Let’s talk sleep & food! Should I care?

PolGurri
PolGurri Posts: 1 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Do you eat or avoid something before going to sleep? Does it affect you at all?
Bonus: do you track it in MFP?
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Replies

  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 14,302 Member
    I don't drink coffee before I sleep.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,377 Member
    edited February 5
    I don't do anything special either way, but I've always had cast-iron digestion, and sleep seemingly unaffected by what I ate (within reason).

    I think different people have different responses. I've seen people here on MFP say that they sleep poorly on an empty stomach, while others report they sleep better fasted. Seems like the "eat before bed" subgroup people choose a wide range of different foods to sleep best, besides.
  • Corina1143
    Corina1143 Posts: 3,666 Member
    Yes, I can eat protein late at night and sleep. Or I can not eat protein late, wake up at 3 am, eat protein and go back to sleep. Or I can not eat protein late at night, wake up at 3 am, not eat protein and watch TV until 6 when I give up and get up.

    I like the first choice best.
    And yes, of course I log it. If I eat it, I log it.
    And you didn't ask, but yes, I plan for it. It's called late meal in my food diary.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,854 Member
    I log everything.

    I'm not overly sensitive to eating before sleeping: I always have some sort of snack 1 hour before bedtime. But a very large meal before bed isn't ideal, and caffeine or alcohol in the evening also disturbs me somewhat. I rarely have issues falling asleep, but it's the quality of my sleep that is influenced.

    Side-note (not sure if this is what you meant): I try not to drink any fluids 1.5 hours before bedtime, to avoid having to get up at night/early morning to go to the bathroom, because I often struggle to go back to sleep again after that.
  • Sett2023
    Sett2023 Posts: 158 Member
    edited February 5
    Not every night, but many nights yes, I eat before sleeping. Sometimes just before, others after dining, at no precise time. I go by instinct: if I feel desire of a snack, I learnt that renouncing will keep me awake, so I learnt to... follow my gut :smiley:
    In this season, usually I have a very small bowl of "porridge" (20 grams of mais flakes, 100 ml of rice milk and some cinnamon), heated 1 minute in microwave. The hot and comfort make me sleep right away. In summer, I go for soy yogurt or soy ice cream, it doesn't have the immediate soporific effect of "porridge" but it doesn't prevent my sleeping, so it's okay.
    Me too can't drink in the last two hours I'm awake, or during the night I'll end for having to get up.
    And yes, I log everything, and I save room for these potential snacks in my weekly calories budget; on Sunday, if I haven't used them/used only a part, I eat something more at lunch or similar.
  • Athijade
    Athijade Posts: 3,300 Member
    I need to stop eating before bed. Been dealing with increased heart burn of late and it is not fun to wake up to that feeling at 1am. So gonna try to restrict any food to 2 hours before I lay down (along with other things but that's not the question).
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,234 Member
    PolGurri wrote: »
    Do you eat or avoid something before going to sleep? Does it affect you at all?
    Bonus: do you track it in MFP?
    you need to track everything regardless of the time of day or night.

  • COGypsy
    COGypsy Posts: 1,356 Member
    Eating is pretty much the last thing I do before I sleep. I prefer a late dinner, but still need to get plenty of sleep, so the two activities are all but concurrent. No problems with that at all for me. When I track, I track everything. Why would it not count because it's dark outside?
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 11,792 Member
    As I've gotten older I've started having to deal with acid reflux, where stomach acid slips out of the stomach and into the esophagus/throat, causing a painful burning sensation. Lying flat is part of the problem, which I solved by getting a triangle-shaped wedge pillow to prop me up slightly. The other part of the problem is from having extra stomach acid in the first place, which occurs after either large or spicy meals.

    Bottom line is I don't go to bed for at least an hour, preferably two, after a large or spicy meal. But I'm just fine having something small, like a small dish of ice cream or glass of milk with a cookie, immediately before lying down, provided I'm using my wedge pillow.

    And yes, it's all logged, and in fact planned for.

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