes to a good night’s sleep, what you eat or drink before bed can play a significant role in determining the quality of your sleep. While some experts used to believe that eating before bed was a bad idea, recent studies suggest that eating a small portion of nutrient-dense foods at night can actually have positive effects on the body.
Eating and sleeping are two essential activities for health and well-being. Food gives people the energy they need for daily life, while sleep helps their bodies rest and recover. Knowing how the body handles food at night can help you make informed choices about bedtime snacking.
Food and sleep have a complex relationship. Our sleep quality can affect what we choose to eat. On the other hand, what we eat, and when we eat, can affect our sleep. Eating at night, therefore, can have varied effects on how fast we fall asleep, the quality of our sleep, and how we feel in the morning.
Although experts do not recommend large meals before bedtime, a light snack can have several benefits. A snack before sleep may be necessary to prevent low blood sugar. Certain snacks before bedtime can provide sleep benefits such as falling asleep faster or staying asleep longer.
If you have diabetes, keeping your blood sugar levels appropriately balanced is important. Certain medications that manage diabetes can lower blood sugar levels too much. Low blood sugar at night can give you nightmares or make you sweat excessively, disrupting your sleep. You may also wake up feeling irritable, confused, or tired.
To avoid these problems, eating a carbohydrate-based snack can help raise blood sugar to the correct level. In other cases, healthcare providers may suggest that people with type 2 diabetes have a snack at night to avoid waking up with blood sugar levels that are too high.
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Some foods contain elements that may you fall asleep faster. Experts hypothesize that consuming foods containing high amounts of tryptophan, serotonin, or melatonin can shorten the time it takes to fall asleep and improve overall sleep quality.
Tryptophan, serotonin, and melatonin each play a role in the body related to sleep. Every diet requires foods with the amino acid tryptophan, because the body cannot produce tryptophan on its own. The body then turns tryptophan into serotonin and melatonin. Melatonin signals to the body that it is time to sleep, while serotonin regulates sleep, hunger, and emotions.
Hunger is a natural need for food. Common signals of hunger are the feeling of an empty stomach or hunger pangs. Light-headedness and fatigue can also be signs of hunger. Experts caution against mistaking other feelings for hunger, such as boredom, tiredness, or anxiety. These feelings are not the same as hunger and may be addressed in ways other than eating.
If you get hungry in the evening after dinner, a light snack may be appropriate. Snacks that offer a lot of nutrients but are also low in
calories can appease hunger cravings without disrupting or delaying sleep.
Health experts advise against eating a full or heavy meal near bedtime. Consuming a large meal so close to sleeping can affect digestion and sleep quality. Over time, consuming most of a person’s daily food intake late in the day can also lead to obesity.
Eating too close to bedtime is related to gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), also called acid reflux. GERD occurs when the contents of the stomach return back up the esophagus. The esophagus is the tube responsible for delivering food from the mouth to the stomach. When a person lies down right after eating, the contents of the stomach can press against the lower esophageal sphincter, causing irritation and acid reflux.
GERD can cause discomfort or pain, such as heartburn. Heartburn is a burning pain in the chest that usually comes up from the stomach. Other common symptoms of GERD include nausea, a sensation of food trapped in the chest, and the taste of stomach acid in the mouth.
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Eating too much close to bedtime can affect sleep quality. Research shows that eating high-calorie meals with large amounts of fat or carbohydrates less than an hour before bedtime can extend the time it takes to fall asleep. By contrast, eating meals high in carbohydrates at least four hours before bedtime can decrease the time spent awake in bed before sleeping.
Eating right before bed can also cause you to wake up in the middle of the night. One study found that participants who ate or drank less than an hour before going to bed were much more likely to wake up after falling asleep than people who consumed something two or more hours before bedtime.
Although a full meal is not recommended near bedtime, a light snack may curb hunger in the evening. Researchers have found that some foods may help people sleep:
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In addition to avoiding large meals near bedtime, take further steps to improve your sleep hygiene:
By following these tips and being mindful of what you eat and drink before bed, you can improve your chances of getting a good night’s sleep and waking up feeling rested and refreshed.
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