Is it harmful to eat before bed?
Quality sleep is essential for a productive everyday life.
Rest is a basic requirement for achieving well-being and is positively correlated with our overall health and longevity.
In which cases can diet negatively affect sleep quality?
First of all, eating food before bed, especially in large quantities, with spices or indigestible food, interferes with digestion and stimulates the process of gastroesophageal reflux. However, this specific issue has not only quantitative implications but also qualitative ones. If foods with a high caloric – energy content are consumed, the process of lipogenesis is more likely to be mobilized. After all, eating food before bed, as a habit, is associated with weight gain and specifically with changes in body composition, especially adipose tissue.
However, how realistic is it to resist unhealthy snacks, especially when relaxing after a busy and demanding daily life?
Indeed, our resistance seems to relax at night, but in reality, this relaxation is also a matter of preparation and choices. Therefore, with proper preparation, we can make sure that we have consumed the remaining meals of the day in such a way that our appetite, as bedtime approaches, has remained controlled.
Nevertheless, if we want a snack at this time, it is legitimate that it be small in quantity, high in protein and low in carbohydrates, especially sugars. For example, some suggestions with a similar profile are a little yogurt with a little oats, a rice cake with a little yogurt and cinnamon, a little apple with a little peanut butter, raw or steamed vegetables with a little hummus, a little cottage cheese with oregano and 2-3 cherry tomatoes, a small bowl of homemade popcorn.
As mentioned above, it is not only important what we eat. What matters is what and when. Ideally, therefore, we should have our last snack or dinner as early as possible before bedtime as is necessary for digestion but also so that we do not get hungry. Therefore, two to three hours is a reasonable choice.
There are a number of foods that disrupt our ideal sleep sequence. A typical example is coffee, which with its stimulating effect affects both the time and the quality of sleep. Chocolates also have a small amount of caffeine, but these mainly fall into the high energy category, which is particularly important for children’s sleep. Also, alcohol, although it seems to relax us, is ultimately capable of disrupting normal sleep function, so prudent use is required.
Finally, research data seems to link lack of sleep to increased calorie consumption. Therefore, people who sleep little or more, who do not sleep well, tend to consume more calories and therefore there is a risk of unwanted weight gain.
