We all know that when we eat greasy and heavy food in the evening, we don’t sleep very well, but do we know why? We discuss this on “La Grande Forme” with Véronique Liesse, a nutritionist-dietician and “food” columnist on the show.
Often, when we eat greasy and heavy food, it is in a somewhat festive context. Even if for some, there is always something to celebrate. This means that the notion of late meals is also added. And during the column on chrononutrition, we saw that our organs follow a cycle and function at specific times. Stomach emptying is much less effective in the evening, from 8 pm onwards, and the enzymes that allow us to digest also work much less well in the evening. So the food does not leave the stomach, we feel heavy and we digest all night long. Because we have to choose between digesting or sleeping, explains our columnist.
Coffee
The little black coffee in the morning will not alter the quality of sleep, while the afternoon coffee will much more. And there, everyone has their own sensitivity. For some, coffee at 2 pm is already a problem, while for others it is not. That said, I often meet people who think that coffee does not do anything to them, but in reality, we know that it modifies the quality of sleep in everyone, but in different proportions. We can sleep but the sleep may be less restorative. We won’t really notice it. So be careful with coffee, even if you don’t feel like it’s preventing you from sleeping. Of course, this is not a question of stomach emptying here, but caffeine blocks a receptor that makes you want to sleep.
Tea
It’s the same problem, but on average, tea contains about 3 times less caffeine than coffee. But sensitive people will also feel the effect. On the other hand, stimulant drinks, by definition, will alter the quality of sleep. This is often their purpose. This is not the case with herbal teas, of course, which on the contrary, can help sleep, such as passionflower, valerian, or lemon balm.
Alcohol
We have two types of sleep: deep sleep and paradoxical sleep that we alternate during the night, but we have much more paradoxical sleep in the second part of the night. Alcohol will rather precipitate deep sleep, so we feel like sleeping early in the night after a watered-down meal and we have a heavy sleep, but in the second part of the night, from 2 to 3 am, paradoxical sleep is altered and we don’t sleep more or less well. And then, the metabolism of alcohol can accelerate the heart rate, which will also disturb sleep.
Meat
From a certain age, or even a certain age, the biggest meat eaters sleep less and snore more, which then disrupts the partner’s sleep. It’s like passive smoking. It’s not you who eat meat, but it’s still you who sleep badly.
