Hot Chocolate: Bed Time Drink or Disturbed Sleep?
Mon Mar 22 18:57:50 2010
A lot of people treat hot chocolate as a relaxing bed time drink. However, not many are aware that hot chocolate can be rather stimulative and may prolong your departure to sleep.
I remember in the past, sometimes I wanted a hot drink late at night, but didn't want to drink tea or especially coffee due to caffeine content. The choice would fall onto hot chocolate, and I never suspected that this drink was the reason I had trouble falling asleep on those nights.
Hot chocolate is a drink made with chocolate, which is produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. This of course also means that if you have a sweet tooth and fancy an evening bite of the brown gold, you're likely to have just as much trouble sleeping.
Why exactly chocolate negatively affects our sleep? The answer is simple: chocolate is a mild stimulant. Many might be surprised to hear that chocolate actually contains small amounts of caffeine. However, the main "offender" of our precious sleep contained in chocolate is theobromine, which is also, at least in part, is responsible for bitter taste of dark chocolate. Cocoa powder - which is mixed with milk to cook hot chocolate drink - may contain from 2% to at least 10% of theobromine in it.
Even though, theobromine and caffeine are similar in that they are related alkaloids, theobromine is weaker. However, theobromine stimulates the heart to a greater degree. Theobromine can cause sleeplessness, tremors, restlessness, anxiety, as well as contribute to increased production of urine. Additional side effects include loss of appetite, nausea, and even vomiting.
Now, I doubt your tasty hot chocolate drink makes you vomit very often, but it has affected the amount of time it takes for you to fall asleep. In my book, I mention that some parents "bribe" their children with a glass of carbonated drink for them to go to bed. Most carbonated drinks contain caffeine, and therefore negatively affect your child's ability to sleep. Hot chocolate can be added to this category as well - it's not a drink to give your children late at night.
As an alternative to hot chocolate, you might wish to drink warm milk with honey. Such a drink will not stimulate you, but quite the opposite, will calm you down, making your departure to bed much easier and peaceful.
Sweet dreams.
Comments
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Thu Mar 15 09:55:50 2012
hi, today i had lots of dark chocolate (70g) for lunch. tell you what i've never felt so sleepy @ work. and am blaming it on the chocolate, i think chocolate makes 1 sleepy
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Mon Jun 6 17:43:41 2011
This blog post is highly untrue. In my personal experience and the experience of many of my friends, hot chocolate with milk promotes good sleep.
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Sun Apr 17 00:13:04 2011
You're the greaetst! JMHO
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Mon Sep 13 07:09:20 2010
I'm really uneasy with your instructions to provide "scientific data". It's a blog post on the Internet, not a proposal for a billion dollar science experiment.
As far as sources go, Stanley Coren, author of "Sleep Thieves", my personal experience, experiences of several of my friends, as well as Wikipedia (at this time, at least) seem to confirm theory stated in this article.
You could try practicing what you preach and provide your resources - I will gladly include contradicting facts, if I feel they are substantial. -
Mon Sep 13 04:45:46 2010
This information is far from fact and is unture. Provide scientific data! I have researched this topic extensively and have not come across any strong substantiation. Narrating a personal experience cannot count for general science. Being a nutritionist myself I can confidently state that cocoa containing milk drinks promote sound sleep and improve sleep quality than disrupt sleep.