If you tend to snack late at night and find yourself unable to sleep, then your food choices could be the reason behind the problem. Though your stomach may be full, the food once digested can have an opposite effect in how it stimulates the brain so you lay in your bed thinking from that inability to sleep. For those times when you have to eat late, here are the worst foods for sleep that you should try to avoid if you don’t want that sleepless pattern to continue.
Fatty, fried foods like a greasy hamburger can overload the stomach with an excess of saturated fat, especially if you compound the problem adding cheese and a side of French fries. What happens is your body is working too hard trying to digest it, activating the blood flow and sending mixed signals to the body’s hormones.
We all are aware of the high amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee or tea. However, if you think a cup of decaffeinated coffee is the solution, then be aware it also has caffeine. Of course, it has significantly less caffeine with about seven mg per cup compared to a regular cup of the same coffee that has 70-140 mg. Even at such a reduced level, decaffeinated has enough to interfere with sleep for more highly sensitive individuals according to a SELF article.
Speaking of caffeine, it doesn’t necessarily have to come from beverages. You also need to be leery of energy bars or protein bars that could contain caffeine and sleep problems that could follow.
Sugary snacks like a piece of cake, a dish of ice cream, a piece of pie, cookies, sweet breads, and yummy glazed donuts or cinnamon rolls are always hard to resist if you have them on hand when that urge for a midnight snack strikes. The reason sugary foods and sleep disturbances are related has to do with how high the sugar spikes blood sugar levels.
Don’t think you’re safe turning to a particular breakfast cereal. Read the box because that if you happen to favor those presweetened with a sugary coating, these are late night snacks to avoid with the havoc they also can cause blood sugar when attempting sleep.
To avoid acid-reflux and late night eating, tomatoes or choices such as pizza, to spicy foods like Mexican with a lot of hot peppers such as nachos can trigger it. You may want to rethink those bedtime snacks and save a risk from potential heartburn that will keep you up.
Something else that can hamper sleep is the type of food that contains a lot of water such as watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe that can make you need to visit the bathroom more than sleep.
Turning to alcohol may help you feel more drowsy, but it also can cause sleep disruptions later from upsetting the body’s circadian rhythms. Besides that, it can make you feel more congested.
Hopefully, the information presented here will help you avoid making future bad choices for when hunger strikes at night. You also may find it beneficial to read my earlier post on the best bedtime snacks to help you sleep.
