Hot Chocolate at bed time, does it cause insomnia?

The amount of caffeine is negligible and wouldn't make any difference.
Plain hot milk is best at bedtime, nothing added.

I always have cocoa made with milk, hot chocolate has so much sugar,
Sleep ok really.

Hot chocolate at any time makes me sleepy so I’m not sure. Why not try an experiment farawaygran? Try other milky drinks at bed time and see if your sleep pattern improves. Good luck with it.

DIL is correct farawaygran. you would be better having a malted milk or horlicks

I like hot milk with honey and find I sleep well on it. The only problem is I like to drink it in bed but then I have to get up again to clean my teeth!

Alcohol, OTOH, is a definite no-no. Not good for sleep at all. Shame, as a dash of whisky or brandy in the milk would be nice and comforting, too.

But sometimes I have cocoa and don't find it makes any difference.

As cornergran says, just experiment and see what works for you.

I tend to sleep badly now and sometimes come down at about 3 am and make myself a cup of cocoa - I find hot chocolate too sweet.
It usually sends me off again.
I couldn’t drink plain hot milk - even the smell of it makes me heave. ?

I restrict my liquids in the evening, in my case that is coffee because I would be up to the loo especially if I had a drink just before bedtime. I hate milk and like Witzend hot milk would also make me heave.

Hot chocolate or cocoa has me up and down to the loo all night. Lovely and comforting though it is.

Try hot milk with a drop of vanilla extract. The vanilla gives it a great flavour without the sugar content of chocolate.

Weak milky decaf instant for me.Sounds awful but it’s my bedtime drink.

Any drink before I go to sleep keeps me awake! If I had chocolate or coffee or tea, I would be up twice for the loo, but even a cold drink keeps me awake.
My last drink is at 9pm at the latest. Sleep very well then.
You could experiment? Try no drinks for 3 nights and log results, then introduce a drink at various times. See what the difference is.

Horlicks for me, but only when feeling "one degree under"

I find eating chocolate in the evening causes me to have disturbed sleep - apart from a small amount of caffeine, it has another stimulant, theobromine.

If I can't sleep I make myself a mug of hot milk with honey stirred in and grated nutmeg on top. Usually works for me.

I'd stay on the safe side and have weak Ovaltine , or thin porridge.

I don't even like milk any more and have been drinking Oatly for months possible years even since I first saw it in the Coop.

I have suffered from insomnia for most of my life and have carried out numerous "experiments" with various drinks, foods etc. There seems to be no correlation between hot chocolate and being awake at 3am. Of course, leave out the hot chocolate for a couple of weeks and see what happens.

I’ve stopped drinking hot chocolate at bedtime as I am sure it was keeping me awake. I now have some warm water and I do sleep a lot better.

I had a hot milk with honey and a glug of brandy last night.
I needn’t have bothered - Hattie woke me up to go out about 1.30, then woke me up again two hours later sneaking on to the bed, then I lay awake for another hour or so, I skimmed through GN, read the online paper and fell asleep about 5
???

I had instant hot chocolate last night ( and the night before) and slept well.I usually have either Earl Grey or peppermint tea about 9-10 pm and wake up a lot, so will stick with the hot choc drink( or instant Horlicks) I don’t like too much milk.

I’ll stick to the brandy on its own next time!

I think the hot milk far outweighs any caffeine in the chocolate. I did look into this too, and couldn’t find anything to suggest it would keep you awake. I always eat a banana before bed too, as they contain melatonin.

A cup of half strength Options (full strength is too sweet) sends me to sleep within half an hour for a full night. Horlicks is too fattening!