What should I eat for dinner to sleep better?

Nikkiey explains that a high-protein last meal keeps your blood sugar sustained through the night, so it doesn't peak and then crash. There's a second reason too. Your body spends the night in a repair and rebuild cycle, and she says it needs enough protein at that last meal to support overnight muscle protein synthesis. In her words, the body will cannibalize your muscle if it doesn't have what it needs, and when you lose muscle, you lose your metabolism.

Satisfaction is part of the plan, not an afterthought. She builds dinner with flavor because you have to enjoy your food, and she makes sure she's full enough that she won't want a late-night snack, which she says would throw off her blood sugar. Dinner also doesn't have to be a huge protein dump. She spreads 30 to 40 grams across every meal and her snack, which gets her to about 150 grams a day. That number is what works for her as a very active woman who lifts, so treat it as her example rather than a universal target. What she doesn't skip is hitting her protein by the end of the day.

When you eat matters as much as what's on the plate. Nikkiey closes her eating window three to four hours before bed, around when the sun goes down, and says your body won't produce melatonin while it's still working on digestion. When she made that change, she stopped having the 2 or 3 a.m. wake-ups. After dinner she suggests reduced blue light, relaxing conversation and maybe a walk to bring blood sugar down a little more. She's also clear that food is only one piece: your cortisol can still be elevated at bedtime, which she covers separately. If you're managing blood sugar or another medical condition, work with your doctor on the details.