What happens if you eat at night, what happens to the body, is it harmful to eat late at night

Is it okay to eat late at night? How does a late dinner affect sleep? How many hours before bedtime should you eat?

We understand together with a nutriciologist and somnologist.

Some people believe that it is necessary to eat at least a couple of hours before bedtime. Others can not fall asleep without a cookie and a cup of your favorite tea. But how does the body really feel about such late-night snacks? Is it really so harmful to eat at night or is this an established stereotype?

sleep physician

In sleep there are other processes, not the same as during the day. When there are no distractions at night, when we do not abuse alcohol, coffee and spices, the brain and the body in general are engaged in their tasks.

How does the body digest food?

Digestion begins when food enters the mouth. Under the action of enzymes in the saliva, digestion of carbohydrates begins. This means that the more thoroughly you chew your food, the better it will be digested in the stomach. At the same time begins to produce hydrochloric acid, on the presence of which depends on the digestion of proteins.

In the stomach food is in the stomach for several hours. During this time, it is digested by enzymes of saliva and gastric juice and turns almost into liquid and sent further down the gastrointestinal tract. This takes about 6-10 hours. Food with a lot of fats and proteins takes the longest time to digest. While the food is in the intestines, the body extracts nutrients from it.

With the brain
The main thing that sleep is needed for is adequate brain function. It is he who at night needs to recover after a hard day, to form and organize the information received. It is also in sleep that the brain needs to cleanse itself, and literally. When a person falls asleep, opens the “drainage system”: a special intercellular fluid washes the brain of various toxins, harmful substances and proteins that accumulate during the day. And if a person sleeps poorly, it can be fraught with diseases associated specifically with the brain.

With immunity
Every day a person faces toxins, harmful substances – we inhale them, consume them with water, food. Every day we meet with infections and bacteria. It is in sleep that the body is cleansed of these substances, and also produces antibodies to various viruses. That is, people who are sick, especially need healthy sleep.

With memory
Daria: It has been proven that when people receive some information, it is first stored in the hippocampus, but for it to move to the cerebral cortex, sleep is necessary.

With hormones
During a night’s rest, important hormones are synthesized. For example, in children, growth hormone is produced during sleep. In adults, this same hormone is not responsible for growth, but for making them thin in their sleep – which is why obesity is considered one of the causes of overweight. Sleep also produces the “darkness hormone” melatonin, which helps you sleep deeply. And early morning dreaming produces the hormone cortisol, which prepares you for a stressful day.

Odborník na výživu

If you have eaten at night, the body has to abandon the lined up and well-coordinated work of renewal and recovery and take up the process of digestion, spending its resources on it. In addition, at night is reduced activity of enzymes, gastric juice production and other mechanisms of digestion – this will not allow food to be properly digested and give the body nutrients, vitamins and valuable micro- and macronutrients.

Hence, most of the health problems of those who like to eat at night: diabetes, overweight, risk of cardiovascular disease, eating disorders, heartburn, chronic fatigue, exacerbation of chronic diseases.

Therefore, it is recommended to eat no later than three hours before bedtime. During this time, all active digestive processes will end.

Daria: If it so happened that you ate right before going to bed, while on the plate were products fatty, with a large content of spices and salt, it can disrupt sleep. It will be shallow, jagged, with frequent awakenings, and you will get up “on the wrong foot”. Because the body as if planned to do its business in sleep. And here we “threw” in the stomach unnecessary products, and he had to work intensively to digest these products. And this requires time and energy. And the main task of sleep could not fulfill.

In addition, some products, such as coffee, chocolate, spices, can excite the nervous system, and we can not fall asleep for a long time. Or we fall asleep, but we wake up often. As a result, sleep is restless and shallow.

About other habits that negatively affect sleep, you can learn in the video “Championship”.

It turns out that if you eat shortly before bedtime, you will not benefit either from the food eaten (no matter how useful it may be) or from night rest (the body will not have time to recover and cope with all the tasks – it will digest the food). Therefore, it is important to do everything in a timely manner.