Do you give in to your nighttime chocolate cravings? Do you nibble on chocolate all throughout the day? Or drink a cup of hot chocolate, maybe? And you wash them all down with coffee? Come bedtime, you're wondering why you’re wide awake when all you did the entire day was run errands and be on the go. Why is sleep not swinging by?

Here's the deal. In part, it's due to all of the caffeine accumulated within the day. Compared to coffee, there is only a small amount of caffeine in chocolate. But you know what they say… If you have too much of a good thing, something pleasant becomes unpleasant. If you're overly chocoholic, it can help tip the insomnia scales when it's mixed with a day's worth of other caffeinated food and beverages.

We know for a fact that dark chocolate has astounding health benefits. Let me shed even more light on you about our dearly loved treat.

Chocolate contains caffeine. This is not exactly a secret. However, it doesn’t have enough caffeine to give you a dramatic blast of energy. It’s a different story though if you work your way through humongous bars or you’re emptying every single pack of fun-sized ones sitting in your pantry.

You would need roughly fourteen 1.5oz bars of milk chocolate to get the same amount of caffeine you would get in an 8 oz cup of coffee. And of course, need I say something about the 3000 calories you’d be taking in on top of 300 g of sugar? Need a kick from caffeine? Get a cup of Joe instead (black, no sugar). For 8 oz, you'll just be getting 2 calories.

Dark chocolate contains more caffeine compared to milk chocolate, but all the same, you would need four 1.5 oz bars to get the same amount that you would in a cup of black coffee.

If you're having difficulties sleeping, it's only apt to stay away from coffee before bedtime. But aside from that, you might want to hold off on that chocolate munching. Also, try looking up the most popular chocolate candy bars and coffee drinks across the globe, along with their caffeine content, so you have an idea just how much caffeine you’re ingesting every time you have a coffee run or devour chocolates.

Here are some examples:

Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar, 1 bar/1.55 oz: 9 mg caffeine

Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Bar, 1 bar/1.45 oz: 20 mg caffeine

Dunkin' Donuts regular coffee, 16 oz: 206 mg caffeine

Starbucks Brewed Coffee (Grande), 16 oz: 320 mg caffeine

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Joanna Maligaya

Staff Writer/Content Developer at Chocolate University Online

Ever since she can remember, Joanna has always considered chocolate as the ultimate food for her soul. She believes in the saying, “9 out of 10 people love chocolate, and the 10th always lies.”

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