1. Alcohol
People are sometimes blinded by the thought that alcohol will make them sleepy, however this is not the case. Alcohol may make you fall asleep initially, but it will interrupt your sleep cycle throughout the night. Consuming alcohol may also cause obstructive sleep apnoea and loud snoring.
2. High water content foods
High water content foods include watermelon, celery and cucumbers. You should avoid these before bed because they will most likely disrupt your sleep due to needing to go to the toilet during the night. Foods with high water levels will fill up your bladder, causing you to need the bathroom more often.
3. Heavy Foods
Heavy foods include foods like fast food, fries, and steak. These often weigh heavy on your stomach, causing you have indigestion during the night and therefore keeping you awake. Therefore, it’s probably best to avoid eating these before bed.
4. Foods with caffeine in them
Lots of food have hidden caffeine in them. These foods include chocolate, tea, soda and many more! Avoiding these are necessary unless you want to make it difficult for yourself to fall into a deeper sleep. Caffeine decreases the amount of REM sleep that you would normally get, making your sleep schedule eventually become more messed up.
5. Sugary Sweets
Sweets can increase your insulin, this makes your sleeping pattern more disturbed. Therefore, you need to avoid eating sweets before bed altogether as it can increase your blood sugar, and then make you crash – and not in the good way!
6. Tyramine-rich foods
Experts suggest that cutting out tyramine foods like tomatoes, soy sauce and aged cheeses will improve your sleep quality. Their amino acids cause the brain to release a stimulant that makes the brain feel more awake and active. Therefore, it makes it more of a challenge to fall asleep.
7. Spicy foods
The most common symptom of eating spicy foods before bed is then having heartburn through the night. But also, hot peppers boost your body temperature, which in turn, makes you lie awake for longer and make you find it harder to fall asleep as a whole. If you want to eat spicy foods – just make sure you don’t eat them before bed!
8. Acidic Foods
Acidic foods is of course a huge cause for acid reflux. The foods to avoid are those like citrus juice, raw onion, white win and tomato sauce. Acid reflux can, again, cause heart burn, then disturbing your sleep. So maybe don’t eat a pizza before bed!
9. Gassy foods
Gassy foods are foods that make you… gassy! These types of food can be difficult to digest due to the mass amounts of fiber included in the foods. The pressure it forces onto the stomach can cuase cramping which may make you have a painful nights sleep. These foods can involve beans, broccoli, and cauliflower.
10. Cheese
Cheese is one of the worst foods you can eat before bed. It contains high levels of amino acid and tyramine (2 things we stated to avoid!!), which then makes you feel more alert, which is something you do not feel right before bed. You can actually feel this alertness hours after eating it, therefore you should only eat cheese at 4pm at the latest!