Help! I have troule falling asleep at night without a very full stomach!

I do ok during the day, ut I have always had difficulty falling asleep and then I can not wake up in the morning. I am a light sleeper. I believe this is because I have a lot of anxiety. Anyways, I used to eat at bedtime and that good really full feeling helped me sleep immensely. Now, I am going through hell trying to sleep without feeling really full.

I would say drink heaps, but that would send you off to the bathroom a million times during the night, perhaps you should eat something really healthy, lika a really big salad, or something that is LOW-negligible calories, so you can feel like you ate, long enough to doze off.

 

Hope this helps 

 

A lot of people recommend not eating at night but in the end the only thing that counts is the number of calories you consume overall.  If it helps you, try eating your supper right before you go to bed at night.

Try having something light an hour or two before bed.  Maybe toast and peanut butter or a couple of cookies and a glass of milk.
Make sure that you are eating enough during the day as well.

Oatmeal before bed should fill you up for the night. It can be quite low-calorie if prepared correctly - add milk to make you drowsy, as well, if you like.

You may find that you wake up and are not hungry enough for breakfast - that's the case for me, when I eat right before bed. If so, go with it, don't eat breakfast: bring a piece of fruit with you in case you get hungry before lunch.

So it would basically be like eating your breakfast 8 hours early. :)

UH OH try not to skip breakfast, it sets you up for some bad stuff if you get too hungry, less concentration, grumpy, going crazy at lunch time, I recommend even if you arent that hungry just have the peice of fruit in the morning, so your body has something to run off of.

to spoiled-candy:     peanut butter on toast and/or cookies and milk are not light.  I'm wondering why you'd suggest these really bad fattening foods at any time, let alone before bed?!  YIPES!

try hitting the gym late in the evening. I always find i sleep deeper if ive worked out and exhasted myself

Yeah I workout at night and then try to get down like 32 ounces of water. For some reason I don't get up in the night, but I do get right to sleep. :) Don't eat cookies and peanut butter right before bed! Holy crap.

Thanks everyone. I don't exercise much. I think that doing it late at night might make me more revved up, but I am sure it would help earlier in the day. I am going to try the oatmeal thing. That is a warm, comforting food. I had not thought of it!

if its a full belly that helps you sleep i'd suggest drinking warm beverages opposed to cold ones. maybe try a herbal tea, sugar free hot chocolate or warm milk.

Hi Kate,

I'm new at this but, in the past week I have had the same problem only I can get to sleep within a 1/2hr to 45min.  The trouble is that since I have been eating much fewer cals than before, I wake up 3 hours before I need to and can't go back to sleep since my stomach is growling like mad.

I decided to put one of those 90 cal granola bars on my night table and if I wake up needing it, it's there...with a bottle of water of course. 

Hope you find the solution that's best for you

I would suggest finding a snack bar with a good amount of fiber. Or if you like the oatmeal idea, Kashi has some oatmeal with 7 grams of fiber per serving and Quaker Oats has some weight watchers oatmeal with good fiber too. It helps you feel fuller because it takes longer to process and tends to expand. Sweet Dreams! :)

I am not sleeping either.  I wake up every 2 hrs, for only a moment, and I'm up too early and not happy about this at all.  I know I need to save 100-200 calories for bedtime and having carbs helps.

I've worked so hard to conquer hunger, that it annoys me to have to eat for another reason, not hunger, but to get a decent nights sleep.

My favorite are milk, or a slice of hot toast.

Original Post by katemegan:

Thanks everyone. I don't exercise much. I think that doing it late at night might make me more revved up, but I am sure it would help earlier in the day. I am going to try the oatmeal thing. That is a warm, comforting food. I had not thought of it!

Could it be that you are not being active enough, and therefore aren't tired at bedtime? Food might help you sleep (aka food coma), but it seems like tiring yourself out from the day (eg. a good workout) would be more beneficial.  I sleep better when I've been exercising. I think it also helps that I use my elliptical time to think about my day, so that I'm not turning it over in my head when I'm trying to get to sleep.

My boyfriend used to eat cottage cheese before going to bed. I don't remember why, but he had some weight loss/muscle gain reason for it. Cottage cheese makes me cringe, so I never tried it.

Something that helps me not only get to sleep, but sleep pretty well:

I went to GNC and bought a bottle of melatonin.  It cost about $4.   

My reasons for sleep disturbances are different than yours, but melatonin is the hormone that regulates sleep cycles.  

What's great --in my opinion-- about it is that a) it's not a "drug" in the sense that it's not prescribed or purchased in a blister pack somewhere and b) it doesn't make me feel drugged at all.  I'm not drowsy, I'm not woozy, I'm not anything out of the ordinary, except able to fall asleep when I get in bed.

Just a thought.  Your mileage may vary. 

Definately get some work outs in.  I find it doesn't really matter when I work out as long as I do something.  I sleep really crappy if I don't exhaust myself.  As humans we are built to be active creatures.  Its not suprising that we can't sleep when we sit on our butts all day long.  Get some hard exercise in there, it will help relieve stress, anxiety and make your body crave sleep.  I have anxiety problems too and struggle to shut my brain off.  Exercise helps immensely with this.

 Thank god for my new active job where I bust my ass all day.  I usually can't keep my eyes open past 8pm anymore!!! lol

try some sleepy time tea. if you have a large glass, it can fill your stomach and its ment for the exact purpose of helping you fall asleep