Sleeping problems caused by a big meal Whenever we eat something, our body gets busy trying to digest what we've just eaten.
As gravity aids the process of digestion, by helping it move through the intestines, lying down has the reverse effect.
Lying down coupled with all the stomach acids produced to help you digest, has a good possibility of leading to digestion.
When you lie down the food can just sit in your stomach, or may be even travel up to the esophagus and when the corrosive acids also travel up your esophagus, this is called reflux, which can be very painful.
Sometimes the problem can be even worse, when acid plus food has travelled through the vocal cords and into the lungs, this can lead to all sorts of problems, difficulty breathing, high fever etc.
People who eat big meals just before they sleep, on a frequent basis, are also more likely to have problems associated with weight gain.
A very small bite before sleeping There are times that for whatever reason you were unable to have your dinner at a reasonable time and before you know it's time to sleep.
Knowing that having your meal now can lead to sleeping problems and to a whole host of other health related problems, you decide to skip your meal.
A few hours into your sleep hunger kicks in and you can't sleep, you start worrying that these sleeping problems may lead to insomnia.
How many of us have been here? Conclusion Sleeping problems can be caused by a wide variety of issues, with eating too much or too little being one of them.
I remember whilst doing shift work, this was a dilemma I regularly used to face.
It took a good few weeks to realise that the trick is to eat a big enough meal so you didn't wake up during the night due to hunger and small enough so you don't get the problems associated with eating a big meal before sleeping, mentioned above.