Best & worst foods for helping with Sleep

 

Via

   During Covid, I haven't been sleeping as well as I was before. It could be from the mattress, being unemployed, or the stress of everything going on. I usually go to be around 12/12:30 am. I've been trying to get my diet back to normal since it's been crazy, which could be contributing to my lack of sleep. Nearly 70 million Americans are sleep deprived. Since, I'm sure I'm not the only person with sleep & diet problems right now, I wanted to share some of the best & worst foods to eat before bed. All of the information for this is a combination of list from Nutritious life, Cooking Light, Health.com & Eat This, Not That.

Foods to help with better Sleep

Almonds, Walnuts, & Cashews: contain magnesium, which acts like a natural sedative; a small deficiency in magnesium can lead to trouble in the sleep department. 

Apricots: full of vitamin C which can help relieve stress, shown to help your body recover faster from stress.

Asparagus: high in folate; folate has been linked to helping with anxiety & mood.

Bananas: a source of  melatonin (a sleep hormone) that helps to decrease the time it takes to fall asleep, increases sleepiness and may also increase the amount of time you spend asleep. & potassium, which helps normalize heartbeat. 

Cheese: a good source of tryptophan (particularly swiss or cheddar), an amino acid that encourages the release of melatonin.

Nutmeg: improves blood pressure and cholesterol levels; home remedy for cramps and anxiety. 

Tart cherries: loaded with anthocyanins, an antioxidant that lowers inflammation, as well as cholesterol and triglyceride levels; natural source of melatonin.

Oatmeal: contains tryptophan; converts to the sleep controlling hormone, serotonin; one cup provides you with 60 mg of magnesium. 

Some other foods that help with better sleep include: Lentils, Spinach, Legumes, Salmon, & Milk, 

Foods to avoid before bed

High fat foods: unhealthy fats and refined carbs have caused disturbances in the sleep/wake cycle; stimulates the production of acid in the stomach, causing heartburn; disrupt body’s natural circadian rhythms, making you sleeper during the day.

Coffee: contains caffeine is a central nervous stimulant; skip later in the day;

Dark chocolate: contains theobromine, another stimulant that can increase heart rate and sleeplessness; chocolate dark has more than white & milk chocolate; eating a whole bar of chocolate before bed could keep you up due to the caffeine.

Alcohol: causes the quality of sleep through the night to be worse & can cause one to feel groggy; metabolizes quickly in your system, causing you to wake up multiple times during the night; makes snoring worse. 

Spicy Foods: can trigger heartburn; can interrupt sleep by increasing core temperature (core temperature naturally decreases closer to bedtime). 

I've been drinking Calm & using supplement called Relaxing Sleep from Herb Pharm that has helped some. I'll probably share my bedtime routine at some point. Next week,  I'll be sharing some of the other Herb Pharm supplements that I take throughout my day & the benefits of them. Until next time, Peace & Blessings, all.