Dr. Oscar Duke was on hand to give viewers sleep advice on BBC Morning Live, and revealed the foods you should avoid eating the Christmas if you want to sleep well
A BBC Morning Live doctor has issued a warning about certain foods and drinks that should be avoided after 6pm for the sake of a good night’s sleep. Dr Oscar Duke, speaking on today’s show, cautioned that indulging in festive treats past this cut-off time could lead to a restless night.
According to Dr Duke, evening tipples and even cheese and crackers might need to be taken off the menu. Speaking to hosts Helen Skelton and Gethin Jones, Dr Duke revealed: “Alcohol is first up on the list. There is good scientific evidence behind the impact that alcohol has on our sleep.”
He went on to explain that it’s all down to our sleep cycles: “In the standard sleep cycle, you have 4 different phases. So the first two are a light sleep that you go into first of all, then you go into deeper sleep and then you go into something called REM sleep, which stands for rapid eye movement sleep, and that’s when your eyes are underneath your closed eyes are moving a lot, and that’s when you do your dreaming and you lay down all of your memories.”
“You go through those four cycles about every 1.5 to 2 hours. So if you’re sleeping for 8 hours, you probably go through those cycles every 4, about 4 times in your in your night’s sleep.”
He clarified that those cycles are essential for feeling revived the next day, adding that certain foods, including alcoholic beverages and fatty products like cheese, can disrupt them: “If you’re drinking alcohol, then you normally go into a deep sleep. We all know that alcohol makes you sleepy, puts you to sleep, but you go straight to that deep sleep phase often you don’t do the light sleep phase, you often get the less of the rapid eye movement sleep, and you don’t feel as fresh the next day.”
“And actually because you’ve gone to the deep sleep, your sleep system tries to reset things and gives you often so you start with that deep sleep, as the alcohol wears off, it tries to compensate by giving you lots of light sleep, so you often wake up a lot and then don’t feel so good. Alcohol, something to be very mindful of, keep that to a minimum if you want to sleep well.”
Addressing whether cheese leads to bad or vivid dreams, Dr Duke mentioned: “Is there science behind that? Well, I’d sort of love there to be. There’s a theory about a compound called thyramine and whether that impacts on your sleep cycles. Actually, the biggest evidence seems to be for two things, eating fatty foods and eating late in the day, and often the cheese boards coming at the end of the day when you.”
“Maybe after a few drinks as well. And actually it seems to be that that impacts on your sleep by again giving you a lot of light sleep. And so you’re waking up a lot and when you wake up, you’re more likely to remember your dreams. So it may be that the cheese isn’t causing your bad dreams, but that you remember them more when you’ve been eating late in the day, fatty foods.”
