Why can't you eat before bed? Consequences of a late dinner. What you can eat before going to bed and what you can’t You can eat it at night

Meditation

Take a comfortable position. Let thoughts flow naturally: don't try to focus on or ignore anything. Everything that filled you during the day should be left in the past.

Evening meditation will help to "zero" the mind and enter the coming day open to a new experience.

Curfew

Light is associated with the production of melatonin and cortisol. It gets dark - the level of melatonin rises. This allows us to have a good rest. It's dawn, and the level of cortisol rises - the body is ready for accomplishments. At least that's how nature intended. But in the 21st century, people look at the screens of laptops, tablets and smartphones before going to bed. Why this is harmful, read in detail at the link below.

This is one of the reasons why you should have a “curfew” before bed. No gadgets! Another reason is that digital noise also reduces the quality of sleep.

Send your devices into airplane mode at night. Then your peace of mind and your sleep will not be disturbed by a notification about a comment on a photo, or another email newsletter, or an SMS with a super offer from the bank (why do they send them at night?).

Settings

Before going to bed, the mind is no less sensitive to information than in the morning. Therefore, the evening is a great time for personal settings.

Use positive affirmations:

to stimulate self-confidence;
set yourself up for success;
abstract from the opinions of others;
focus on your goals;
motivate yourself to work hard and so on.

It is important to correctly compose an affirmation, as well as pronounce it out loud (preferably in front of a mirror). Such a nightly auto-training can destroy internal stereotypes accumulated over the years.

Diary

Keeping a personal diary is not a whim of a graphomaniac. Psychologists say that by expressing feelings and thoughts on paper or electronically, we make life more conscious. Sometimes a diary entry allows you to reveal and resolve problems that were hidden deep in the subconscious.

Evening is the perfect time to “talk” with the diary. About the events of the past day, about what upset or pleased you today, about the people with whom you communicated, about yourself, how you were.

Planning

Making a plan for the day the night before:

saves time (no need to cut it out in the morning);
mobilizes (woke up, you already know what to do).

Planning methods are individual. If you have not yet developed your own, then read the following articles.

But the general rule is this: write down all the tasks, and then sort them by importance and urgency.

Priorities

This ritual follows from the previous one. Once you have your to-do list, you need to prioritize it. Choose the three most important tasks. They should be focused on achieving your goal and help you progress.

After that, break these three tasks into smaller subtasks. Number them: No. 1 - do before 11 o'clock, No. 2 - do right after No. 1, No. 3 - do during lunch, and so on.

Alternatively, try the 1-3-5 approach as well. Perhaps it suits you better.

In any case, you will receive a detailed action plan for the next day, and this, in turn, motivates. After all, when everything is on the shelves, it’s easier to work, isn’t it?

Gratitude

This ritual is recommended to be performed while already in bed. Close your eyes and think about who or what and for what you are grateful in the passing day. Say thank you to a colleague who picked you up on your way to work; or the waitress who served you quickly; or a spouse who was just there and supported; or to yourself...

From the point of view of positive psychology, gratitude is a positive emotion that not only strengthens interpersonal relationships, but also perfectly motivates. Falling asleep with thoughts of good, you set yourself up to continue the chain of good tomorrow.

You can overcome bad habits only today, not tomorrow.
Confucius

Do you have evening rituals?
Tell us in the comments what you do before bed.

Illiterate nutrition before bedtime is the first enemy of harmony and a threat to health. But it is difficult to fall asleep when hungry, so a light snack is necessary, especially since there are sleep-improving foods that you can use to sleep well even after eating.

Doctors constantly say that eating before bed is a bad habit. There are explanations for this:

At night, digestive processes proceed at a slower pace. If you overeat before going to bed, then you should know that a heavy snack before bed is extra pounds. There is no benefit in it - the sleeping organism will not have time to digest food, and it will turn into adipose tissue.
Consumption of high-calorie food, despite the late evening, provokes the launch of putrefactive processes as a result of their interaction with gastric juice. The products of these processes are toxins. Once in the blood, they cause various chronic diseases. This negatively affects the condition of the skin, hair, nails, and even after sleeping with an overloaded stomach, a person does not feel the best way.

And if this happened, then what to do if there were far from the best products for sleep on the table, and besides, they overate them at night? Heaviness in the stomach, discomfort will not let you fall asleep, in order to improve your well-being, you must use one of the following methods:

Go for a walk instead of going to bed. Having eaten too much, being in the air is useful. This will help stimulate digestion and the body will return to normal faster.
Pour a glass of mineral water in which there is no gas, and add a few drops of lemon juice there. This technique will improve digestion, and you will feel how heaviness goes away. The main thing is that it is useful to do this after sleep.
Try half an hour after the feast to chew the seeds of coriander, anise or cumin and drink water. In this way, overeating will be easier to bear.
Take some kind of enzyme medicine, and if there is nothing at home, then drink a glass of mint decoction.

What can you eat before bed?

Completely refusing to eat in the evening and only drinking water instead of eating is a bad decision, although a losing weight person most often does this. Feeling hungry, like overeating, causes discomfort and does not contribute to good sleep. You need to have dinner, the only question is how many hours before bedtime you can eat and what to eat before bedtime so as not to suffer after a late dinner.

You need to eat the last time 2-3 hours before you go for a night's rest. Products for good sleep should be light and healthy. In order not to starve and lose weight, you can allow yourself a light snack before bed. To do this, you need to choose foods with a negative calorie content, such a meal helps to burn more calories than the food eaten contains.

Foods and their effect on sleep

Name	Product benefits	Notes
Apples with peel	The fibers in the fruits lower cholesterol, have a beneficial effect on the work of housing and communal services.	You can not snack on apples if there are problems with the stomach - the fruit eaten at night increases gas formation.
Citrus	Each grapefruit, orange, tangerine contains about 40 kcal. This is what you can eat before going to bed, but do not eat up completely, but allow yourself a few slices.	Do not eat citrus fruits if you have acute gastritis or other stomach problems. A small spoonful of honey added to grapefruit juice will improve the taste.
Bananas	Helps to fall asleep due to the presence of an amino acid such as tryptophan, which produces the hormone of joy - serotonin. There will be no harm if you eat a little.	You can not eat bananas with high blood sugar. When you feel hungry at night, take something else.
Celery	There are about 10 calories in one root. Fresh juice or celery salad allowed as a snack will not harm a restful sleep.	Pregnant and lactating mothers are contraindicated. It's not something you can eat when a person has varicose veins, a stomach disorder.
flounder fish	The meat is low-calorie, with a balanced amino acid composition, rich in vitamins and minerals.
Kefir	This dairy product contains a lot of calcium, well digestible in the dark. Works relaxing.	You can not drink in large quantities, even if you really wanted to, when the acidity of the stomach is increased.
beetroot salad	High content of betaine, which can burn fat, curcumin, pectin.	Not recommended for kidney disease and acute inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract.
Milk	It is useful to drink warm milk with honey before going to bed so that you no longer want to eat. It contains substances that promote sleep.	A spoonful of honey before bed acts as a sleeping pill.
Oatmeal	Rich in silicon, phosphorus.	What porridge cannot be eaten is sweet.

Knowing that eating before bedtime is harmful, sometimes you just want to drink a cup of cocoa. Desire is not to be resisted. A drink containing flavanols can prevent obesity during sleep, which is important when losing weight. How many calories are burned is also affected by the quality of cocoa. Sweet, instant drinks will only do harm.

To lose weight, it is useful to drink water before dinner. Water before bed will allow you to eat smaller portions.

What can not be eaten before bed?

There is a list of what absolutely can not be eaten at night.

salty;
sweet;
flour;
fatty.

If you do not eat such foods before going to bed, then rapid weight loss is possible, provided that you follow a diet consisting of foods that are on the list of what you can eat and not get better. If during the day a woman ate everything that was in the refrigerator, without delving into how many calories there are, then it doesn’t matter whether she ate fatty or sweet at night.

What to do so that the child does not wake up to eat at night?

For many mothers, the actual problem is how to wean a child from feeding at night. Until the age of 6 months, this should not be done, and then, when feeding at night is no longer the norm, but a bad habit, you will have to take action.
Before weaning a child to eat at night, you should watch him. If during the day he eats fully, gains weight, is healthy, but wakes up at equal time intervals at night, then it's time to think about how to wean the child from this:

Feed your baby during the day at the set time, but increase portions.
Adjust the temperature in the nursery to 18-200. Humidify the air.
Tire your baby with a long walk in the air, outdoor games, bathe before going to bed.
Do not feed him if he woke up at night. There is no need to give substitutes - juice or compote, they are sweet, and it is not a fact that children will not want to feast on them every night instead of milk. Let the milk first be replaced by water, which is better for the digestive tract, and it won’t cause a special desire to wake up at night to take it.

9 reasons why you want to sleep after drinking alcohol

Many are interested in why, when you drink, you want to sleep. The fact is that the brain of a drunk person experiences oxygen deficiency, metabolic processes in his body decrease, and what comes after that cannot be called a full-fledged sleep, rather it looks like a loss of consciousness. There are 10 causes of sleepiness:

Destruction of the erythrocyte membrane by alcohol. The shell that covers each red blood cell does not allow them to stick together. When the shell is destroyed, the red blood cells cannot exist normally, they begin to stick together, forming blood clots. As a result of oxygen deficiency in the brain and body tissues, there are signs of hypoxia after alcohol.
Inactivity of a part of the brain, lethargy, which is a consequence of the blockage of small vessels by the formed clots.
The inability of a weakened body to maintain consciousness.
Inhibition of the metabolic process in the brain due to lack of glucose and oxygen.
The inability of the capillaries to pass agglutinated red blood cells, which leads to oxygen starvation of certain sections of the cerebral tissue.
Disabling the energy-consuming mode of wakefulness under the influence of alcohol. Occurs due to the fact that a certain number of neurons die without oxygen. A lot of energy is spent on maintaining the viability of the remaining ones, as a result, a person is overcome by sleep.
Increasing brain fluid to flush out decaying dead neurons.
A sharp change in the level of metabolism. Due to the expansion of blood vessels due to the fact that you drank wine or other alcohol before bed and increased blood flow, neurons receive a large amount of oxygen and glucose. Soon the opposite process begins: blood flow decreases as a result of vasospasm, oxygen starvation sets in.
Large expenditure of energy for the removal of toxins. The body weakens and a person wants to sleep after alcohol.

All this happens to the body not only after strong drinks, but also after beer. But there is another reason why many people want to sleep from beer - the presence of hops in this drink, which has a sedative effect.
When asked if it is possible to eat before going to bed, experts give a positive answer, but remember - dinner is not the main meal of the day, you do not need to eat a lot.

List of used literature:

Levin Ya. I., Kovrov G. V. Some modern approaches to the treatment of insomnia // The attending physician. - 2003. - No. 4.
Kotova O. V., Ryabokon I. V. Modern aspects of insomnia therapy // Attending physician. - 2013. - No. 5.
T. I. Ivanova, Z. A. Kirillova, L. Ya. Rabichev. Insomnia (treatment and prevention). - M.: Medgiz, 1960.

Sleep problems can be caused by medications you take every day. Antidepressants often cause insomnia or, conversely, constant drowsiness, and pain medications are bad for the stomach and can interfere with sleep. For any sleep disorder, it is best to contact your doctor - it may be worth adjusting the time of taking medications or even switching to others.

Dmitry Solovyov

Challenger medical expert

There are medications that are undesirable to take before bedtime. This is due to their invigorating effect: for example, caffeine is additionally added to many medicines for fever. As conceived by the manufacturers, caffeine makes a person feel better when he is weak and unwell. These drugs are good if you need to endure a cold "on your feet" (although we still advise you not to do this), but when you need to bring down the temperature in the evening, you should use something else (which does not contain caffeine). So check out what your favorite high temperature syrup is made of.

Sleep disturbance can be a side effect of many drugs (such as those used for bronchial asthma), so if you have lost sleep after you started drinking any drug, you should carefully study its instructions. The effect of drugs on sleep is sometimes unpredictable - in some people, paradoxically, even sleeping pills can cause insomnia. So you need to be careful with medicines, and in any serious situation, take them only on the advice of a doctor.

We hope you have known for a long time that the rule "do not eat after 18.00" does not work. Refuse food, at least fatty and high-calorie, should be 1.5-2 hours before bedtime - and this will be enough. But is it worth enduring hunger if you want to eat something right before bedtime?

Nutritionists agree that this is not necessary at all. Another thing is that it is best to choose the right products for a late dinner, that is, those that will improve and not shift the arrow on the scales. In this material - just ten options for a night snack without harm to the figure.

Dark chocolate

Chocolate is often viewed as a forbidden food, but not all types of chocolate are equal in this regard. There is a huge nutritional difference between a chocolate bar with nuts and a bar of dark chocolate. Dark chocolate, in particular, is low in sugar and loaded with healthy antioxidants that lower blood pressure, fight inflammation, and improve mood.

pistachios

Pistachios are a great evening snack, especially if you can find a salt-free option. The fact is that they contain fiber (necessary for an optimal digestive process), as well as biotin, vitamin B6, thiamine, folic acid, unsaturated fats and plant sterols, which makes them extremely nutritious, and at the same time provides the body with a lot of pleasant bonuses.

Soup

It is unlikely that you expected to find soup in this list, but nevertheless. The fact is that any warm liquids have a calming effect on us, but if you are sure that you need something more satisfying than a cup of tea, or vegetable soup will come in handy. Important note: avoid vegetables such as lentils or beans in the soup. They are quite difficult to digest, and this will make your restless, which is definitely not the end goal.

Pumpkin seeds

A good nighttime meal is one that will manage your hunger but at the same time help you relax and get ready for sleep. One serving of pumpkin seeds contains almost 50% of the recommended daily allowance of magnesium, and magnesium is known to be important for restful and deep sleep.

Warm milk + honey

Warm milk has long been used as a sleep aid, making it a good choice for an evening snack if you have trouble falling asleep. It is interesting to note that, despite research confirming the effectiveness of this method, all this may be a consequence of our psychological perception. However, the amino acids found in milk lead to the production of the hormone serotonin, which will help you and "bad thoughts" that prevent you from falling asleep. Adding a spoonful of honey, of course, will increase the amount of sugar in the drink, but at the same time it will affect the level of serotonin, which will also not be superfluous for soft falling asleep.

Blueberry

Blueberries are rich in antioxidants (and frozen berries are as good as fresh ones) and also contain nutrients that, according to numerous studies, can improve brain function and overall health. If you're not on a strict diet and can afford the extra calories, add two tablespoons of cream to the berries for an incredibly delicious dessert.

Rice

New PLoS One research shows that a rice-based diet is associated with up to a 46% reduction in insomnia compared to bread (no change) and noodles (sleep got worse). Foods with a high glycemic index (GI), such as rice, can speed up the production of tryptophan and melatonin, hormones that are essential for quality sleep.

Almond

Nuts are considered not the best snack for those who are trying to get rid of excess weight, mainly due to their fat content. However, a study published in 2012 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that people who consumed almonds for 18 months lost the same amount of weight as people who cut almonds from their diet (ceteris paribus).

Add to this the fact that almonds stabilize the level of triglycerides - two main risk factors for cardiovascular disease. And, of course, let's not forget about the content of magnesium in almonds, which is considered a real “sleep pill”.

Roll with cheese

Sounds incredible, doesn't it? And yet, if for some reason you have not eaten during the day and are now extremely hungry, prepare yourself a roll with cheese (and, if desired, with chicken breast). Let's not talk about calories here, but only about practical utility. So, cheese is rich in casein, a complex protein that, according to the British Journal of Nutrition, will not only make you feel full, but also speed up your metabolism.

Ginger tea

Recall that our body sometimes works in such a way that thirst disguises itself as hunger. However, drinking several glasses of water - especially if you do not feel like it - is not at all necessary. How about ginger tea? In addition to the obvious immune benefits, ginger will get rid of the nerve-stimulating caffeine found in tea. This means it will help you fall asleep faster.

Signs for the night will tell you what not to do at night, so as not to call trouble into the house. They will also tell about the actions before going to bed, which will help to attract good luck.

Predicting the future after sunset

After sunset, animals can warn of upcoming events. Seeing a spider at night is a matter of worries and troubles. Roosters sing all night long - to the trouble that will affect entire area or town. Chickens also warn about this if they scream or fly off the perch before dawn. The birth of puppies before dawn - to quarrels in the house, and unreasonable barking - to trouble.

At night, when all sounds subside and the lights go out, the brownie comes out of his hiding place, where he spends the day. He can stroke a family member, and in the old days, the future was predicted by the nature of this touch. If the hand is warm and soft, the family will soon become rich and happy. Cold and hard - trouble hurries into the house.

Wake up from the singing of a cricket - to wealth. If a cat gave birth to kittens when it is already dark outside, your financial situation will change for the better.

If you wake up at three in the morning for several days in a row, this is not a good omen. It means that someone is casting a spell on you. It is unlikely that we are talking about positive rituals. Most likely, the matter is in damage or love witchcraft.

Falling or breaking things at night is a negative belief. Broken dishes portend bad news about what has already happened, but you don’t know about it yet. If an icon or other object of worship has fallen - to trouble. Maybe it's black magic. A burning lamp can go out, but in the dark it is not lit again, so as not to attract the bad.

The time after sunset is a great time to improve your financial condition. So, signs for the night recommend putting money near the mirror in the evening. Put them in your wallet in the morning. This will bring you prosperity.

What not to do before going to bed - folk wisdom

Beliefs about mirrors endow them with magical powers, often called portals to other dimensions. That is why it is forbidden to look at your reflection at night - so as not to involuntarily invite guests from other worlds. It is far from certain that they will be friendly. In addition, in the old days they believed that in the dark, mirrors take away beauty and youth.

It is better to take off your underwear at night so that it does not collect the negative energy of evil forces. Therefore, it is highly undesirable to wash before going to bed. You can’t shave, cut your hair, cut your nails until morning. This applies to both men and women. Those who violate the ban face problems in their personal lives.

One of the things not to do before bed is to be active. Noise, laughter, fun games from sunset were strictly prohibited. The old people said that in the evening children play with devils. Perhaps the fact is that after the fun, the child is difficult to put to sleep.

In the old days, pregnant women slept under the moonlight so that the baby would be born healthy. According to other superstitions, sleeping in the rays of the moon is crazy. Therefore, before going to bed, you should not leave the windows uncurtained.

Before going to bed, you should remove vampire plants from the bedroom. For example, one is monstera. Sleeping in the same room with her threatens with fatigue and poor health in the morning.

You can't leave the house at midnight. Wait until the first hour of the night. Opening the door before going to bed is also undesirable. If someone made a mistake with the door, this promises you problems in the government house.

night omens

Our ancestors left until the morning all things immediately after sunset. So, beliefs forbid taking out the trash until the morning. At night, an unclean force wakes up, which can take away wealth from the house through the rubbish taken out of it. Along with the garbage, money luck is also taken out.

Don't leave a knife on the table. The brownie is afraid of sharp objects, this can offend him. Such negligence brings illness and problems to the family.

Dirty dishes, salt shaker with salt, onion and garlic prevent the brownie from fighting evil spirits. Therefore, these things should be removed in kitchen cabinets. Money on the table at night - to their loss, keys - to the loss of property, an empty bottle - to poverty. Food is not left on the table also because evil spirits can move into it.

After sunset, they do not give bread and salt from the house. These items are often damaged. In addition, it is a sign of poverty and failure. Among the things not to do at night is cleaning. To notice in the dark - sweep the brownie out of the house, lose his protection and patronage. Wash the floor - wash good luck, love and prosperity.

Signs about money forbid borrowing or lending after sunset. This portends a deprivation of monetary luck; you can remain in debt for a long time. According to superstition, money sleeps at night. Therefore, you should not count them, shift them from place to place.

They also do not give oaths and promises after sunset, it will be almost impossible to fulfill them.

In the old days, they didn’t collect water at night, they didn’t go swimming in natural reservoirs - after sunset, water and mermaids wake up. The exception is some church holidays, for example, Epiphany night. You can’t take a bath in the bath only after midnight - at this time the devils are steaming there.

There are many signs about what not to do before dawn. They are designed to protect a person from evil spirits and black sorcerers, who at this time become more active. Knowing the old signs, in the dark, you can attract wealth or good luck to the house, predict the future, protect yourself from trouble.