Foods to Avoid Before Bed
(Askmen.com) We lose sleep over so many things, so the last thing we need is our late-night dining decisions working against us. Everyone likes a little nighttime nosh, but what you decide to nibble on can drastically affect how well you sleep. While some foods help your slumber, others (fatty or greasy options) can wreak havoc on your rest. If you’re looking for a peaceful night, here are the 10 foods you should avoid right before bed.
Ice Cream
A bowl of ice cream might be the most comforting bad-breakup bed accompaniment, but there’s a limit to its soothing properties. For starters, ice cream is loaded with fat, so you’re not going to give your body a chance to burn any of it before bed, and then all of the sugar is going to pump your body full of energy right before you hit the hay, so you’ll be sending your body divergent messages. On top of that, the sugar just gets stored and turned to fat, too, so this is a lose-lose situation all around. It’s also been discovered that eating high-sugar foods before bed causes nightmares, so while the taste might be calming, the results are unnerving.
Celery
Seeing celery on this list might surprise you, but there’s a simple reason for it: celery is a natural diuretic. What that means is it’s going to make you pee a bit more than usual. Diuretics elevate the rate of urination because they push water through the system. So that means that if you’re dipping into too much celery right before bed, your body might wake you out of your slumber for a pee break. Vegetables are some of the most nutrient-rich foods you can give your body, but avoid ones like celery for the sake of uninterrupted sleep.
Pizza
If you want to give your stomach a good workout before bed, feed it some greasy, salty pizza. Your stomach, like the rest of your body, would love to relax when most of the other organs are chilling, too, but pizza isn’t exactly a light meal. Your tummy will have to get busy. The layer of tomato sauce has high levels of acidity, which is just another catalyst for acid reflux, but in general, fatty and greasy toppings — especially high-fat meats and cheeses — do a good enough job of their own on stirring up heartburn. That’s not the wakeup call you want at night. If you’re going to do it, be nice to your stomach and check out these nutritional pizza toppings. One slice isn’t the end of the world, but when’s the last time you stopped at one slice?
Candy Bars
If nightmares about the monster in the closet or the gremlins under the bed disturb your sleep, you might want to avoid candy bars. One of the easiest — and worst — ways of breaking out of a deep slumber is from a nightmare that’s very real to us. A recent study has shown that 7 out of 10 people who eat junk foods like candy bars before bed are more likely to be prone to nightmares. The hypothesis is that the high levels of sugar create more nightmarish brain waves. Try these junk food substitutes instead. Cross this late-night snack off your list if you’re looking for a peaceful night.
Cereal
Cereals often contain high amounts of refined sugar and are chock-full of carbohydrates. That might set you off on a bit of a spike and crash in your blood sugar levels, which is not the ideal way to put your body at peace before bedtime. Instead of reaching for sugary cereals, go for healthier cereals. Those that are whole-grain and have low sugar will quench the craving but won’t keep you up.
Garlic
You might want to avoid garlic before bed if you’re sleeping with a partner, but it’s best avoided for reasons besides bad breath. Garlic is known as a “hot herb,” and, along with spicy food, it tends to have some properties in it that can cause heartburn. It’s known to sometimes have the side effect of upsetting the stomach, so if you have a weak stomach or are vulnerable to acid reflux, the last thing you want to do is light the fire right before you lie down to rest.