Sweet dreams: The right foods for a good night’s sleep

Do you have trouble getting a good night’s sleep? You’re not alone.

• More than 100 million Americans of all ages regularly fail to get a good night’s sleep.
• More than 35 million Americans complain of chronic insomnia (poor sleep every night or most nights.)
• One in four Americans takes some kind of sleep medication.
• Sleep deprivation and sleep disorders are estimated to cost Americans over $100 billion annually in lost productivity, medical expenses, sick leave, and property and environmental damage (National Sleep Foundation).

What you eat affects how you sleep. One of the keys to a restful night’s sleep is to get your brain calmed rather than revved up. Some foods contribute to restful sleep; other foods keep you awake. Foods that help you sleep are tryptophan-containing foods.

Tryptophan (which is converted to an amino acid called L-tryptophan) is the raw material that the brain uses to build sleep-inducing substances (relaxing neurotransmitters) serotonin and melatonin. Adequate serotonin levels promote deep, restorative sleep. Eating carbohydrates with tryptophan-containing foods makes this calming amino acid more available to the brain. A high carbohydrate meal stimulates the release of insulin, which helps clear those amino acids that compete with tryptophan from the bloodstream, allowing more of this natural sleep-inducing amino acid to enter the brain and manufacture sleep-inducing substances. Eating a high-protein meal without accompanying carbohydrates may keep you awake, since protein-rich foods also contain the amino acid, tyrosine, which perks up the brain.

Foods for a good night’s sleep:
(Foods that are high in carbohydrates and calcium, and medium-to-low in protein are ideal for promoting sleep)

• Dairy products: cottage cheese, cheese, milk
• Soy products: soy milk, tofu, soybean nuts
• Honey
• Almonds
• Banana
• Seafood
• Meats
• Poultry
• Whole grains
• Beans
• Rice
• Oatmeal
• Hummus
• Lentils
• Turkey
• Hazelnuts
• Peanuts
• Avocado
• Eggs
• Sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds
• Papaya
• Mushrooms
• Grapefruit

Sleep-inducing bedtime snacks
An all-carbohydrate snack, especially one high in junk sugars, is less likely to help you sleep. You’ll miss out on the sleep-inducing effects of tryptophan, and you may set off the roller-coaster effect of plummeting blood sugar followed by the release of stress hormones that will keep you awake.

The best bedtime snack is one that has both complex carbohydrates and protein, and some calcium. Calcium helps the brain use the tryptophan to manufacture melatonin. That’s why dairy products, which contain both tryptophan and calcium, are one of the top sleep-inducing foods.

For a good night’s sleep try:

• a glass of warm milk with honey is one of the oldest and best remedies for insomnia
• whole-grain cereal with milk
• hazelnuts and tofu
• peanut butter sandwich
• slice of whole wheat toast topped with a small slice of low-fat cheese
• banana with 1 teaspoon of peanut butter
• rice cake topped with a slice turkey breast

Note: It takes around one hour for the tryptophan in the foods to reach the brain, so don’t wait until right before bedtime to have your snack.

Foods that can interfere with sleep:
Some components of food, such as caffeine, artificially wake us up, so it makes no sense to have stimulant-containing foods before bed. Unfortunately, this applies not only to coffee, but to all caffeine-containing foods, and to theophylline-containing foods (like black tea) as well. Chocolate and many soft drinks (including diet soft drinks) have substantial amounts of caffeine. An ounce of chocolate can contain 10-60 mg of caffeine, and a soft drink will usually fall into this same range. Brewed coffee can have over 100 mg per cup, depending on the grind and brewing time. Eliminating these foods from your evening meal routine is recommended for improved sleep.

Other foods to avoid:

• Alcohol and nicotine. Do not use alcohol to help you fall asleep. Although alcohol may initially induce sleep, once it wears off, the sleep tends to be fragmented. Also, limit nicotine prior to bedtime, as it is a stimulant and will keep you up.
• Heavy meals less than three hours prior to bed. Meals loaded with calories and fat rev up active digestion and can often leave you feeling uncomfortably full or, even worse, cause heartburn or aggravate a hiatal hernia.
• Fatty or spicy foods
• Tomatoes
• Potatoes
• Salt
• Onions

*Do you have a natural remedy that helps you sleep better? We’d love to hear from you. Please write and share it with others.

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Sources: http://www.healthassist.net/conditions/food-sleep.shtml, http://www.sleepmedonline.com/res/stats.htm, http://www.sleepfoundation.org