Bad Effects of Sleeping After Eating – The drowsiness that arises after a meal is one of the body’s responses to biochemical changes occurring in the digestive system. No wonder, the desire to sleep after eating often appears.
Actually sleepy after eating is normal and not to be feared. However, the habit of sleeping after a meal can increase health risks. Some of them are gaining weight, stomach acid disease, chest pain, and stroke attacks.
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The relationship between eating and drowsiness
Before explaining the bad effects of eating before sleep, you need to know that phenomenon of sleeping after eating for some people are something that is difficult to avoid.
High calorie and carbohydrate foods are foods that can cause drowsiness.
The cause of desire to sleep after a meal seems to be influenced by the food consumed. One of them is a food that is relatively high in calories, especially those that also contain tryptophan amino acids. It will affect the production of serotonin, hormones which may cause drowsiness, such as turkey, spinach, soybeans, cheese, tofu and fish.
In addition, foods high in carbohydrates can make blood sugar levels rise and fall drastically, thus causing a fall asleep after eating. While the mineral content of bananas, is able to relax the muscles so that it triggers the drowsiness after eating.
Read also: Bad Effects of Less Than 6 Hours of Sleep.
The bad effects on the body if you go straight to sleeping after eating
Here are the dangers of sleeping after a meal that can happen to your body, including:
Heartburn
Sleeping right after meals can make a flatulent and feel sores that makes you difficult to sleep peacefully. Because during sleep, the gastric valve will open so the acid fluid from the stomach is susceptible to rise to the throat and cause heartburn, or sensation of discomfort that is hot in the upper abdomen or sometimes until the throat. Heartburn during sleep after eating is mainly more susceptible to experienced by people who previously had gastric problems, such as ulcer or GERD.
Increase the risk of sleep apnea and stroke
In addition to being able to trigger heartburn, sleeping immediately after eating can also increase the risk of sleep apnea and stroke. This was once put forward by the research team from the University of Ioannina Medical School in Greece. The theory is that eating before sleep time increases the risk of gastric acid rise to the throat, blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels, and blood pressure that affect the increased risk of sleep apnea and related to strokes.
Triggering the diabetes mellitus.
It has been described earlier, that eating before sleep can lead to the buildup of fat in the body, especially the stomach. The fat in the stomach is harmful and is associated with insulin resistance that bothers the metabolism of sugar. As a result, diabetes mellitus or blood sugar disease is very difficult to avoid.
Risky to make weight gain
The next danger of sleeping after eating is to make your weight gain. Sleeping after eating triggers weight gain because at night people prefer the consumption of high-calorie foods, and not used as a source of energy.
Excess calorie intake can be the fat that causes weight gain. So, eating time actually doesn’t affect your weight, but what you consume.
So if you’re hungry at night, eat, but don’t sleep right away. Try to have a distance between sleeping with a meal, about 1-2 hours after meals. This allows the body to digest the food thoroughly. The stomach contents also moved into the small intestine, thus reducing the chance of digestive disorders due to sleeping after eating.
Or if you wake up from sleeping by hunger, yes, it is better to consume only grain cereals or pastries, or low-fat milk. These foods are easily digestible and do not particularly trigger an increase in gastric acid. Avoid heavy meals or fried foods just before bedtime.
Read also: How To Sleep Faster, Even in Just 1 Minute.
The habit of sleeping after eating does seem trivial, but it can have a bad impact on health. There is no word too late to begin to improve the habit so that you avoid the various digestive disorders and other more dangerous diseases.
