Dinner Guide for a Good Night's Sleep

In today's fast paced, always connected and high stress world, quality sleep is becoming more of a luxury. There are a number of contributing factors to poor sleep including stress, anxiety, depression, extensive work hours, health issues and even your diet.  Here we discuss a few sleep inducing foods.

This is a guest post by Eugene Gabriel, a passionate blogger who is fascinated by sleep health. We hope that you find it enjoyable and informative.

The diet choices we make not only have a huge impact on our health, physical fitness and well being but also affect our sleep. Making healthy dinner choices can promote a good night's sleep, whereas choosing foods that are sleep killers can leave us counting sheep all night. Plus it's always healthy to look for natural food sources to induce sleep instead of turning to alcohol and sleeping drugs which have side effects and can detriment your health in the long run. Here’s a dinner guide for you to make the right food choices before bed.

Foods Recommended Before Bed

Bananas

Bananas are rich in magnesium and potassium which help calm your body and nerves so you can enjoy a peaceful sleep. Plus they're also rich in tryptophan and vitamin B.  No wonder they are known as sleeping pills in a peel.

Sweet Potato

One of the healthiest root vegetables are also good for sleep. Sweet potatoes contain potassium, a natural muscle relaxant and loads of complex carbohydrates that slowly digest releases body-repairing energy, just what you need for quality refreshing sleep. Plus they're a quick fix. Just boil them for a few minutes and enjoy yummy sweet potatoes.

Lettuce

Having warm lettuce soup or munching crunchy leafy salad is the perfect dinner option if you want to have a light snack that is sleep promoting. The key sleep inducing ingredient in lettuce is called lactucarium which is like a natural sleep inducing drug also known as lettuce opium. So the next time you want feel like taking a sleeping pill, leave the idea and simply gorge on a big bowl of lettuce salad.

Cherries

When it comes to sleep inducing foods, one cannot miss cherries. One of the very few natural sources of melatonin, tart cherries prove to be a great bedtime snack. You can even try tart cherry juice as a sleep tonic.

Warm Milk

For ages warm milk has been used as the last thing before bed to induce sleep and now it's even backed by science. Milk is high in calcium and tryptophan, a natural chemical that helps to promote the sleep inducing hormone, melatonin in the brain. If you’re really struggling to sleep add a spoonful of honey or almond oil (both good sleep promoters) and you will be snoozing off in no time. Other dairy products like yogurt and cheese also contain some form of tryptophan and are also good for sleep.

Chamomile

Are you a tea lover and not a milk fan? Well, the good news is you can still enjoy tea without the negative effects of caffeine. Chamomile tea is regarded as a mild tranquilizer and sleep inducer. It contains flavonoid that contributes to its relaxing and anti-anxiety effects. Have a warm cup of chamomile tea 30 minutes before bedtime and you will be snoozing in no time.

Turkey

Free-range turkey meat is an excellent source of tryptophan that helps the brain to settle for sleep naturally. If you've ever dozed off on the couch after thanksgiving dinner you can surely relate to how drowsy and sleepy all that turkey makes you. Who needs sleeping pills when you can fix yourself a nice turkey sandwich with toast. Pairing up carbohydrate rich toast with turkey will speed up the release of tryptophan and serotonin, making it more effective for sleep.

Foods to Avoid Before Bed

Alcohol

Alcohol is widely used as a sleep aid but it is in fact one of the worst things to have before bed. Sure having alcohol puts you deep sleep, but that is only for a short period of time. It disrupts the sleep cycle by limiting the later stages of sleep including the REM sleep phase. Thus, it's actually a sleep disrupter that results in poor quality short sleep.

Soda

We all know that black tea and coffee are sleep killers but most people forget that soda and cola drinks have the same negative effects because they have a lot of caffeine too. Plus they are loaded with sugar, which is enough to keep you up all night. On top of that, they also contain citrus as well as sodium benzoate and other chemicals which can further disrupt your sleep by aggravating the gastrointestinal tract and promoting acid reflux.

Spices

Foods that are spicy are an absolutely not before bed. Hot spices can cause indigestion and heartburn which can leave you tossing and turning in bed all night.

Fatty Food

Heavenly on the taste buds but a disaster for sleep. Fatty food is a killer for your sleep. It’s best to avoid such foods at dinner because they can cause heartburn and acidity. Also, since they metabolize quickly fatty foods are linked to poor quality fragmented sleep, which will leave you exhausted instead of refreshed the next morning.

If you’ve been experiencing some difficulty sleeping, or waking up feeling less than refreshed, stay away from alcohol and any sort of caffeine drinks and avoid spicy and fatty foods in any form at dinner. We hope you follow this guide to fix yourself a yummy healthy meal that helps you settle for a good night's sleep.

Sources: http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20628881,00.html

Photo credits: Backyard Fruit

About the Author

Eugene Gabriel is a passionate blogger. He has always been fascinated by sleep and how it relates to health and wellness. Read his post on Eating before Sleep. You can follow him on twitter @eugenegabrielj.

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