I regularly find myself checking ingredients on food labels but not really understanding what I see but knowing it’s probably not helping me to sleep is there any science to back this or am I being paranoid
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What you put in your body has a huge influence on your ability later to fall asleep quickly and stay asleep all night. Caffeine and alcohol, for instance, can keep you up and make the sleep you do get pretty restless. According to Verywell Health, you should avoid consuming more than 400 mg a day of caffeine and also limit your use of alcohol and caffeine in the evening. Eating normal food just before bed can be a problem too, especially if it’s full of fat or protein, requiring your digestive system to go into overdrive.
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Not paranoid at all!
Food - both what our food is made from, and the time we eat - can play a huge role in the regulation of our sleeping cues and therefore our ability to fall and remain asleep.
They are a few foods that do this more than others such as caffeine, alcohol, and foods rich in certain amino acids like tyramine, and you can find a full length article that explores the effects of different foods on sleep by checking out the sofi blog at: 5 foods that can prevent you from getting a good night’s sleep!
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Really useful info , do we know how long some of these amino acids stay in our system
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Eating clean is always best option. So many shop bought foods contain ingredients that really we shouldn’t be consuming, added sugars, artificial vitamins and minerals, artificial sweetners blah blah.
I smooth and juice daily, cook fresh bake everything including bread, so I know what we are eating and drinking. Yes I’m healthy, still doesn’t help with sleep.
Not everyone has time or money to do it all at home quicker options are okay. Everything in moderation.
I don’t know about others, I stop eating at 6.30pm don’t eat until 10 am, 16 hour break. Sometimes middle of night though I want munchins and crunching. I go for dried fruits or nuts.
Moderation with anything whether its fresh food, mcdonalds or jar of pasta sauce.
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Congrats on those habits!!!
Maybe your wait is over soon… - with the arrival of the Sofi stick 
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food labels are notoriously difficult to read…
the food industry is doing a fantastic job in hiding the stuff it doesn’t want you to know (have you seen the many descriptions for sugar…). Also, they are great in producing food items that hit your bliss point, which is the point at which you will find it hard to resist to eat more.
A good general recommendation: if you can’t pronounce the ingredient, chances are high it’s not that great for you.
If you want to be really scared about all this, have a go and read the book by Michael Moss “Salt, Sugar, Fat; How the Food Giants Hooked Us”. An excellent read - and really scary…
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