7 Foods That Can Disrupt Your Sleep

If you feel physically uncomfortable after eating overly processed junk food, it certainly won’t do your sleep any favors. Pizza packs a double whammy because it is high in saturated fat and sodium.

Bonnie Taub-Dix, RDN, author of Read It Before You Eat It — Taking You From Label to Table, says, “Many highly processed foods are also salty, which could cause you to wake up during the night to reach for something to drink.”

Most people may know that consuming too much sugar can raise the risk of many health issues. But it can also make sleep more difficult. Smoothies may seem like a nice, healthy snack, but many brand-name smoothies contain higher amounts of sugar than you might realize.

For some people, sweets provide an energy spike that could keep them counting sheep instead of sawing logs. Plus, refined sugars can induce rapid fluctuations in your blood-glucose levels, Taub-Dix says, which can spike adrenaline and make it difficult to fall asleep.

“If you are hungry before bed, a complex carbohydrate or protein is a better choice, like whole-wheat toast or a banana with Greek yogurt,” Gabriel adds. “Try eating an open-faced peanut butter or almond butter sandwich on whole-grain bread. Almond and peanut butters are both high in protein and healthy, unsaturated fat, while whole-wheat bread offers fiber and more complex carbohydrates than white bread, keeping your blood-sugar levels stable while you sleep.”

Gabriel also suggests bananas before bedtime if you need something sweet-tasting. “Ideally, a meal right before bed should be smaller than ones during your more active portions of the day,” she explains. “One piece of toast with a tablespoon or two of peanut butter or a small banana should suffice.”

“If you are looking for something creamy before bedtime, try some almond butter on a few crackers instead,” suggests Gabriel.

Even the humble tomato, despite its many health benefits, can be harmful for your sleep if eaten too close to bedtime. “Acidic foods can irritate the stomach lining and elevate acidic pH levels in the body, triggering indigestion, heartburn, and acid reflux, all of which can interfere with sleep,” warns Gabriel.

Spicy foods can also cause acid reflux, says Taub-Dix. “Acid reflux is more likely to occur during sleep when we’re lying down, at which time a mix of stomach acid and foods being digested can flow back up through the esophagus. Many people find that eating spicy foods can cause this effect during the day, let alone at bedtime, when the negative impact can be compounded.”

If you are having spicy foods for dinner, wait three hours before going to bed to avoid worsening any potential acid reflux that might result from lying down. “This allows digestion to occur and the contents of your stomach to move into your small intestine,” Gabriel explains. “This may prevent problems like heartburn at night and even insomnia,” she says.

The benefits of hydration notwithstanding, few things are as frustrating as when nature calls just as you’re starting to doze off. This scenario is not uncommon if you tend to drink a lot of water right before bedtime, and it increases the likelihood of sleep interruption.

“Although so many of us walk around tired, listless, and irritable because of mild dehydration without knowing it, the time to load up on liquids is not before bed,” says Gabriel. “Drinking too much can keep you up during the night because of the need to urinate often, thereby disrupting your rest.”

“Alcohol disrupts breathing during sleep by relaxing the throat muscles. Alcohol can also reduce the brain’s ability to wake and detect a lack of oxygen in the body, and this can lead to longer and more frequent breathing pauses,” Gabriel says. “According to research, alcohol does allow healthy people to fall asleep quicker and sleep more deeply for a while, but it reduces rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. And the more you drink before bed, the more pronounced these effects.”