Sleep is probably the most critical daily activity you need to do to be healthy and function optimally. If you cannot get proper sleep, especially your dietary intake, it will adversely affect your daily life.
Therefore, in this article, we share 5 of the worst foods for sleep that you should avoid. Rest assured, each of the worst food before bed in this list is recommended by experts.
Worst Food Before Bed You Should Not Intake
We eat food and supplements to keep our bodies healthy, give them nutrition to grow, and feel good about ourselves. Tons of food items are so delicious we crave them the whole day. But not all foods were created equal.
There are some worst food before bed items that will satiate your craving but leave your body functioning un-optimally. We don't want that; we must sleep adequately each night to live a healthy lifestyle. Let's discuss 5 of the worst foods for sleep below so you can also avoid them. However, if you cannot avoid them, you can take it at least 2 hours before you hit the sack.
Drinks Containing Caffeine
We all know that these are the worst foods before bed, but some items we forget or think we need. Food and drinks like coffee, soda, and even most teas are unsuitable for sleep. Each of these items is the worst food before bed because caffeine sharpens your alertness and perks up your brain. While it helps us to start our workdays, you should not take it before sleep as it isn’t such a good idea.
Most of us start using more than the regular amount during the day when we don’t have a good night's sleep. Sleep deprivation causes people to lose focus because they are tired, and their bodies need rest.
Alcohol
Most carbs aren't good for consumption when you go to sleep as they can trigger alertness in our brains. The more alert we are, the longer it takes for our bodies to go into sleep mode. Even if we go to sleep too tired, our bodies return from deep sleep, thus not giving us full time to rest and heal.
The same is the case with alcohol because people typically drink it before going to bed to soothe their road to sleep. Unfortunately, that is what they actively think, but the actuality is totally different.
Your body doesn’t go into full sleep and instead wakes you up. Even if you sleep a full night, as it hasn’t gone into deep sleep, you feel fatigued when you wake up. That’s why don’t drink alcohol for good sleep as it is the worst food before bed.
Cheese
Cheese has become the staple item in our daily diets for most of us. Let's face it: it tastes fantastic and has tons of nutrients. Eating a ham cheese sandwich in the morning or vegetable cheese in the afternoon is good. It gives you all the energy and nutrients you need for the day. Consuming it before going to sleep is a big no-no.
It is not that it is terrible perse when you consume it at night. It is that it has a high content of tyramine. This product and other amino acids are widely known for the “Fight or Flight” response. This response is activated when our adrenal glands release the hormone responsible for it. The primary cause of staying alert in most cases is foods rich in tyramine.
Spicy Food
Spicy food is quite common in many countries and cultures, especially if they have a feast. It is pretty standard for people, especially in these regions, to experience heartburn due to their intake of spicy foods. If you also eat spicy food, then get ready for your acid reflux to kick in. Both of these conditions will cause you to have uncomfortable sleep.
Most spicy foods contain capsaicin, which experts know can be a significant cause of sleep trouble in people who eat spicy food. The main reason behind this is that they are typically known for increasing body temperature. Now, for you to sleep well, your body tends to drop your body temperature, and capsaicin doesn’t allow that easily. Thus, spicy food containing this ingredient is the worst food before bed choice that you can make.
Sugar
It is undoubtedly one of the worst foods before bed, hands down. Many problems, such as inflammation and increasing blood sugar levels, are caused by sugars. If you eat any added sugar food right before you go to sleep, you will not have a good and healthy sleep. Your body will stay alert for longer and take time to wind down. You might even have little REM sleep, thus causing you to feel fatigued the next day.
Furthermore, you will feel restlessness all night and might even wake up. Either choose unprocessed food with natural sugars or minimize the sugar intake before bed.
Final Words
This article discussed some of the worst food before bed choices you need to listen to experts about. We all need good and deep sleep daily; otherwise, we cannot function at our optimum selves. Moreover, the longer we keep this routine up, the faster our health deteriorates.
So read through the list and start avoiding at least one worst food for sleep from the list for starters. Let your body know what food is bad for it, and within a few weeks, you might crave less for it. Once you get one down, you can start with the other item on the list and slowly stop this bad habit altogether.
