Taking Chocolate before bedtime? Sleep is something that everyone nowadays wishes they had more of.
Despite the fact that our bodies are capable of essentially creating a new skeleton every ten years, something as apparently little as eating the incorrect food before bed can cause serious problems.
(Body, this seems a touch theatrical, but it’s OK.) When I asked two experts to suggest foods to avoid eating late at night, they both agreed that chocolate is a poor, horrible idea.
According to Stokes, chocolate includes caffeine, which makes it difficult to fall asleep and prevents you from reaching the deep sleep phases required to feel refreshed.
“Your body will be trying to process caffeine, sugar, and fat at the same time when ideally, your nervous system should be getting into parasympathetic, aka ‘rest and digest mode,” says Stokes. Chocolate also contains a compound called theobromine, which is an antioxidant that can help reduce your risk of heart disease and insulin resistance yet affects your body similarly to caffeine.
Sure, chewing on a few squares of dark chocolate before the night isn’t the same as taking down an iced coffee. “It may be a small fraction of the caffeine in a cup of coffee,” Beckerman adds, “but it should be recognized especially if you have trouble going asleep.”
Chocolate contains very little caffeine, some people will feel the effects more than others if they consume it before night. “Keep in mind that everyone’s physique is unique.
Some people can sleep soundly after drinking coffee just before bed, while others couldn’t get a wink after eating half a bar of dark chocolate.”
According to Stokes, it’s ideal to stop eating three hours before sleep to give your body enough time to digest your food before crawling into bed.
Continue >>> Taking Chocolate before bedtime
Eating a substantial meal of any type soon before bed can cause sleep disruptions, but going to bed hungry can also cause sleep disruptions. (Again, too dramatic, body?) If you do want a snack before bed, forget the chocolate and instead for something like a banana with peanut butter, which will actually help you sleep better.
