Does It Matter What You Eat or Drink Before Bed?

When it comes to a good night's sleep, what you eat or drink before bed can play a significant role in determining the quality of your sleep. While some experts used to believe that eating before bed was a bad idea, recent studies suggest that eating a small portion of nutrient-dense foods at night can actually have positive effects on the body.

Eating and sleeping are two essential activities for health and well-being. Food gives people the energy they need for daily life, while sleep helps their bodies rest and recover. Knowing how the body handles food at night can help you make informed choices about bedtime snacking.

Benefits of Eating Before Bed

Food and sleep have a complex relationship. Our sleep quality can affect what we choose to eat. On the other hand, what we eat, and when we eat, can affect our sleep. Eating at night, therefore, can have varied effects on how fast we fall asleep, the quality of our sleep, and how we feel in the morning.

Although experts do not recommend large meals before bedtime, a light snack can have several benefits. A snack before sleep may be necessary to prevent low blood sugar. Certain snacks before bedtime can provide sleep benefits such as falling asleep faster or staying asleep longer.

1. Stabilizing Blood Sugar Levels

If you have diabetes, keeping your blood sugar levels appropriately balanced is important. Certain medications that manage diabetes can lower blood sugar levels too much. Low blood sugar at night can give you nightmares or make you sweat excessively, disrupting your sleep. You may also wake up feeling irritable, confused, or tired.

To avoid these problems, eating a carbohydrate-based snack can help raise blood sugar to the correct level. In other cases, healthcare providers may suggest that people with type 2 diabetes have a snack at night to avoid waking up with blood sugar levels that are too high.

2. Falling Asleep Faster

Some foods contain elements that may you fall asleep faster. Experts hypothesize that consuming foods containing high amounts of tryptophan, serotonin, or melatonin can shorten the time it takes to fall asleep and improve overall sleep quality.

Tryptophan, serotonin, and melatonin each play a role in the body related to sleep. Every diet requires foods with the amino acid tryptophan, because the body cannot produce tryptophan on its own. The body then turns tryptophan into serotonin and melatonin. Melatonin signals to the body that it is time to sleep, while serotonin regulates sleep, hunger, and emotions.

3. Satisfying Hunger

Hunger is a natural need for food. Common signals of hunger are the feeling of an empty stomach or hunger pangs. Light-headedness and fatigue can also be signs of hunger. Experts caution against mistaking other feelings for hunger, such as boredom, tiredness, or anxiety. These feelings are not the same as hunger and may be addressed in ways other than eating.

If you get hungry in the evening after dinner, a light snack may be appropriate. Snacks that offer a lot of nutrients but are also low in calories can appease hunger cravings without disrupting or delaying sleep.

Risks of Eating Before Bed

Health experts advise against eating a full or heavy meal near bedtime. Consuming a large meal so close to sleeping can affect digestion and sleep quality. Over time, consuming most of a person's daily food intake late in the day can also lead to obesity.

Gastroesophageal Reflux, Acid Reflux, and Heartburn

Eating too close to bedtime is related to gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), also called acid reflux. GERD occurs when the contents of the stomach return back up the esophagus. The esophagus is the tube responsible for delivering food from the mouth to the stomach. When a person lies down right after eating, the contents of the stomach can press against the lower esophageal sphincter, causing irritation and acid reflux.

GERD can cause discomfort or pain, such as heartburn. Heartburn is a burning pain in the chest that usually comes up from the stomach. Other common symptoms of GERD include nausea, a sensation of food trapped in the chest, and the taste of stomach acid in the mouth.

Poor Quality Sleep

Eating too much close to bedtime can affect sleep quality. Research shows that eating high-calorie meals with large amounts of fat or carbohydrates less than an hour before bedtime can extend the time it takes to fall asleep. By contrast, eating meals high in carbohydrates at least four hours before bedtime can decrease the time spent awake in bed before sleeping.

Eating right before bed can also cause you to wake up in the middle of the night. One study found that participants who ate or drank less than an hour before going to bed were much more likely to wake up after falling asleep than people who consumed something two or more hours before bedtime.

What to Eat Before Bed

Although a full meal is not recommended near bedtime, a light snack may curb hunger in the evening. Researchers have found that some foods may help people sleep:

Tart cherry juice: Drinking tart cherry juice in the morning and an hour or two before bedtime may improve sleep length and quality.
Kiwi: A small study found that consuming two kiwifruits before bedtime reduced the time it took for participants to fall asleep and increased overall sleep time.
Walnuts, almonds, and other nuts: Both walnuts and almonds contain high amounts of melatonin, while pistachios and cashews contain tryptophan.
Milk and powdered milk: Milk contains both tryptophan and melatonin. A few studies have shown that milk or powdered milk consumption before bedtime may improve sleep quality and insomnia symptoms.

What to Avoid Before Bed

Spicy foods
Foods high in fat
Acidic foods
Caffeine-containing food and drink
Alcohol

Healthy Sleep Tips

In addition to avoiding large meals near bedtime, take further steps to improve your sleep hygiene:

Develop a bedtime routine: In the hour before going to sleep, relax with a quiet activity such as reading or taking a bath.
Create a comfortable sleep environment: An ideal sleep environment is quiet, dark, and cool.
Use the bed for sleep and sex: Avoid other activities in bed such as working or eating.
Exercise regularly: Among the many benefits of regular exercise is an easier time falling asleep and staying asleep.
Nap strategically: Afternoon naps after 3 p.m. can make falling asleep at night difficult. If rest during the day is necessary, try to limit a nap to only twenty minutes earlier in the day.

By following these tips and being mindful of what you eat and drink before bed, you can improve your chances of getting a good night's sleep and waking up feeling rested and refreshed.

By Cara Jones, BDO Staff Writer | Published May 21, 2024