How Food Affects You & Your Sleep
People who are busy or stressed with their work often have problems sleeping. This is because the exhaustion and their hectic schedule keeps them from getting better sleep on daily basis. If you are one of those who are having trouble sleeping due to too much work, you should reflect what might be causing the issues and address those issues accordingly.
Food is often overlooked as a a cause for disrupting sleep, but many times can be a significant factor. Food you eat might contain ingredients and other properties that can really affect a person’s chemical balance. If you think that the foods that you are eating affects you in getting better sleep, try assessing your food intake for one day:
Write down all the foods—including the drinks—that you have taken in for one day and search each food & compare it to how it affects sleep. In this way, you can track down which foods and drinks are possibly making you restless at night. The following is a list of just some of the foods that might lead to restless or totally sleepless nights:
1. Eating too much food. This is considered as the major culprit why many people—especially those who don’t have sleeping problems before—suddenly have a hard time sleeping. Experts say that if a person overeats, the tendency is that the stomach will have a hard time digesting it. Too much food may also affect the how the digestive system work and may even cause clinical conditions such as ulcers, among other problems.
2. Foods high in fat. Experts say that people are eating foods that have too much fat are prone to not sleeping well at night because it creates a lot of digesting work for the stomach. If one wants to get better sleep, he or she should cut down on foods that are too rich or fatty so there will be lesser work for the stomach especially at nighttime.
3. Spicy & Acidic foods. These foods can very much affect one’s sleeping habits especially at night. If you eat too many sets of spicy foods, especially at night, it can lead to troubles in the stomach and even heartburn which makes it harder for you to lie down and get proper rest. (to compare the acidity in your food, click here, or you can do a quick Google search for more charts)
4. Drinking too much alcohol. Some people say that alcohol may help one to get better sleep but on the contrary, it doesn’t, and can lead to a massive hangover, which is never fun.
5. Caffeine. This is one of the main contributors to sleeping problems. In a person’s quest to be productive, they often drink coffee, sports drinks or “energy shots”. What you need to understand is that caffeine is a stimulant & it is specifically used to keep you alert and/or awake. If you are prone to not sleeping, it is best to avoid foods, at least after 4 or so in the afternoon.
To get back to a normal sleeping pattern, try to detox for a couple of days, limit your consumption of caffeine. Let your system clean itself out and you may find that you can restore a normal sleeping schedule within just a few days.