If you go to bed with food still digesting in your stomach your body and brain have conflicting
needs.

Obviously your brain wants sleep but your body is saying “Hey I’ve got a lot of work to do here and I’m going to finish digesting this food no matter what.”

The solution here is to not eat anything (not even a small snack!) for 90 minutes before you want to sleep.

Oh dear me -no, no, no!

Sleep Science has come a long way.

Drink can also be a problem because although it moves faster through the stomach it often contains sugar and caffeine which affect your metabolism by stimulating your body.

Make sure you check your food and drinks for caffeine content -you may be surprised what items it is in. You shouldn’t have any caffeine for at least 3 hours before you sleep. Be strong on this one -OK?

If you drink alcohol you should be sober by bed time because alchohol has to be broken down and it also affects blood sugar levels.

But I feel like I will starve to death if I can't eat and drink before bedtime.

If you feel like you must have something in your stomach then just before bed have a small glass of plain water. A clever variantion on this is to have a small glass of warm water -sounds silly but it works well with those pesky cravings. Go on -try it!

Back to common problems why you cant sleep.