Eating Before Bed

Is it a bad idea to eat before bed?

It depends on several factors and I don’t feel there is a blanket answer.

No, I wouldn’t suggest eating a pint of ice cream while you drift off to sleep; actually, I wouldn’t suggest eating a pint of ice cream any time, for that matter!

I also don’t recommend eating a giant meal right before heading off to bed for the night, but at the same time, if you’ve had a day which was out of the norm, putting you in a position where you weren’t able to eat your dinner at the normal time, I wouldn’t advise skipping the meal entirely.

Would it be any better to wake in the middle of the night with your stomach growling and eat a meal then?  Not so much.

In that case, perhaps have a lighter meal and know that in the morning you may need to eat a little more as you may be in a bit of a caloric deficit after not eating enough the day before.

I came upon one study which recommend eating carbohydrates as a means to facilitate the body falling asleep faster;I still am a fan of keeping all the meals balanced in terms of the Paleo macro nutrient ratio of roughly 40/30/30 as a general rule of thumb.

A handful of berries or an apple, however, would be an acceptable little extra if you felt the inclination to have a little bite to eat before catching your zzzzz’s!