Washington: While sipping on a cup of beverage before bedtime might seem tempting but experts advise people to avoid certain drinks before laying off to sleep! “Things that contain caffeine are definitely going to be less-than-desirable for most people,” said Jessica Garay Redmond, assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at Syracuse University in New York.
Redmond added that caffeine intake also depends on a person’s sensitivity, “That’s not even just right before bed, but I think depending on a person’s caffeine sensitivity, they may need to shut down the caffeine in their day at some point in the afternoon or certainly by dinner time so that they can then have a restful night sleep.”
The study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep suggests that one must refrain from their caffeine craving as early as six hours before going to bed. Caffeine is not only restricted to be found in Coffee but also marks its presence in some teas, soda and also chocolates. The researchers also advised to avoid alcohol before heading to bed.
“It (alcohol) traps you in the lighter stages of sleep and dramatically reduces the quality of your rest at night,” CNN quoted Rebecca Robins, a post doctoral research fellow at NYU Langone Health, as saying.
Robins added, “It continues to pull you out of rapid eye movement and the deeper stages of sleep, causing you to wake up not feeling restored.” While talking about a possible good bedtime drink, Robins suggested that milk (source of tryptophan) could be an alternative and said, “That’s one of those recommendations that’s been around for a really long time.”
Tryptohan converts into two brain chemicals which are associated with sleep- melatonin, which helps regulate your body’s natural sleep and wake cycles, and serotonin, which causes relaxation and drowsiness.
“At this point there’s so much research that has looked at the effects of milk and warm milk and there’s not necessarily an obvious connection that makes it a universal recommendation. A lot of researchers now suspect that it might be more sort of psychological than anything else,” Redmond suggested.
