Why After Eating Can Not Instantly Sleep

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Feeling sleepy after eating is quite often the case, so going straight to sleep after eating is inevitable. Without realizing it, this has a negative impact on health. Have you ever slept after eating and the top of your stomach feels hot? This is one result. Sleeping after eating makes sleeping uncomfortable and can also cause other effects.

What is the danger if we go to bed immediately after eating?

Sleeping immediately after eating can make your sleep quality not optimal, it can even increase the risk of illness, such as stroke. We recommend that the last dinner be done a few hours before going to bed. If you are very hungry and forced to eat before bed, you should choose foods that are easy to digest and eat small portions, such as fruit.

If you eat heavy food near bedtime, you will experience consequences, such as:

1. Heartburn

If you eat close to bedtime, especially eating foods that are high in fat, you will feel full and bloated. More than that, going straight to sleep after eating can cause heartburn, namely the sensation of heat in the upper abdomen or sometimes up to the throat caused by an increase in stomach acid. This heat sensation makes your night sleep not soundly.

Dinner nearing bedtime may also make you less hungry in the morning so you miss breakfast. Skipping breakfast can make you overeat at lunch or overeat unhealthy snacks. This can cause a prolonged impact and make your diet damaged.

Sleeping after eating also makes it difficult for your digestive system to digest the food you eat and this will cause problems in your digestive system, it can even increase your risk of stroke.

2. Stroke

Research by the University of Ioannina Medical School in Greece shows that sleeping after eating can increase the risk of stroke. This study involved 500 healthy people divided into two groups, namely 250 people who had a history of previous stroke and 250 people diagnosed with acute coronary syndrome. Acute coronary syndrome is the most common type of heart disease, where blood flow to the heart decreases due to clogged arteries and can result in chest tightness until a heart attack.

This study showed that those who had the longest distance between eating and sleeping were at the lowest risk for stroke. Those who at least eat one hour before bed reduce the risk of stroke by about 66%. While those who have a distance between dinner and sleep of 70 minutes to 2 hours can reduce the risk of stroke by 76%.

This study does not explain why this can happen. But there is a theory that eating close to bedtime increases the risk of acid reflux in the throat causing it sleep apnea related to stroke.

Another theory that might also explain the relationship between eating before bed and stroke is that after eating changes in blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels and blood pressure. These three changes may have an impact on the risk of stroke. However, further research is needed to confirm this.

Is it true that dinner before bed can increase weight?

Some people assume that a dinner before bed can cause weight gain. However, this is not necessarily true. Weight gain occurs when the calories that enter your body are more than the calories that go out through the activities you do everyday. So if you overeat the calories you need and skip dinner, you can gain weight. This means when you eat it is not as important as how much food you eat. Lunch or dinner, calories remain calories, which if excessive will cause weight gain.

Maybe eating near bedtime can cause weight gain because of what and how many calories you eat. Usually people will be more interested in eating foods with high fat content, such as instant noodles, pizza, or fried foods, compared to healthy foods, such as fruit or salads at night. This is what can cause weight gain if you often eat dinner. Again, it doesn't matter when you eat, but it's more about what you eat.

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