7 Impressive foods you never knew that enhance sleep!

Globally, 45-51% of adult people don’t get enough sleep! According to Dr.Shona Halson “Sleep is a reversible behavioral state where an individual is perceptually disengaged from and unresponsive to the environment”.

 Moreover, Sleeping is a critical period in human life and other animals as well.

Less sleep may be caused by different factors such as wrong food consumption that lead to difficulties in the digestion process, chronic stress, different interruptions, pain, certain medications, and other factors that may impede us not sleeping at least for 7-9 hours.

Sleeping duration varies from person to person and their life stages.

Less than 7 hours and 8hours are common shorter sleep periods for adults and adolescents respectively.

Fortunately, taking care of foods to take during the evening could be paramount to your sleep cycle.

As sleeping enough has an incredible impact throughout our life cycle and daily life as well, here are foods that can help you to sleep thoroughly.

1. Fatty fish

 

Some fishes including; salmon, tuna, and canned sardine are rich sources of vitamin D and Omega-3- Fatty Acids.

These nutrients are important for regulating serotonin in the calmness of the body, drowsiness, and hence sleep regulation.

Concurrently, vitamin D or its supplement resulted in better outcomes for sleep quality, sleep latency, and sleep duration in adults who had sleep disorders.

Critically, eating some fatty fish before bed may help you to sleep better and longer. 

However, deep scrutiny keeps being in the process so as to figure out other correlations between fish and sleeping cycles of the human body.

2. Tart Cherry Juice beverage

 Apart from other health benefits such as prevention of some chronic diseases such as heart diseases and diabetes, this beverage is thought also to improve sleep.

When it is consumed before bed, it might lead to improved subjective insomnia symptoms.

This is based on the fact that it contains high melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine) content that is responsible for regulating the sleeping-wake cycle.

From recent studies, the adults with insomnia problems, who consumed Tart cherries juice twice a day for two weeks resulted in improved sleep more than those who never drank it anyway.

3. Walnuts

Eating walnut could promote your sleep considerably. But how?

This type of food possesses a wide range of nutrients such as omega-3-fatty acids, serotonin, polyphenol, and other micronutrients.

Doco-Hexanoic Acid (DHA) from omega-3-fatty acids is thought to be associated with the production of serotonin which is a neurotransmitter that enhances sleep and makes the process much easier.

About ½ to 1 ounce of walnuts 2 hours before bed should help you to get better sleep.

4. High Glycemic index (GI) foods

These foods include white rice, pasta, bread, and potatoes.

They tend to increase faster blood sugar in a short period and may also promote sleep.

Especially on white rice, unlike with brown rice, its bran and germ are removed.

As a result, white rice possesses lower antioxidants, fibers, and nutrients indeed which makes it more glycemic index food and better for sleeping.

In one study conducted, healthy men experienced a shortened sleep onset latency when they were provided with a high glycemic index food that was consumed 4 hours before bedtime.

Contrary, for other men who consumed high GI foods one hour prior to bedtime their sleep was improved certainly.

5. Milk

As milk is one of the richest sources of quality protein it is also a good source of tryptophan.

This amino acid act as a precursor to the sleep-regulating and promoting hormone serotonin and melatonin respectively.

Recent researches reveal that improvements in sleep parameters such as increased sleep time, efficiency, and decreased sleep latency, have been identified following the consumption of tryptophan which mainly presents in foods such as milk.

Furthermore, evening dietary increases in tryptophan intake improved sleep in adults and elders with sleep disturbances and enhanced alertness in the morning, because of improved sleep quality.

Conversely, the depletion of tryptophan from proteins has been linked to reduced sleep quality and duration as well.

6. Zinc-rich foods 

By including some of those foods in the evenings such as 

• Yogurt, 
• Tofu, 
• Lentils, 
• Oatmeal, 
• Mushroom and other zinc-rich food you will be securing your sleep.

Additionally, in one study examining zinc supplementation in individuals with below-optimal zinc levels (79.9g/dL), they observed a subjective sleep quality and improved sleep onset latency scores.

This was clarified as magnesium helped in the reduction of the stress hormone cortisol which is suspected to interrupt their sleep before.

 7. Banana

Apart from abundant carbohydrates in bananas, magnesium, potassium, manganese, iron, niacin, B6 and tryptophan also are present. 

Magnesium is suspected to improve sleep quality and minimize some insomnia concerns that are associated with different sleeping disorders.

Magnesium obtained in this food tend to help the body in the production of GABA that facilitates relaxation and sleep as well.

A piece of banana 2 hours before bed, will make you sleep faster and longer.

Bottom line 

Better and enough sleep is essential for maintaining immune health, restoring energy, and memory consolidation.

Some foods including; fish, cherry juice, white rice, banana, low-fat dairy products, kiwifruits, yogurt, and others should be abundant in your meal before bedtime for better sleep.

These food’s nutrients will help the body in regulating sleep hormone melatonin, brain chemicals such as GABA, serotonin and many others that boost sleep quality.

It is also suggested to eat at least 2-3 hours before bed so as to avoid gastric problems such as acid reflux, bloating, heartburn, flatulence, heartburn, and other discomforts.

Sleeping comfortably should go hand in hand with skipping some drinks with caffeine, alcohol, smoking, heavy food, too much activity too near bedtime, watching TV in bed, or phone checking.

You should plan a bedtime for a regular time, about 7-9 hours before your alarm will ring the next day.

Consequently, this will prevent various problems such as poor learning, poor memory, hypertension, coronary heart disease, obesity, weaker immunity, inflammation, glucose metabolism, and neuroendocrine function that are caused by sleep deprivation.

Sources

1. Gonzalez, K. et al. (2017) ‘Diet and Sleep Physiology : Public Health and Clinical Implications The Harvard community has made this Diet and Sleep Physiology : Public Health and Clinical Implications’. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2017.00393.
2. .Halson, S. L. (2013) ‘NUTRITIONAL INTERVENTIONS TO’, 26(116), pp. 1–5.
3. Singh, K. (2016) ‘Nutrient and Stress Management’, 6(4). doi: 10.4172/2155-9600.1000528.