Does hot chocolate before bed help anyone else sleep better?

[tnorfotkcab]

I am convinced I sleep better after having a hot chocolate before bed. I don't think there's any science behind it.... Anyone wanna prove me right? 😁😁😀

Anecdata will be perfectly acceptable in this case.

I got myself a velvetiser after much deliberation and an enjoying my better sleep since, as making hot chocolate had become easier than before ( I was a saucepan of milk, cocoa and sugar person before)

Weak instant decaff coffee made with hot milk... used to be the bedtime drink in the care home I worked in!

No! The caffeine keeps me awake, sugar and milk gives me acid reflux. Can’t have caffeine after lunchtime, so annoying

Is there amuch caffeine in a chocolate?

Milk makes you sleepy in any case

My doctor said something about this. He said horlicks. Something to do with digesting protein overnight helps you to sleep 🤷‍♀️

Warm milk has a mild soporific effect, so it will be that which is doing it. You could get the same effect without having to add the chocolate! (Though I’d much rather have the cocoa-ey goodness even if it’s not contributing)

I like to imagine the magnesium in the chocolate is helping 😂

It's an element in the milk that helps people sleep. So Horlicks, hot chocolate, milky decaff coffee should all have the same effect.

I LOVE hot chocolate but the caffeine would absolutely keep me awake if I had it at bedtime.

I had Ovaltine Original at bedtime during my pregnancies, which was lovely at the time. But I find it far too sweet these days.

I've limited my hot choc consumption to weekends only these days. I like a very expensive brand so have to make it last!

I couldn't sleep at all if I had hot chocolate because I would know the oxalates content would be wrecking my joints and tissues.

People are largely unaware of the damage they are doing when they ingest high oxalate stuff like cocoa, spinach, sweet potato etc. It is ruinous to your health.

With the amount of sugar in It, absolutely not

Well, I had a hot chocolate last night and slept beautifully.

Totally agree. Annoys me when people call spinach a superfood when it’s one of the worst you can eat for your body

Huh?

I still like good old fashioned cocoa. If I’m sleepless at 2 or 3 am I often make one, and I do think it helps. TBH I find actual hot chocolate too sweet.

MN is weird this morning

The relatively high oxalate is surely counteracted by the milk....?

I'll have my hot chocolate thanks.

Spinach and sweet potato are bad for you? Oh I give up, I’ll just eat burgers and enjoy them.

Sounds brilliant OP. Any particular brand you recommend?

I can’t get on with avoiding different types of food, it would leave practically nothing if you analysed too much.

Unless you're consuming hundreds of grams of raw spinach, you'll be fine. Most people eat cooked spinach. And most people don't eat that much spinach. It's a very healthy vegetable.

I just use chocolate shavings. Currently using M&S dark chocolate, and chop it up myself.and Chuck it in the velvetiser with milk.

I also use cacao powder, sugar and milk in a pan

Nonsense. If you have a tendency to kidney stones you should moderate your oxalate intake or take other measures to bind it in the gut, but otherwise, healthy people have no need to be concerned about them. There’s no good scientific evidence for these foods ‘wrecking your body’. Don’t spread misinformation.

I also think it's the milk - have you tried a week on just milk and then a week on hot chocolate to see if there's a difference?

Really I'm just madly jealous as I'm allergic to cocoa powder (I liked my hot chocolate made with cocoa rather than the processed 'drinking chocolate' powders) and so hot chocolate now makes me vomit copiously.

I do like white hot chocolate though.

And if you combine with calcium rich foods the oxalates tend to bind in the gut op.

I make Horlicks in my Hot chocolate machine, and find I sleep better after a mug at bedtime. 😊

Research it. Watch a vid by Sally K Norton and you will dump that velvetiser. Cocoa products are full of oxalate that forms crystals in your body. We used to have a gut bacteria that could break it down but one dose of antibiotics as a kid and that's gone!

Once I recognised the issue, I decided to dump my stored oxalate as I was in constant bodily pain. It took me 18 months start to finish and it was bloody brutal. It came out of every orifice and made a few of it's own but I am two years on from all that now and no pain. No more constant UTIs either.

We have lost the ability to detect antinutrients in our food.

Yes it does help me . I only put a small amount of cocoa in the milk but I am not keen on plain hot milk. It definitely helps .