The food you eat during the day can have a significant impact on your sleep quality, especially when it comes to your last meal.

As noted by the candidate of medical sciences, therapist, nutritionist and head of the medical department of the Revital clinic Natalia Egorenkovatoo late, too heavy or too high-calorie dinner has a negative impact on the speed of falling asleep and the quality of night’s rest.

“At night, all processes in the body slow down so that we can recover and get rid of metabolic products accumulated during the day. If you load the digestive tract with digesting food, there will be no rest.

In addition, food will not be properly digested during this period. All this can result in long periods of falling asleep, frequent awakenings and even nightmares,” she explained. Natalia Egorenkova.

Skipping dinner can also have an impact on your sleep quality. According to the expert, feeling hungry can increase anxiety levels, making it difficult to fall asleep normally and increasing the likelihood of waking up suddenly with the desire to eat. Therefore, Natalya Egorenkova does not recommend completely giving up food in the evening.

The optimal time for dinner, as Elena Tsareva, candidate of medical sciences, neurologist-somnologist and head of the Unison somnology service, said, is two to three hours before the planned sleep. This time allows the body to slow down and prepare for sleep, eliminating all factors that could interfere with a good rest, Paragraph reports.

“It’s not without reason that we begin to yawn, process information more slowly, and digest food more slowly. An increase in the level of melatonin in the blood contributes to a general slowdown of processes in the body. Both from the point of view of sleep quality and from the point of view of metabolic processes, the evening meal is later than two or three hours before bedtime, not advisable,” noted Elena Tsareva.

The time of dinner depends on the individual’s daily routine. For those who go to bed at 21-22 o’clock, dinner at 18-19 o’clock is optimal, while for those who go to bed at 23 o’clock and later, dinner can be done no later than 20-21 o’clock.

Natalya Egorenkova emphasized that dinner should be light and easily digestible. You should not consume large amounts of fat in the evening, as this can lead to a feeling of fatigue and heaviness in the morning.

As for the desire to eat late in the evening, Dr. Tsareva has an explanation. This can be caused by stress, not eating enough during the day, or sleep disturbances.