Does sleeping after meals hinder di­gestion?

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Sleeping After Meals

Q. Does sleeping after meals hinder di­gestion?

A. On the whole, digestion interferes with sleep more than sleep interferes with digestion.
Six o'clock dinners are a very common cause of insomnia. A hearty meal should not be eaten within six or eight hours before retiring. Food is a nerve stimulant. The great influx of blood which occurs a few hours after eating a meal stimulates the brain and nerves and thus pro­duces sleeplessness. The drowsiness which occurs immediately after eating is due to the fact that a large amount of blood is drawn to the stomach to aid the process of digestion. This lessens the blood supply of the brain and so pro­duces drowsiness or dullness.

Dr. Schule, in carefully conducted experiments upon two subjects, showed that sleep during digestion greatly increases the acidity of the gastric juice but hinders the passage of food from the stomach into the intestine. Simply resting in a horizontal position after eating, with­out sleeping, was observed to encourage digestion. These experiments clearly demonstrate the in­jury resulting from late suppers.

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