What time should you dine?

There are two habits that always seem to make sleep doctors are erected: Use alcohol as a sleeping pill and dinner late. If you want to have dinner with a doctor specializing in sleep, you better ask them to meet for the special of early birds because they certainly seem Be collectively against a late evening meal.

But what is exactly “late”?

A dinner in the early evening is not always realistic. Sometimes you have to make a dinner reservation after 20 hours to leave enough time to finish work, prepare and go to the restaurant. Perhaps you work non-traditional hours or your journey is long, which makes the idea of ​​a dinner at 6 p.m. completely laughable. And what about cultures where dinner is systematically eaten after 9 p.m., as in France or Spain?

We interviewed the best sleep experts at the ideal time for dinner and what to do if you have to eat late, but you always want to sleep well. Continue to read to see the verdict.

Different people have different ideas on what is “late” (your grandparents can consider eating a late evening supper at 6.30 am, for example). But sleep doctors define “late” compared to your bedtime.

“Ideally, there should be three hours between the moment you eat and when you go to bed,” Dr Catherine DarleyThe founder of the Naturopathic Sleeping Medicine Institute, told HuffPost. This means that if you go to bed at 10 p.m., dinner after 7 p.m. is considered late.

There are good reasons why sleep doctors recommend dinner early in the evening. “Everyone is different, but in general, eating a heavy meal before the bed can make it difficult to fall asleep and stay in a deep sleep. It is because he forces your body to digest when it should rest, ” Dr Hana Patel, A sleep expert for TIME4 SLEEP,, said HuffPost.

Patel explained that when the body works hard to digest your dinner while you try to sleep, it could cause some discomfort and prevent intestinal bacteria from resting. This, she said, interrupts the hormones that regulate the sleeping cycle of sleep. In the short term, this can cause acid reflux. In the long term, this can lead to inflammation and increase the risk of obesity.

Darley added to this, saying that late dinner disrupts the circadian rhythm of the body, which is a 24 -hour cycle that is part of the internal clock of the body. “Since eating is an awakened activity, eating late signals to the body, it should be awake,” she said, explaining how a late evening meal can keep some people at night.

Some people are certainly affected by dinner late later than others. Maybe you can name someone who eats an end of evening dinner followed by an espresso even later but has no problem hitting hay, when you may have to avoid sipping anything Either before going to bed or you will have to pee in the middle of the night.

“Some people are more affected by a diet at the end of the evening, such as those with stomach problems or diabetes. These people could see that eating late aggravates their sleep problems, ”said Dr Shelby HarrisA approved clinical psychologist specializing in behavioral sleep medicine. CLinic neurologist Dr Daniel Barone Told HuffPost that if you have an acid reflux or a sensitive bladder, you should absolutely avoid eating or drinking something about three hours before going to bed to avoid sleep disturbances such as heartburn or flaw pee.

All this explains why sleep experts often warn against dinner late, but that still does not deny the fact that it is not always realistic or even current to do in certain cultures.

It is true that dinner above 9 p.m. is the norm in certain cultures, but Barone said that it was important to consider what the lifestyles of these cultures as a whole and not just to focus on ‘Time at which dinner is eaten. For example, he said they could go to bed later and wake up later than what is considered normal in the United States, this means that there could still be three hours between dinner and bedtime, allowing It is up to food to digest before the body is trying to sleep.

Barone said that late evening eaters in other cultures can also eat a smaller meal at night (which is easier to digest) instead of the oversized parts that are the norm here in the United States. This is certainly true for Mediterranean cultures, where lunch is larger than dinner, according to Elena Paravantes, A recorded dietitian that divides his time between the United States and Greece.

If dinner at the start of the evening is not possible – because of your work schedule or other reason – and you fear to eat late will affect your sleep, Barone has said that it may be useful to consider Prepare for lunch your biggest meal of the day and eat a little dinner. Hey, just consider yourself to live the Mediterranean life!

Nutritional therapist Kerry Beeson said it can also be useful to avoid fatty foods when eating a late dinner, which means giving up fried foods, loaded with cheese or fatty cuts. These foods are more difficult to digest and also more likely to cause stomach burns. Beeson also recommends avoiding sugar -rich foods because it can cause a “rush to sugar”, which can keep you longer than you want.

“You need something that is not too fatty and difficult to digest, but you also need something that will not increase your blood sugar. Skinny poultry and other protein foods such as nuts, eggs or salmon, contain tryptophan. The body converts tryptophan into melatonin and serotonin neurotransmitters, which help regulate sleep habits, “Beeson told HuffPost.

You’ve heard it already, and you hear it again: all sleep experts highlight the importance of avoiding alcohol at least three hours before bedtime. Although alcohol can initially help you fall asleep, He embarks on sleep of deep,, And you probably wake up in the middle of the night.

Even if late dinner can interfere with sleep, Darley said that it wouldn’t do much damage if you only do it from time to time. If you like to go out to eat on weekends and enjoy a glass of end-of-evening wine, it can spoil your sleep that night, but she said you should bounce back fairly quickly if you start eating and drink The sooner side. “I never want people to abandon pleasure and good quality of life just to maintain a strict sleep routine,” she said. “We need pleasure and friendship as much as we need sleep.”

The big point to remember here: it is our routine habits that count the most. An occasional dinner reservation of 9:30 p.m. will not ever ruin your sleep. But if you make you eat and drink just before bedtime, you are more likely to encounter sleep problems.