From Veet’s experience and research.
What sort of sleep do you get? Do you sleep right through the night without waking up, or do you have a broken sleep, or do you suffer from insomnia? If you struggle with sleep (like I do) you may be happy to know that what we eat in the evening meal can have an impact on our sleep. There has been extensive research done on food for sleep.
One of the most important things is to try to eat and drink 2 to 3 hours before going to bed and make the evening meal your smallest meal of the day. If your body is used to having a big meal in the evening you may want to reduce the size slowly so your metabolism gets used to having a smaller meal.
The following foods are all foods that can aid in sleep, it is therefore important to add them to your evening meal on a regular basis. My list is not exclusive and there may be more foods that aid sleep, but this is already a great list to start with.
There are foods that can aid sleep due to their magnesium content that helps relax muscles, which then ends up relaxing the whole body. Those foods include bananas, sweet potatoes and almonds.
Bananas and sweet potatoes also include potassium, as does kale.
Kale also has a good amount of calcium that is used by the brain to turn tryptophan into melatonin, which is the hormone that helps us sleep. Bananas and sweet potato also contain niacin (B6), which also helps produce melatonin. Chickpeas and hummus are also fabulous to include into an evening meal, as they are high in tryptophan, as are figs.
Tart cherries are high in melatonin, offering a lovely after dinner sweet treat. An extensive randomized controlled study showed significant results for improving sleep if 1 to 2 are eaten before sleeping. This is due to their high content of serotonin which converts to melatonin in the evening. 1)
Another beauty (because I always feel like eating it at night) is lettuce, especially cos (romaine) lettuce. It contains the chemical lactucarium, which relaxes the body and enhances sleep quality. The seed and leaf extract are more potent. 2)
The one that many of you know is chamomile tea. The antioxidant apigenin in chamomile binds to receptors in the brain that are thought to improve sleep quality. Effects though of chamomile tea have only been seen when consumed daily as a tea for more than 2 weeks. 3)
Another random food is white rice. While white rice is low in nutritional value due to the bran and germ being removed from the grain, it is low GI and studies show that it aids sleep if eaten as part of the evening meal. 4)
Quite a lot of recent research is showing that eating 2 kiwi fruits 1 hour before bed can potentially improve sleep.
Since researching this I have been making the salad I share with you today:
References
- Howatson, G., Bell, P.G., Tallent, J. et al. Effect of tart cherry juice (Prunus cerasus) on melatonin levels and enhanced sleep quality. Eur J Nutr 51, 909–916 (2012). doi.org
- Kim HD, Hong KB, Noh DO, Suh HJ. Sleep-inducing effect of lettuce (Lactuca sativa) varieties on pentobarbital-induced sleep. Food Sci Biotechnol. 2017 May 29; 26(3): 807-814. doi: 10.1007/s10068-017-0107-1. PMID: 30263607; PMCID: PMC6049580
- McKay DL, Blumberg JB. A review of the bioactivity and potential health benefits of chamomile tea (Matricaria recutita L.). Phytother Res. 2006 Jul; 20(7): 519-30. doi: 10.1002/ptr. 1900. PMID: 16628544
- Halson SL. Sleep in elite athletes and nutritional interventions to enhance sleep. Sports Med. 2014; 44 Suppl 1 (Suppl 1): S13-S23. doi: 10.1007/s40279-014-0147-0
- Lin HH, Tsai PS, Fang SC, Liu JF. Effect of kiwifruit consumption on sleep quality in adults with sleep problems. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2011;20(2): 169-74. PMID: 21669584
First published on Veet’s blog: www.veets.com.au – Highlights by Osho News – Photo by Alexandra Gorn on Unsplash
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