20 Foods That Help You Lose Weight

That glass of wine will help you relax—acting as a depressant, alcohol can make it easier to fall asleep more quickly—but it will negatively affect the quality of your sleep. It does this by preventing you from fully indulging in your REM (Rapid Eye Movement) cycle, which is where truly restful sleep and dreaming occurs. Plus, because your body has to process the alcohol, it can also act as a stimulant, resulting in more shallow sleep later on. “Research shows that drinking alcohol before bed can make you more likely to wake up throughout the night and diminishes the quality of sleep,” according to dietician Mitzi Dulan, RD. As a result, you’ll wake up feeling less rested the following morning, which has been found to correspond with a higher likelihood of poor food choices, higher levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin, lower levels of the satiety hormone leptin, and eventually, more belly fat.