There are few pleasures quite like sitting down to a delicious dinner after flogging yourself for hours at work. Whether you’re having it on a tray in front of Netflix, dining out with your mates or sitting down at the table with family, dinner is a key cultural focus point for many of us. 

All is going well. The food’s delicious, the chat or programme is great. And then, you get up and realise that over the past half an hour, you’ve grown a full-sized food baby. With bedtime looming, you’re stuck feeling overly full and wondering if you’ll ever get off to sleep. 

Many experts believe that in order to have better sleep and metabolic health, it’s better to eat earlier and smaller meals before sleep. But given that many of us don’t get home from work until gone 7pm, that’s not always practical. By the time we eventually serve up or sit down, we’re starving. And that can mean eating slightly more – or faster – than we intended. 

The question is: does it matter if we’re overly full in the evenings? Does feeling bloated actually have any negative impact on our gut health or metabolism? And if so, should we try to do something about it?

Dr Megan Rossi, aka The Gut Doctor, tells Strong Women that overeating at dinner simply means that “you’ve got a lot more food to get through and your digestive system will get through it all, it just puts it under that little bit more stress”.

By ‘overeating’, we simply mean eating past the point of comfort. We do it all the time – our eyes can be bigger than our stomachs. We can overeat on brussels sprouts and broccoli just as much as we can with sweet or fast foods.

While late eating has been up for debate for some time, there are plenty of studies that confirm having a good dinner is important. Research suggests that our nighttime basal metabolic rate is actually almost as high as it is during the day, as our bodies need energy during sleep. We also know that some people can experience low blood sugar during the night, which can lead to disturbed sleep (particularly those who live with type I diabetes).

And of course, having a larger meal or a structured pre-bed snack can stop us from grazing, which leads to continuous blood sugar highs and dips (which we don’t want before trying to sleep).

All of this basically means that there’s nothing wrong with feeling full late at night. While temporarily uncomfortable, there’s no need to panic about any long-term digestive impacts, Dr Rossi explains.

Instead, you may want to focus on doing things to help your digestive system out. She says that going for a gentle walk can actually really aid digestion if you have over-consumed. And there’s plenty of science to back that claim up; a 10-minute stroll has been found to have profound benefits for blood sugar. You want to head out within 90 minutes of finishing your meal and aim to walk leisurely; any excess pressure will interfere with your rest and digest system.

Images: Getty