What Should you Eat Before Bed?

Have the late-night hunger but not sure what to eat before bed? We got you covered. If you're going to eat right before bed, let's talk about the best options.

What to Eat Before Bed

Sleep is super important for pretty much everything. If we're eating too close to bed, it might impair or disrupt our sleep to some degree. But we also want to make sure that we're optimizing whatever eating close to bedtime to make sure we're optimizing protein synthesis throughout the night. This helps make sure that we have good blood sugar regulation throughout the night.

It might make sense to have a nighttime snack or something that has a bit of protein, fats, and carbs to fuel your body throughout the night. Especially if you're someone who eats dinner a little bit earlier, and you go to bed later, you might want to have like a nighttime snack or dessert. Let's talk about what that looks like.

Best Nighttime Snacks

The first thing to think about is that that nighttime snack you want to have a good amount of protein in it. Ideally, you want to have a protein source that is a little bit slower digesting. One that fuels you throughout the night.

When we're thinking about slower digesting protein sources, it's going to be things like casein protein, which you can find in cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, or a casein protein powder. Thoese are great options because they're slower-digest proteins that'll help fuel you throughout the night. For me, I like to have like Greek yogurt or cottage cheese. Or, I'll make a protein ice cream snack with casein protein powder—that's a great option for a late-night snack.

Additionally, if you're someone who finds that you're waking up in the middle of the night, potentially adding some fruit to your nighttime snack can be helpful. Fruit actually has mainly sugar and fruit is fructose—and that will actually fuel your liver throughout the night. So if you're someone who's waking up in the middle of night, it could be because your blood sugar is dropping. And if you have some fructose that's in your liver and there throughout the night that's fueling that, that can help with preventing that blood sugar drop.

Those are just a few tips to think about if you are having a late-night snack or something after dinner. Just make sure that you're getting enough protein in there and potentially adding some fruits and some healthy fats—that's going to be your best bet.

Now you know what you should eat before bed, but what about after a workout? What about before a workout? Don't worry, we have you covered. Check out our blog and podcast to find answers to questions you haven't even asked yet.