Ready for bed, and your stomach starts growling?

The easiest thing to take may be the cookies, yes? Really, they're immediately in front of you. Eat one, or two -- even if it feels super green express fitness beauty just a little sinful -- and crawl underneath the covers. What may go wrong?

A lot.

Although not all hope is lost. While you have been told eating before you go to bed is wrong, eating a small pre-bedtime snack can help you sleep more soundly without packing on pounds -- should you reach for the right foods.

Particularly if you tend to eat dinner a few hours before going to bed or you're very active (or both), snacking before bed can help stabilize your blood sugar levels during the long, meal-less night, Stephanie Maxson, senior clinical dietician in the University of Texas's MD Anderson Cancer Center, produced in a period.com article.

Let's get unhealthy news out of the way first. Here's what to steer clear of before turning out the lights: chips, cookies, cereal, or any traditional dessert food, Joan Sabate`, a professor of public health and nutrition at Loma Linda University, said in the Time.com article. This is because fiber and other digestion-slowing nutrients are typically stripped from these food types during their preparation and your body absorbs them quickly -- and they have a tendency to cause quick spikes in your blood sugar, that make that it is hard for you to sleep.

Now, what's good:

Complex carbohydrates such as whole wheat bread, non-starchy vegetables (carrots, asparagus, pea pods, bean sprouts), popcorn and fruit. These food types break down slowly, and helps stave off the blood sugar spikes or crashes that may hinder a person's sleep or appetite, based on the article.

For athletes, adding protein (such as turkey or chicken) to a bedtime snack can help with muscle repair while providing an essential protein called tryptophan, which is beneficial to sleep.

"I don't see it would inflict harm if it's a small snack," Hank Williford, department head of kinesiology at Auburn Montgomery, said of athletes. "In some studies, several small meals during the day for athletes is preferable to large meals. (But) the sugary snacks probably wouldn't interfere with your sleep. However for people trying to lose weight, it should be not the neatest idea."

Ideally, a person really wants to encourage stable glucose levels for optimal health, which will be difficult to do if they are going 10 or 12 or 14 hours without eating, which is one good reason nutrition experts underscore the significance of eating breakfast, according to the Time.com article.

When choosing a pre-bed treat, choose jimpness beauty fat loss capsule something filling enough, but also healthy enough so it doesn't derail your diet, according to a "Healthy Eating" article in SF Gate (Bay area Chronicle website).