Does avoiding food before sleep help?
Sources:
Avoiding food before sleep does indeed help, particularly with growth hormone release. suggests avoiding caloric intake for the 2 hours preceding sleep to facilitate the release of growth hormone during the early hours of sleep. It's important not to go to bed so hungry that it causes you to wake up in the night or have trouble falling asleep, but generally, abstinence from food in those two hours prior to bedtime is beneficial 1.
Fasting can increase growth hormone release, but Dr. Kyle Gillett, a guest on the , explains that while fasting does increase growth hormone, the sensitivity to binding at the receptor is reduced, which means fasting specifically for growth hormone optimization may not be as helpful as one might think. However, not eating for about 2 hours before bed is considered significant and helpful 2.
Conclusively, both avoiding caloric intake close to bedtime and ensuring a fasting period correlated with sleep is emphasized as beneficial for growth hormone release and potentially for other aspects of health 3 4.
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