Foods & Beverages Keeping You Awake At Night

We’ve all heard or read about the importance of a good night’s sleep. Without it on a continuous basis, research has shown that it can lead to colds, the flu, diabetes, weight gain and heart disease.

And let’s be honest, we use being tired as an excuse to not work out.

There are numerous factors that stop us from achieving a good night’s sleep such as hormones, stress, or jet lag—just to name a few—but at times, we can our own worst enemies as we contribute to this lack of sleep from what we eat and drink. This can either occur right before bedtime or earlier in the day.

Some of these may be surprising but here are five foods and beverages that are contributing to your sleepless nights.

Alcohol

Sure a glass of wine before bed sounds relaxing and may help you fall asleep but studies have shown that alcohol can cause frequent waking up during the night. This comes as it cuts down on your REM sleep. And when you don’t get this, you’ll feel like you didn’t get any sleep at all.

If you want that glass of wine in the evening, have it one to two hours before you head to bed.

Caffeine

We all know that caffeine keeps us awake but you may not be aware of the many places that it can be found. That cold medicine you purchased at the drugstore has caffeine as well as tea. If you already know you’re sensitive to it, drink decaf and read the labels on any medications you are taking.

Stop the caffeine about eight hours before you go to bed.

Fermented and Aged Food

A snack before bedtime is common for many of us but ones with amino acid tyramine may be affecting your sleep. This can be found in fermented and aged food as its acid stimulates your brain and keeps you awake.

What foods does this include? Cured meat, aged cheese and smoked fish all have it. If you want a cheese snack before resting your head on the pillow, choose fresh ones such as mozzarella.

Fluids

We can’t preach enough the importance of water to stay hydrated but drinking lot of it at night does bring bathroom breaks in the middle of the night. Not only will you have to get up but your REM sleep will also be affected.

To cut down on this annoying problem, try to stay away from fluids between 60-90 minutes prior to bedtime.

Tomato-Based Products

You may suffer from heartburn and discomfort during the night from spicy and tomato-based foods. To reduce this distraction, keep away from them a minimum of three hours before you go to bed.