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A good night’s sleep is what everyone hopes for while getting into bed every night. Sleep is essential for your wellbeing and it is frustrating when you are unable to rest properly and wake up groggy the next day. The benefits of sleeping have become a widely known fact with many pieces of evidence. Sleeping is also linked with restoring properties, muscle development, reducing stress hormones, curbing inflammation, enhanced memory power and the list goes on.
You can easily enhance sleep quality through eliminating trigger foods around bedtime. Being aware of trigger foods can help you sleep better and promote healthy habits. We’ve rounded up a list of food and drinks you need to be wary off near your bedtime if you want a night of sound sleep.
One of the worst foods to ingest around bedtime is caffeine-rich food and drinks. The role of caffeine (found in coffee, tea) is to make a drowsy soul active and attentive. It is a stimulant that promotes alertness. Some studies also show that caffeine delays and shortens the sleeping time of individuals.
Spicy food before bedtime can cause indigestion which makes it difficult to sleep well. It is speculated that this may be due to capsaicin, an active ingredient in chili peppers, affecting sleep via changes in body temperature. The ingredient capsaicin worsens the symptoms of acid reflux.
When you eat a lot of sugar right before bed, your blood sugar climbs high and then falls rapidly as your body releases hormones to bring the levels under control. This swing in hormones and blood sugar levels impairs sleep. The other reason to avoid starchy or sugary food is it gives you immense energy in a very short period making the body highly active.
If the last meal of your day is high in saturated fat, it can diminish the quality of your sleep and of course, make you gain weight. High-fat foods take much longer to digest causing bloating and indigestion that significantly interferes with sleep. This leads to more fragmented sleep, so you wake up the next morning without feeling refreshed.
Alcohol disrupts the circadian rhythm of the body negatively. This is the reason you wake up in the middle of your sleep. Alcohol also makes you dehydrated and often thirsty in the middle of the night with frequent washroom trips.
Abstaining from consuming these foods at night can significantly improve your sleep quality and time making you feel refreshed the next day to hit your day and goals with a positive mind..
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What foods to avoid before bed?
Avoid caffeine, spicy foods, heavy meals, and sugary snacks before bed. These can disrupt sleep, cause indigestion, and lead to poor sleep quality.
