We’ve all heard by now some tricks to improve our sleep, such as avoiding bright screens, lavender on the pillow, avoid consuming caffeine before bed, frequent exercise, etc. Even though all of these seem to improve our sleeping patterns, we might still experience some crummy nights of sleep. As it turns out, some of the choices we make during dinner or grabbing a late-night snack play a great role on those sleep deprived nights. We’ve prepared a list with the kinds of food that are making it a lot harder for you to go to have a good night’s sleep.

Ice cream

While a bowl of ice-cream always sounds tempting, consuming it late at night might not be the best idea. It is worst for people who are sensitive to dairy, as it could upset their stomach. Even if dairy doesn’t affect you, ice cream is heavy and loaded with fat, which means that if you’re not going to burn any of it before bed, all the sugar consumed is going to work as an energy boost, affecting the quality of your sleep.

Dark Chocolate

This might come as a surprise, since dark chocolate has always been our ally, our one indulgent treat, the one treat we thought was good for us. However, before bed, a chocolate treat is not doing us any good. Much like coffee, dark chocolate contains caffeine, which makes our bodies more alert, which isn’t what we want to be before turning in. If you want to enjoy dark chocolate (or any kind of chocolate, for the matter) you might want to do it at your lunch break.

Fried foods

We all love fried foods, but unfortunately, this is one of those things we know is bad for us, and we keep consuming anyway, as a guilty pleasure. However, try to avoid them right before going to sleep, since they could affect your sleep quality. Potatoes, steak, tortillas, high-fat cheese, sausage, etc. take a much longer time to digest than other foods and can result in sleep disruption.

Pasta

Consuming all these straight carbohydrates right before going to sleep not only sabotages our weight loss goals, as it all turns into fat, but also the quality of our sleep, especially if we decide to add any oil, tomato sauce, cheese or heavy cream – which usually goes well with a bowl of Pasta. For your next dinner, instead of a heavy meal, try going with something lighter, such as a salad and a boiled egg.

Spicy foods

As you might be aware, spicy foods do not only add taste to food, but they could also irritate your stomach. Eating spicy foods is related to indigestion and gastric disturbance, which leads to us being restless through the night. So next time you think you’re up for eating some spicy food, make sure there is enough of a gap between your dinner and bedtime.

Tomatoes

A fruit (yes, it is a fruit) that you should avoid eating before going to sleep are tomatoes. The reason behind it is its acidity, which can trigger acid reflex causing to awaken partially from sleep, disrupting our sleeping patterns.

Pizza

I bet you couldn’t find one person who doesn’t love pizza, because its beauty is in its simplicity. And for some reason, we always crave pizza late at night, because it seems like the easiest, quickest and most delicious choice for dinner. Although it is delicious, it’s not doing us any favor, especially late at night. The fat cheese and tomato sauce on pizza is definitely a combination to avoid before going to bed, as it can do more harm to our sleep than good.