Why Eating In Bed Is Bad For You

It is very common for you to have a television in your bedroom these days. It is also quite common to put on a Netflix show at night before bed and binge watch while eating snacks in bed before you go to sleep. Eating a snack in bed at night can interfere with your chances of getting a good night’s rest, add to you packing on pounds and can be detrimental to your overall health.

Nighttime Eating in Bed

Most people choose the wrong type of snacks to chomp on in their bed. They see it as a chance to take an entire bag of chips to the boudoir and mindlessly eat as they watch television. The most common things that people eat at night are sugary or salty items such as candy, potato chips, cookies and ice cream. These types of snacks are not the best choices for anyone, especially just before bedtime. When you are on your tablet or phone and eating in bed, it becomes a mechanical and thoughtless movement of your hands to keep eating. It can cause you to overeat a great deal because you aren’t paying attention to your body’s signals to tell you that you are full and need to stop eating.

Heartburn Symptoms

If you choose to eat foods that are highly acidic, spicy or laden with garlic it can cause you to have heartburn and prevent you from sleeping well. When you lie down heartburn becomes much worse than if you are sitting up. It causes your stomach acids to rise up in your esophagus to cause heartburn in your chest. Over time, the continual heartburn at night can lead to a deteriorating esophagus, which can be a serious medical issue. We may all like Buffalo wings, but you should avoid eating fried foods at night in bed.

Insomnia Factors

According to the National Sleep Foundation, insomnia is the most common sleep complaint that will not allow you to fall asleep or stay asleep. Eating nighttime snacks that are heavy can make insomnia much worse, as does drinking caffeine or alcohol. You should instead choose a small snack with protein and carbohydrates, such as a small bowl of whole grain cereal without sugar and milk. This combination also is found to be calming and allow you to get to sleep so you wake up feeling refreshed the next morning.

Asthma Patients

People with asthma that eat in bed at night have much more day and nighttime acid reflux symptoms such as wheezing and coughing. This can be very problematic for asthmatics and cause undue stress on their nervous systems. It can actually lead to a life-threatening situation.

Emotional Eating

Some people are stress eaters and indulge in an entire container of ice cream or several candy bars while in bed at night. Stress causes you to make poor food choices and you can gain a great deal of weight by food binging at night when you are stressed out about personal or work-related problems.

The Down and Dirty

One of the worst drawbacks to eating in bed is the miniscule crumbs that are left behind. Crumbs can fall into the folds of your sheets or you may spill something in a liquid form and it soaks into your mattress. Not only do you need to wash your bedding often and clean your mattress of spills, but also you are inviting bugs to your bed to eat the crumbs. Ants and roaches are the most common bugs to invade a bed that is laden with residuals of your nighttime snacks.

The best idea is to eat all meals and snacks in the kitchen or dining room and not in bed so you can avoid the pitfalls of nighttime snacks.