Whether you eat your last meal of the day after a few hours of work or find yourself regularly heading to the fridge for a midnight snack with a movie night, most people find themselves eating at different times before bed, but those late-night meals can lead to More than just a full belly and the appearance of the rumen in the long run.
A large body of research indicates that eating before bed can have numerous side effects on everything from your weight and sleep quality, to your performance and level of focus on work the next day.
Eating at night makes you sleepy
Some foods and drinks act as some stimulants that push the body to prepare and work on the state of digestion, which is a stage that consumes a lot of energy and effort, and all of this happens while you are trying to fall asleep.
Therefore, this inconsistency in tasks may cause you to suffer from insomnia and difficulty falling into a deep, restful sleep.
Also, some meals are a clear cause of alertness and activity, such as proteins and foods that are full of salt and sugar.
The Healthline website explains that eating food also stimulates the secretion of insulin, a hormone that helps your body use food for energy, and then this process can alter the body's circadian rhythm, or the sleep-wake cycle.
Certain foods and drinks act as stimulants that prompt the body to prepare and work on the digestive system (pixels)
Nightmares and bad dreams
If you are used to eating late at night, you may have nightmares and bad dreams.
American doctor and sleep expert Bo Chang Su explains to the "BestLife" website that nightmares are usually associated with eating heavy meals before bed, especially those containing sugars, fats, starches and spicy ingredients.
This happens because the body spends a lot of energy digesting these foods instead of sleeping, which leads to poor sleep quality and nightmares.
A full stomach before bed also leads to a rise in body temperature and increased burning, two factors that cause the brain to increase activity during REM sleep, which leads to nightmares.
heartburn
During the day, you may not have acid reflux problems, because the force of gravity helps you digest food while you are sitting.
But eating and lying down can cause acid in your stomach to leak into your esophagus, causing reflux that makes you feel burning and achy, and may also keep you awake all night and contribute to your insomnia.
That's why SFGATE recommends avoiding spicy foods such as peppers and highly acidic drinks that cause heartburn, such as orange juice.
Gastrointestinal pain
Many believe that eating at least 3 hours before bedtime should be avoided, because the stomach takes at least that long to empty itself and finish digestion.
Eating certain foods and drinks can make the process longer and more difficult, especially if you are lactose intolerant and have difficulty digesting dairy products.
But when you obstruct this process by sleeping and lying down as the acids in the stomach begin to move up, you are prone to abdominal pain, upset stomach, and a feeling of fullness even after long hours of eating.
Eating certain foods and drinks can make digestion longer and more difficult (Shutterstock)
Difficulty burning fat
If you want to lose weight and get rid of excess body fat, you may first want to give up those bedtime snacks.
A study published in 2020 in the journal PLOS Biology found that among a group of 6 study subjects over the age of 50, those who ate a late-night meal burned less fat while they slept than those who ate their last meal earlier in the day. Today, though, both groups have equal ratios of calories and activity levels.
Weight gain risks
If your efforts to lose weight haven't worked, your late-night meal for dinner may be your problem.
A study published in 2020 in the Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism found that individuals who ate dinner at 10 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. were more likely to develop glucose intolerance and reduce the rate of fat oxidation in their bodies in the long term, which may increase the risk of Obesity and metabolic syndrome, according to the study.