You’re exhausted AND hungry… but can’t stop thinking about that chocolate pudding in the fridge you planned to eat before bed. So, what do you do??
Chocolate is considered an aphrodisiac and can stimulate the taste buds, but even with its association with the bedroom and bedtime – some wonder if it can also keep them up at night.
Chocolate contains caffeine in varying amounts – a 1.5-ounce Hershey’s milk chocolate bar contains 9 milligrams, about three times as much caffeine as a cup of decaffeinated coffee.
On the other hand, a dark chocolate Hershey’s candy bar has about 30 milligrams… the same as a cup of instant tea, and marginally less than a normal cup of brewed tea (40 milligrams).
So, a dark chocolate dessert might keep you up, if eaten late enough. Chocolate has other stimulants as well – one is theobromine, the stimulant that makes chocolate dangerous for dogs and cats because they struggle to digest it. Additionally, theobromine increases your heart rate and causes sleeplessness.
The National Sleep Foundation recommends avoiding chocolate before bedtime. But there’s hope... white chocolate does not contain any theobromine, and has minimal traces of caffeine.
If you’re planning to get chocolate wasted tonight, on National Chocolate Mousse Day, we advise you to stick to white chocolate, and since the words “mousse” and “chocolate” are derived from French… bon appetit chocolate lovers!