Halloween candy may keep you up at night
By Shelby Freedman Harris, Huffington Post
Halloween is almost here and stores are filled to the max with candy. Although Halloween candy can be a nice indulgence, the sugar high (and sugar crash) from overeating these treats makes some regret opening that bag of candy before the trick-or-treaters even arrived.
We tend to discuss the negative effects that sugar can have on our body. If you’re anything like me, you’ll gravitate towards chocolate. What we don’t realize is that chocolate, besides being a sugary treat, also contains caffeine — something that can significantly disrupt your sleep.
Simply put, caffeine is a stimulant. Most people prefer to use it after waking up in the morning to increase alertness. It enters the bloodstream through the stomach and can work in as little as 15 minutes after consumed. Caffeine takes approximately six hours for just one half of the dosage to be eliminated from the body. For most, that glass of soda with dinner at 7pm. will only be half gone by 1am. Plus, the older you get, the longer it takes for caffeine to leave your body, negatively impacting sleep even more.