What you're eating could increase the effects of insomnia
Many people are suffering the effects of insomnia every single day and their day-to-day lives are affected negatively as a result of this. Studies have shown that what you are eating and drinking can impact the quality of your sleep. So, what should you be on the lookout for?
What foods have a negative impact on sleep?
Fatty and high sugar foods have a negative impact on sleep because the human body takes a lot longer to digest foods that are high in saturated fat and high sugar foods then low fat and low sugar foods.
It is also recommended to stay away from foods with a high-water content before bed. These foods include cucumbers, celery, watermelon, radishes which are natural diuretics and may cause you to wake in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.
Spicy food has also been highlighted as too much before bedtime can lead to indigestion which leads to discomfort and delays the process of falling to sleep. Typically, our body heat lowers when we are on the verge of falling asleep, however having any sort of spice before your bed time increases your body temperature, therefore making you restless and preventing a peaceful sleep. There is nothing wrong with eating spicy food for dinner, but make sure that there is enough gap to allow the food to digest properly!
What drinks have a negative impact on sleep?
Caffeinated drinks are the most obvious drink to avoid if individuals want to achieve a good night sleep and to reduce the effects of insomnia. As it is a stimulant and the main purpose of it is to wake the body up, it has a negative impact on getting a good night sleep if they are consuming it close to the time that individuals go to sleep. A study found that having caffeine three hours before bed can delay your body clock by 40 minutes.
Drinking alcohol can negatively impact on the body’s sleeping pattern, as it typically takes longer to reach the REM stage, a stage where the body goes into repair. While one may feel that they have had a deep sleep, the body initially enters a deep sleep as soon as one goes to sleep, but then it wakes itself up and enters a lighter sleep for the majority of the night.
Even the time we have our meals matter
This is all to do with the human body’s circadian rhythm. Human bodies have a natural time where we are awake and a time that our body wants to rest. So if you get up in the middle of the night for a midnight snack, this automatically impacts on your body’s circadian rhythm and it wakes the body up, which is why individuals may struggle to get to sleep if they have something to eat in the middle of the night or just before they go to sleep.
Watching what you eat isn’t only so you have the abs of your dreams, it is so you can fall asleep to dream about those abs. Understanding what you are putting into your body will ensure you have a good night’s rest.
If for any reason you are experiencing lengthy periods of sleeplessness and natural remedies are not resolving the issue, consult your pharmacist about alternative options.