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March 2009

Eating chocolate at night could keep you awake

f you’re trying to eliminate all of the possible factors that are making you toss and turn at night, here’s some interesting research. It seems that a dark chocolate dessert, eaten late at night, can be disruptive to your sleep, according to the National Sleep Foundation. The Foundation recommends avoiding chocolate (as well as coffee, tea and soft drinks) before bedtime.

Chocolate contains caffeine in varying amounts, depending on the type. For example, a dark chocolate Hershey’s candy bar contains about 30 milligrams of caffeine, only slightly less than a typical cup of brewed tea (40 mg) and roughly the same as a cup of instant tea.

Chocolate also contains small amounts of other stimulants such as theobromine, which increases the heart rate. (This is the compound that makes chocolate so dangerous to cats and dogs because they metabolize it so slowly.)

There is an alternative, however. White chocolate contains little, if any, caffeine and no theobromine. And if you simply can’t resist the darker stuff, at least go for milk chocolate. A 1.5-ounce Hershey‘s milk chocolate candy bar contains about nine milligrams of caffeine, about three times as much as a cup of decaffeinated coffee.

Studies link TV-watching and walking (click)

Eating chocolate at night could keep you awake (click)

 

 

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