People tend to feel sleepy right after eating and want nothing more than to take a nap. But, as it turns out, this is exactly what you should avoid doing. Sleeping or even just lying down right after you’ve eaten can have some really uncomfortable consequences. You might even recognize some of the symptoms but never realized it was your post-meal napping that caused them.
And then there are those bad dreams. And, as was mentioned just before, your metabolism being triggered causes your brain to become more active. You enter a so-called rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is the time where most dreaming takes place. So if you notice that you’re having really vivid or maybe even creepy dreams, then try to lay off eating so close to nap time.
Some people experience an increased need to urinate at night, which is known as nocturia. This can be related to the amount of caffeine in the food you eat. This means your food could be a diuretic, or in other words, it makes you have to pee more. It can, of course, be found in coffee. But what not many people know is that it’s also present in tea, any baked desserts containing chocolate, and some medications.
When you hit your bed right after eating you don’t give the body enough time to burn off calories from your meal. So even though you might feel very sleepy after a big meal and crashing on the couch for a small nap is all you want to do, it’s better to try and stay awake if you don’t want any unwanted (and unnecessary) pounds to secretly creep in.
This content was originally published here.
