Turns out, taking care of your heart is a 24/7 job.
Reviewed by Dietitian Karen Ansel, M.S., RDN
Key Points
- Experts say many seemingly innocent evening habits can slowly harm your heart health.
- These include eating a late, heavy dinner, drinking alcohol and staying up too late.
- Instead, try to eat a light dinner, limit alcohol and aim for a consistent, early bedtime.
At the end of a long day, who doesn’t want to kick back, relax and unwind? While you’re probably well aware of the lifestyle habits that can support a healthy cardiovascular system—like eating nutritious meals and exercising regularly—there are a few things you may want to avoid once night falls. Some common evening habits, like pouring yourself a couple of glasses of wine or staying up late watching your favorite show, may feel restorative. But what you may not realize is that they may be adversely impacting your heart health.
To help you keep your heart healthy around the clock, we asked heart-health experts to share the top three nighttime habits that could be putting your heart health at risk. Here are the ones they want you to look out for.
1. Eating a Large, Heavy Meal
“When you eat heavy meals in the evening, it can place added strain on the body, especially the cardiovascular system, at a time when the body should be winding down and repairing,” says Michelle Routhenstein, M.S., RD, CDCESa dietitian specializing in heart health.
Many heavy meals are often high in sodium, which can increase fluid retention and blood pressure. Over time, high blood pressure can increase the risk of several heart issues, including heart attack, stroke and heart failure.
If you tend to stay up late, you might be able to get away with eating a bigger meal early in the evening since you’ll have more time for digestion. However, eating a big meal within two to three hours of bedtime can disrupt sleep, which can increase the risk of heart issues, says Allison Bowers, M.P.H., RDN, CDN. On the flip side, one study found that eating dinner at least three hours before bed may support heart health by reducing overnight heart rate and diastolic blood pressure and improving heart rate variability.
2. Drinking Too Much Alcohol
“5 p.m., aka happy hour, is a common time for people to start drinking because, psychologically, it often marks the end of the workday and acts as a bridge to relaxation and decompression,” Bowers says. “Alcohol and the heart, however, have a bit of a complicated relationship.”
And it doesn’t matter what type of alcohol you prefer, even if it’s red wine. Despite red wine’s heart-healthy antioxidants, the general consensus is that drinking any kind of alcohol, especially near bedtime, isn’t good for the heart. Research shows that alcohol consumption raises blood pressure, which we know increases the risk for heart issues. Alcohol is especially problematic if you have—or are genetically predisposed to—high blood pressure, according to both the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. The link is so strong that both these organizations recommend that anyone living with or at risk of high blood pressure avoid alcohol completely.
Even if your blood pressure is fine, there are other reasons to limit alcohol in the evening. “Excessive alcohol drinking raises heart rate by elevating sympathetic nervous system activity and, as a result, increases demand on the heart’s stress response,” says cardiologist Sarah M. Speck, M.D., M.P.H., FACC. It can also interfere with restorative sleep and important metabolic pathways that regulate blood pressure, blood sugar and blood lipids, she adds.
So, what should you drink instead? Bowers recommends a nonalcoholic beverage such as tart cherry juice. Tart cherry juice has similar properties to red wine, and it’s a natural source of melatonin, a hormone that helps improve sleep quality.
3. Staying Up Too Late
“Sleep is a key factor in reducing our risk of heart disease, and it’s not just how much you sleep, but also the consistency and quality of your sleep that matters,” Speck says.
Your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle, known as your circadian rhythm, plays a role in regulating blood pressure, heart rate, metabolism and blood vessel function. When you stay up late or don’t go to bed and wake up at a consistent time each day, that rhythm is disrupted. This may have long-term metabolic consequences that can increase levels of the stress hormone cortisol and lead to weight gain, inflammation and elevated blood sugar and cholesterol, all of which can damage blood vessels and promote plaque formation, Speck says.
Conversely, sticking to a consistent sleep schedule can help support circadian alignment, which is essential for blood pressure regulation, metabolic health and vascular repair, Routhenstein says. The American Heart Association recommends aiming for seven to nine hours of sleep per night.
Heart-Healthy Strategies to Focus on Instead
Replacing old habits isn’t easy. So, start slowly with one or two of these. Once those become routine, you can add on from there.
- Eat lots of whole, nutritious foods: For optimal heart health, the American Heart Association recommends eating balanced meals that prioritize whole foods, including lots of fruits and vegetables, lean proteins (especially plant-based protein), nuts, seeds and healthy fats. They also advise limiting ultra-processed foods, saturated fats, sodium, added sugars and alcohol.
- Eat at least three hours before bed: In the evenings, try to consume a lighter, lower-sodium meal to support normal nighttime blood pressure and more restorative sleep, Routhenstein says.
- Establish a calming evening routine: “Reading a book, taking a bath or listening to relaxing music with low stimulation can also help your body wind down, helping the body shift into a restorative state that protects long-term heart health,” Routhenstein says.
- Avoid caffeine after 2 p.m.: “Moderate caffeine consumption has been linked to a reduced risk of certain heart conditions, but it is important to keep under the recommended limit of 400 milligrams of caffeine per day,” Bowers says. Since coffee can stay in the body for hours after you consume it, you’ll want to drink it early in the day so it doesn’t interfere with quality rest.
Our Expert Take
Many of us focus on heart-healthy habits during the day but don’t realize that many of the simple things we do in the evening after 5 p.m. may spell trouble for our hearts in the long term. Heart-health experts say that eating heavy meals too close to bedtime, drinking alcohol in the evening, and staying up too late can all have downstream effects on your heart health. If you’re looking to support better cardiovascular health, try to stick to a consistent sleep schedule, eat a light dinner and give yourself a few hours to digest it, and limit alcohol intake.
Comments are closed.