Many advise to stop eating several hours before sleep. What is this advice based on? Why is it good for us not to go to bed on a full stomach?
Health
Our health and well-being is the main reason for this advice. It has to do with our circadian rhythm, among other things. This not only regulates sleeping and waking, but also influences many other processes in the body. The internal clock also determines our metabolism. The pancreas, which produces digestive juices and insulin, is less active at night. Late eating can thus lead to fluctuations in blood glucose levels faster than during the day. Peaks and dips in blood sugar can disturb your sleep.
Eating late at night has in many scientific studies been associated with obesity and weight control problems. Individuals who eat most of their food at breakfast (and lunch) lose more weight than those who eat a small breakfast and eat most of it at dinner, even though they consume the same amount calories.
Research also shows that individuals who eat most at nighttime are more likely to experience psychological problems. For example, a depressed mood, distress and a lower self esteem.
Lying down with a full stomach can cause symptoms of this sensitive organ. Being in a horizontal position allows the stomach contents to flow back into the esophagus, which leads to heartburn (GERD). Besides being very uncomfortable and painful, it can also cause damage to the esophagus.
By stopping eating 2-3 hours before bedtime, the food has time to leave the stomach and move further into the intestinal tract. This can prevent an upset stomach. Note that a heavy meal with more protein and fats takes longer to digest. It is advisable to make breakfast the largest meal of the day and let dinner be an easily digestible meal.
"Breakfast Like a King, Lunch Like a Prince, Dinner Like a Pauper"
If the stomach don’t have to work anymore when you go to bed, the duration and quality of sleep will be better.
“But with many, the poor, tired stomach may complain of weariness in vain.
More food is forced upon it, which sets the digestive organs in motion,
again to perform the same round of labor through the sleeping hours.
The sleep of such is generally disturbed with unpleasant dreams,
and in the morning they awake unrefreshed.”
How to Live 1:55-57, 1865.
Drinking
Not eating for several hours and therefore going to sleep with an (almost) empty stomach has a positive effect on physical and psychological health and on a good night's sleep. What about drinking before bed?
Caffeine
Caffeine is widely used to wake up or stay awake. The negative influence of coffee and other caffeinated drinks, such as tea, cola, and energy drinks, on sleep is well known. While there may be individual differences, research shows that caffeine affects many areas of sleep. Such as, the duration, quality, depth of sleep. Even a cup of coffee drunk six hours before bedtime still has a negative effect.
Caffeine that is drunk three hours before bedtime ensures, among other things, that the melatonin peak, which helps you fall asleep, is delayed by about 40 minutes.
Alcohol
Unlike caffeine, an alcoholic drink has a reputation for helping you sleep. Healthy people who drink alcohol occasionally fall asleep faster, because of the alcohol. However, this is NOT an argument to justify alcohol consumption, because if you look at the quality of sleep over the entire night, you will see that it is worse than without alcohol. And the more people drink, the more sleeping problems they have.
Water
Water is the best choice when it comes to drinking at any time of the day. But that can also disturb sleep, due to nightly visits to the bathroom. Therefore, drink the largest amount of water during the day, so that you have to drink less water in the evening and it does not interrupt your night's sleep (too often).
Tips
Make your breakfast the most important meal of the day. And make sure you eat enough food early in the day. Dinner then becomes a lighter meal. This way you cooperate with your biorhythm and prevent the health problems that eating or snacking late at night entails.
Also, review what you drink. Put it to the test. Stop caffeine and/or alcohol for a month and experience the change it brings to your night's sleep.
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