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Foods that interfere with your sleep

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CONSIDERING how much of an impact sleep (or lack thereof) has on your health and happiness, it’s worth exploring whether your diet could be interfering with your shut-eye. While everyone’s bodies (and digestive systems) differ, and foods that affect your slumber may not make a difference to someone else, Gabriel and other dietitians say the following foods are the most common culprits when it comes to messing with sleep. Pay attention to what you eat before bed, and see if any foods stop you from catching the z’s you want.

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Pizza

If you feel physically uncomfortable after eating overly processed junk food, it certainly won’t do your sleep any favors. Pizza packs a double whammy because it is high in saturated fat and sodium.

“Foods that are higher in saturated fat should be avoided at night — for example, butter, ice cream, and fried foods like french fries,” says Gabriel.

 A single slice of cheese pizza from a 14-inch pie has nearly 5 grams of saturated fat “Many highly processed foods are also salty, which could cause you to wake up during the night to reach for something to drink.” A single slice of pepperoni pizza can deliver as much as a third of the sodium you need in a day.

We already know excessive consumption of sugar is linked to health issues such as diabetes, weight gain, high blood pressure, and fatty liver disease, to name but a few. It can also make sleep more difficult. You may know to avoid candy, doughnuts, pies, desserts, and soda before bed, but do smoothies seem like a nice healthy snack?

Packaged smoothie products averaged even more sugar per serving (around two and a half teaspoons) than juice.

“Sugar plays a role in many of our health woes, so it’s probably not surprising to see it come up on a list of foods to avoid at bedtime,” Taub-Dix says. For some people, sweets provide an energy spike that could keep them counting sheep instead of sawing logs. Plus, refined sugars can induce rapid fluctuations in your blood-glucose levels, she says, which can spike adrenaline and make it difficult to fall asleep.

“If you are hungry before bed, a complex carbohydrate or protein is a better choice, like whole-wheat toast or a banana with Greek yogurt,” Try eating an open-faced peanut butter or almond butter sandwich on whole-grain bread. Almond or peanut butter are both high in protein and healthy, unsaturated fat, while whole-wheat bread offers fiber and more complex carbohydrates than white bread, keeping your blood-sugar levels stable while you sleep.”

“Ideally, a meal right before bed should be smaller than ones during your more active portions of the day. One piece of toast with a tablespoon or two of peanut butter, or a small banana should suffice.”

Cheese

It’s a cruel irony that the more delicious the cheese, the worse it may be in terms of its impact on sleep. While the protein in cheese provides tryptophan, an amino acid that research shows may aid in relaxation and sleep, Gabriel says not all cheeses are soporific.

 “If you are looking for something creamy before bedtime, try some almond butter on a few crackers instead,”.  Those foods contain magnesium, which research has found may help ease insomnia.

Tomatoes

Even the humble tomato, despite its many health benefits, can be terrible for your sleep if ingested too close to bedtime.

“Acidic foods can irritate the stomach lining and elevate acidic pH levels in the body, triggering indigestion, heartburn, and acid reflux, all of which can interfere with sleep,” warns Gabriel. Despite their high levels of vitamin C, iron, and tomatoes (including tomato-based foods such as juice and sauce) are considered highly acidic and should be avoided if you are prone to heartburn, Avoid anything tomato-based: sauces, juice, and, as mentioned, pizza.

Hot Sauce

Spicy foods can also cause acid reflux, says Taub-Dix. “Acid reflux is more likely to occur during sleep when we’re lying down, at which time a mix of stomach acid and foods being digested can flow back up through the esophagus. Many people find that eating spicy foods can cause this effect during the day, let alone at bedtime, when the negative impact can be compounded.”

If you are having spicy foods for dinner, wait three hours before going to bed to avoid worsening any potential acid reflux that might result from lying down. “This allows digestion to occur and the contents of your stomach to move into your small intestine,”. “This may prevent problems like heartburn at night and even insomnia. The same goes for spicy food,” she says.

The benefits of hydration notwithstanding, few things are as frustrating as when nature calls just as you’re starting to doze off. This scenario is not uncommon if you tend to drink a lot of water right before bedtime, and it increases the likelihood of sleep interruption. Be aware that some natural diuretics also lead to disrupted sleep. These include parsley, ginger, dandelion, hawthorn, and juniper, according to Mayo Clinic. Prescriptive diuretics should be taken earlier in the day.

“Although so many of us walk around tired, listless, and irritable because of mild dehydration without knowing it, the time to load up on liquids is not before bed,” “Drinking too much can keep you up during the night because of the need to urinate often, thereby disrupting your rest.”

Alcohol

A nip of alcohol, a depressant, before bedtime may help you fall asleep faster, but it interferes with the quality of your slumber by reducing sleep and causing disruptions, according to the National Sleep Foundation. Excessive alcohol consumption can also lead to sleep apnea and heavy snoring.

“Alcohol disrupts breathing during sleep by relaxing the throat muscles. Alcohol can also reduce the brain’s ability to wake and detect a lack of oxygen in the body, and this can lead to longer and more frequent breathing pauses. “According to the findings alcohol does allow healthy people to fall asleep quicker and sleep more deeply for a while, but it reduces rapid eye movement sleep. And the more you drink before bed, the more pronounced these effects.”

 

 

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