Sound sleep is necessary to function properly and stay healthy, and your dietary choices play a huge role in how smooth your night’s sleep is going to be. Therefore, it is expedient to know what foods to avoid if you want to have a good and sound sleep throughout the night.
Check out these 7 foods that oppose good sleep.
Spicy Foods
Spicy foods are known to rev up your metabolism, but they can also ruin your chances of falling asleep. Spices like cayenne and “atarodo” get their metabolism-boosting properties from capsaicin, which can trigger heartburn. Capsaicin gets your blood flowing as well, and these thermogenic properties can increase the body’s core temperature. Since your core temperature naturally decreases as you get ready to sleep, raising it can cause you to feel more awake and struggle with staying asleep
Ice cream
Ice cream is high in sugar, which can spike your insulin levels. And high insulin levels have been shown to make it difficult to fall asleep. Beyond that, late night snacking on ice cream can lead to increased cortisol levels, which is the stress hormone which makes falling asleep difficult.
Grapefruit
Highly acidic foods can worsen symptoms of heartburn by relaxing the lower esophageal sphincter, which can cause sleep-disrupting acid reflux, and unfortunately, it doesn’t get much more acidic than grapefruits and oranges.
Red wine
We can almost hear your arguments from here. It is true that a glass of wine can help you and make you fall asleep faster, however, it actually prevents your body from fully indulging in its REM (Rapid Eye Movement) cycle, which is where truly restful sleep and dreaming occurs.
Dark chocolate
Dark chocolate contains caffeine, which can increase arousal, prevent your body from shutting down, and decrease your ability to develop and sustain deeper stages of sleep.
Fatty foods
High-fat foods take longer to digest, because they will keep your body up working rather than relaxing. Fatty foods often cause bloating and indigestion that interferes with a sound night’s rest. This leads to more fragmented sleep, that has you waking up the next morning feeling anything but refreshed.
Water
Don’t be so shocked. It is true that taking lots of water during the day is one of the best things you can do for your body. However, the story changes as it nears bed time. If you drink too much right before bed, you may find yourself waking up too often in the course of the night to urinate, and that does not make for a sound sleep, because you might some difficulty falling back asleep.