Will Eating Grapefruit Right Before Bed Affect My Sleep?

With its sweet-tart flavor and juicy flesh, grapefruit is a delicious treat that you can eat late at night without feeling guilty.

However, this yummy fruit is acidic, and eating grapefruit at night could exacerbate heartburn for some people, which is often worse when lying down. Grapefruit can also interfere with the effectiveness of some medications that you may take before bed, in which case you should choose a different bedtime snack.

Here’s what you need to know before you have an evening grapefruit snack.

Grapefruit and Heartburn

It's refreshing, it's low in calories, and it's full of fiber to keep hunger at bay while you snooze. Compared to other less-healthy late-night snacks people often choose, grapefruit is a great choice, especially if you're watching your weight.

If you have heartburn, however, you may want to steer clear. Johns Hopkins Medicine notes that citrus fruits like grapefruit are among the worst heartburn triggers. Cleveland Clinic recommends limiting the amount of grapefruit you eat if you have acid reflux — also called gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) — because the fruit can increase stomach acid and worsen symptoms.

Many people notice that their heartburn symptoms increase at night. When you're lying down, food can't clear your esophagus. If you eat grapefruit right before you lie down, that could spell double trouble. It’s best to wait two or three hours after eating before getting into bed, according to UNC Health Talk.

However, acid reflux symptoms can also worsen if your stomach is too empty. That’s because an empty stomach can ramp up acid production in an attempt to be ready for more food, UNC Health Talk notes. Depending on when you eat dinner, a late-night grapefruit snack may worsen the issue.

Not everyone experiences heartburn. Those who don’t have problems with acid reflux may be able to eat grapefruit before bed with no problem. If you try grapefruit at night and notice any symptoms of heartburn, consider avoiding it too close to bedtime in the future.

Grapefruit and Medication

Some medications don’t mix well with grapefruit or grapefruit juice. According to Mayo Clinic, grapefruit contains a chemical that delays how long some medications take to metabolize in the body. This changes the amount of time the medicine stays in the body.

If a medicine isn’t in the body long enough, it can’t work properly. However, usually the problem is that a medication stays too long in the body, Mayo Clinic notes, which can cause the medication to accumulate too much or can worsen side effects.

Poison Control reports that grapefruit is known to interact with 85 medications. According to Mayo Clinic, types of medications that commonly interact with this citrus fruit include drugs for:

• Fighting infection
• Lowering cholesterol
• Treating high blood pressure
• Treating heart problems
• Preventing organ rejection in transplant recipients
• Treating seasonal allergies
• Treating anxiety

You can’t prevent an interaction by taking the medication at a different time from when you eat grapefruit, either. According to Poison Control, interactions can occur up to 36 hours or more after you eat grapefruit.

Drinking Grapefruit Juice

Grapefruit juice isn’t the healthiest bedtime snack, even if you don’t have acid reflux. Fruit juice is a concentrated source of sugars. When you drink juice, the sugars are absorbed quickly into your bloodstream, which may lead to a surge of energy — just when you're trying to doze off.

If you're going to have grapefruit before bed, it's best to eat the fruit whole rather than drink the juice. One whole grapefruit contains 4.93 grams of fiber. However, the juice of a whole grapefruit has only 0.196 grams of fiber. Fiber helps slow the absorption of sugars, and according to Cleveland Clinic, eating high-fiber foods is linked with getting better sleep.