What should you eat in the evening?
Everyone will be familiar with it. A sumptuous meal in the evening, e.g. at a family celebration, accompanied by a glass of wine or two and an espresso afterwards to aid digestion. The following night will certainly not be one of the most restful and even falling asleep is difficult. We explain how a healthy dinner and restful sleep are linked.
Easily digestible and protein-rich dinner
Our digestion needs a lot of time for heavy, fatty foods and can keep it busy well into the night as the body has to boost the metabolism. This has an unfavourable effect on our sleep. You should generally not eat too much in the evening – especially nothing too sweet, savoury or fatty.
Avoiding carbohydrates in the evening now seems to be the method of choice for many people to lose weight. However, if this leads to a feeling of hunger, the body is activated and cannot rest. Eat light and sufficient food in the evening, such as soup, fish, cooked vegetables or low-fat quark, because carbohydrates make you feel tired. Hunger disturbs sleep. Insomnia and tiredness then lead to cravings the next day and have been proven to be linked to the development of obesity.
What should you avoid eating and drinking in the evening?
Avoid coffee & co. in the evening
You should avoid caffeinated drinks such as coffee, black or green tea, cola and energy drinks after 4 pm. If you suffer from insomnia, try to avoid them even earlier in the day.
No alcohol to help you fall asleep
Experience has shown that a glass of red wine or a beer with its soothing hops helps you fall asleep more quickly. In principle, there is nothing wrong with a small glass. However, if you have more, alcohol increases the wake-up threshold and deep sleep phases are shortened as the body releases the stress hormone cortisol. This leads to restless sleep, especially in the second half of the night. The result: we wake up feeling unrested and exhausted. So it’s better not to drink alcohol at all before going to bed or only in small quantities.
