# Sleep and Dreams > Sleep and Health >  >  Milk drinks before bed

## Idolfan

I'm not quite sure on what effects this has on aiding or preventing sleep. I know that most of my life I've had great difficulty sleeping but I've also been drinking hot chocolate before bed almost every night out of habit (for roughly ten years, I'm 15 now). Could the two possibly be linked? I don't mean to be a bit paranoid but I keep getting a little worried that it could have had some long term effect. I keep getting relatives telling me it was not wise to drink milk just before bed, but this is what I've been doing for years. Please can someone justify what the effects are because I'm a bit worried.

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## Strayed

Im not an expert, but i think i can relieve the worry while offering an answer. 

The reason doing a specific task before bed is sometimes frowned upon habits. Your body becomes accoustomed to that "dose" of calcium, chocolate, and everything else in it before entering a time of sleep. The two link themselves in habit, the later requiring the first. 10 years is along time to keep up with a habit. I cant tell you anything i used to do when i was 8 that i still do now.

The reason you should be worried is you may at some point find yourself camping, or on a road trip at a hotel, or at your girlfriends/boyfriends house and you cant sleep because you havent had your drink. This is the case for me, however i perfer something else, the idea is universal. And believe me its incredibly akward when your girl wants to sleep and your thinking about how you could if you just had the one thing that helps ease you to sleep just so you could get there.

I wouldnt fret too much otherwise. Everyone has there thing. I would recommend expanding your views to maybe Hot Tea, or other drinks of the like to help you develop more compatibility so you can try other initiations to sleeping.

Dont worry too much.
-Strayed.

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## nodark

milk before bed is good. slaps u to death and u grow the most at night

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## Shift

> The reason doing a specific task before bed is sometimes frowned upon habits. Your body becomes accoustomed to that "dose" of calcium, chocolate, and everything else in it before entering a time of sleep. The two link themselves in habit, the later requiring the first. 10 years is along time to keep up with a habit...



Idolfan, if you feel that what Strayed has said is true, you should just slowly ween yourself off of hot chocolate. Maybe try not having one night per week, after two weeks take two days off, and so on.

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## Idolfan

Thanks for replying, I find that I can sleep fine without doing so (which is really odd since it _has_ been almost every night for ages), and I guess I should thank myself really lucky for that. I'm more intrested in the actual effects of prolonged drinking before bed, like the effects it has been having on sleep e.g. what if it had _contributed_ to my insomnia as a child and more recently. Clearly since it's a habit my body may just get to sleep normally by now, but I want to know if drinking milk (and of course the chocolate part) over a prolonged period is generally unhealthy or not. What if it cathes up on me in later life e.t.c.

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## Shift

> I'm more intrested in the actual effects of prolonged drinking before bed, like the effects it has been having on sleep e.g. what if it had _contributed_ to my insomnia as a child and more recently. Clearly since it's a habit my body may just get to sleep normally by now, but I want to know if drinking milk (and of course the chocolate part) over a prolonged period is generally unhealthy or not. What if it cathes up on me in later life e.t.c.



Well when you sleep, your metabolism sloooooooooooooooooows down. So if you are over your desired body fat percentage, then cutting down food before bed, which is often unnecessary anyways, could help you out. If you are thin or in shape, but eat a lot of junk, it may be that you have a faster metabolism. When you get older, it may slow down and you may start to notice that extra cup of milk and dash of chocolate on your hips or thighs...

# One cup of skim or one percent fat milk (90calories).
# One cup of two percent fat milk (120calories).
# One cup of whole milk (160calories).
# One cup of two percent fat chocolate milk (220calories).

Of course, this all depends on what you eat during the day, how much you eat, how much exercise you get, etc. It really depends on you personally. Besides that, though, I can't really tell you about the long-term effects of milk and chocolate consumption. You could ask your doctor next time you see them. I think if it's just one cup a day I'd say you should be fine, though. If you were drinking like a gallon of chocolate milk, I'd say you need to go speak with a nutritionist!

What you could do is gradually shift to tea instead of hot chocolate, or even hot cocoa. People have been drinking those for millennium, no problem, and I find that it's the warmth of the tea/chocolatemilk/cocoa that helps me sleep, not whatever it actually is.

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