7 Foods That Sabotage Sleep

4. Oranges plus other citrus fruits

Both what and when you eat can affect your sleep, notes Aris Iatridis, M.D., a sleep medicine specialist at Piedmont Healthcare in Georgia. When you eat, a muscular tube that lets food pass into the stomach usually closes once the food passes through; this blocks it from coming back up. If this tube relaxes, digestive fluid, called gastric juice, travels the wrong way, flowing backward into the esophagus and throat, resulting in a painful burning feeling in your chest or throat called heartburn.

Citrus foods contain high amounts of citric acid, which can cause your stomach to produce more stomach acid. As a result, your stomach is more full and the chances for acid reflux and heartburn increase —both of which are sleep saboteurs.

5. Tomatoes

From the petite cherry to the impressive beefsteak, tomatoes have been part of the American diet since they first came to this country in the eighteenth century. Tomatoes are considered a fruit by the scientists who study them, but many of us consider them a vegetable; we top pasta with tomato sauce, squeeze ketchup on franks and even decorate deviled eggs with tiny bits of raw tomatoes.

Tomatoes offer a bushel of benefits. Among them: they lower heart disease risk and help fight infections. But along with the positives, tomatoes have some negative side effects. They're acidic and contribute to heartburn, and they may cause stomach bloating. Both heartburn and bloating interfere with sleep. 

"Tomatoes are also rich in tyramine, an amino acid that can increase brain activity and delay sleep," says Julia Zumpano, a dietitian with the Cleveland Clinic of Human Nutrition.

Tomatoes are great for you and are packed with healthy nutrients, just avoid both tomatoes and tomato sauces several hours before bed.

6. Coffee, caffeinated tea and cocoa

We know that coffee has caffeine and we know that it keeps you alert. "The body quickly absorbs caffeine and circulates it throughout your body, including to your brain," says Marie-Pierre St-Onge, director of Columbia University's Center of Excellence for sleep and circadian research. "Once there, the caffeine helps keep you awake, wired and full of energy." Even decaffeinated coffee contains a small amount of caffeine.

Caffeine works by blocking a chemical messenger (adenosine) that promotes sleep. This increases alertness and promotes wakefulness, St-Onge explains, leaving you energetic. Levels of adenosine build up in the brain as you stay awake and they rise each hour.

Although they're harvested from different plants, coffee, black or green tea and cocoa all contain caffeine. As a result, caffeinated tea can affect sleep, making it harder to relax and fall asleep. Hot chocolate contains little caffeine and won't interfere with sleep, but St-Onge cautions that the sugar that sweetens it can disturb sleep.

Rather than coffee or black tea, try herbal tea before bed. It’s warming and relaxing and won’t keep you up at night.

7. Beer, wine and other alcohol

"When I tell patients that the nightcap they count on to sleep well doesn't really help, they look at me skeptically," says Kelly Waespe, M.D., an internist and sleep specialist at Baptist Health Medical Group in Paris, Kentucky. “It helps me get to sleep," they say. But there’s plenty of evidence that shows that any alcohol is bad for sleep.

To understand why, consider how sleep works. Sleep occurs in five stages, with each stage leading to deeper sleep, Waespe explains. The first stage begins while you're still awake, then you fall into a light sleep. After that you experience a deeper sleep (stages 2 and 3). Finally you're in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep where your breathing becomes faster, your eyes move quickly behind closed lids, and your heart rate and blood pressure increase.

REM sleep is the deepest stage and important for feeling rested, and helps both memory and learning. Alcohol can have a negative effect on REM sleep, Waespe explains. "Alcohol decreases the amount of REM sleep you get."

Not only does alcohol diminish that important REM sleep, but it can change the amount of time you spend in the lightest stage of sleep and lead to frequent awakenings. You probably won’t notice these awakenings, she notes, often they're so short that you go back into light sleep right away. "But the damage to your rest is done."

If you’re one of the millions of Americans diagnosed with sleep apnea, a breathing disorder, then the news gets worse. "We already know that alcohol relaxes you, but in sleep apnea it relaxes the muscles that keep your airway open." This increases the number of shallow ineffective breaths, which is why people with untreated sleep apnea are often tired all the time.

For those who enjoy alcohol, are there better ways to do it? Yes. "We know that the amount of alcohol is directly related to how it affects your sleep," she says. Studies have shown a single beverage will have a 9 percent change in sleep quality, but moderate amounts can affect sleep quality by 24 percent. Heavy drinking (more 2 drinks for men and more than 1 for women) can lead to an almost 40 percent reduction in sleep quality.

So an important strategy for sleep is to moderate the amount of wine, beer or other hard liquor. "We also know that a single alcohol-containing drink is usually metabolized in a few hours," she continues. "So, after three hours the effects of alcohol on sleep quality start to diminish, and the more time passes the better. Which brings me back to my original advice: Stay away from that nightcap."