Five Foods for Better Sleep

Five Foods for Better
Sleep

By Monica Bhide, Natural
Solutions
If you âre among the estimated 65 percent of
Americans who have trouble sleeping at least a few nights a week, you âre
probably tired of hearing about all the possible culprits for your bedtime woes,
from too much caffeine and late-night TV to not enough exercise or unwind time
in the evenings.
While all of these factors certainly play a
role in your quality of shut-eye, there is one sleep saboteur that often goes
unrecognized even though it can have a profound effect on how soundly you
snoozeâ your diet.
In fact, food and sleep actually affect one
another: If you donât eat right, you lose sleep; and when youâre sleep-deprived,
your eating habits suffer, says Sally Kravich, a holistic nutritionist and
author of Vibrant Living: Creating Radiant Health and Longevity (SPK
Publications, 2003). âItâs the ultimate catch-22,â she says. âA lack of sleep
causes leptin, an appetite-regulating hormone, to crash, which causes you to eat
more,â she says. âNot only does eating more eventually lead to weight gain and
an increased risk of obesityâboth of which can affect how well you sleepâbut the
foods youâre most likely to reach for when youâre tired will keep you up at
night.â So whatâs an insomniac to do?
For starters, get clear about which foods
promote good shut-eye, and which have the potential to keep you up at night, and
adjust your diet accordingly.
Sleep-enhancing
foods
Whole grains.
Fiber-rich foods, such as brown rice and quinoa, do more than keep you full;
they contain large amounts of tryptophan, an essential amino acid that increases
the levels of serotonin (a feel-good neurotransmitter that calms the nervous
system) and melatonin (a sleep-inducing hormone secreted in response to
darkness) in the brain. Whatâs more, whole grains slowly nourish the body
throughout the night after you digest them, says Lauren Taylor, CTN, a
naturopath in Boulder, Colorado. That makes them an especially good choice for
anyone who wakes up hungry during the night. Whole-grain carbohydrates also have
a soothing effect. âCertain grains, like oats, act as natural relaxants and help
calm the nervous system,â says Taylor.
Legumes. The high
levels of B vitamins in legumes, such as black-eyed peas and lentils, also help
calm your nervous system, says Kravich. Adds Taylor: âLegumes can be a great
choice for an evening meal because they often replace animal protein, which can
cause sleep problems.â But legumes are not for everyone, warns Taylor. They can
be hard for some to digest. To know if you fall into this category, pay close
attention to how you feel after you eat them. If the legumes satisfy your hunger
without making you feel overly full or gassy, they could be a good addition to
your sleep-inducing arsenal. Have an upset stomach or feel sluggish after a meal
of legumes? Skip them altogether or eat them only in
moderation.
Herbal teas. Tempted
to have a glass of vino to unwind at night? Kravich recommends reaching for a
cup of tea instead, especially blends with chamomile, lavender, and mint.
âDrinking caffeine-free tea, particularly gentle herbal varieties, relaxes the
body, calms digestion, and soothes the stomach,â says Kravich. Taylor agrees,
but also says that the environment in which we eat potentially relaxing foods
can have a profound effect on our nervous system. âThat calming chamomile tea
isnât necessarily going to be so calming if you drink it while youâre on the
computer paying your bills at 10 oâclock at night,â says Taylor. Instead, take
your tea to a cozy spot where you can relax, smell the tea, and fully enjoy
drinking it. âUnwinding in the eveningâemptying outâthatâs whatâs important,â
says Taylor. âItâs a way of clearing your nervous system. If you havenât let go
of the dayâs activities, where is all that energy going to go? If it remains
pent up inside of you, itâs certainly going to affect your ability to
sleep.â
Fruit. Especially
high in sleep-inducing tryptophan, bananas, mangoes, and dates are also great
substitutes for higher-calorie desserts. âItâs all about changing your habits,â
says Kravich. âInstead of cutting out dessert completely, replace cake and
cookiesâwhich can keep you up at night because of their high sugar contentâwith
fruits that will satisfy your sweet tooth and help promote sleep. While fruits
do contain sugar, itâs naturalânot processedâand fruit also comes packed with
fiber.â Another benefit from fruits: their high antioxidant content. âThink of
nighttime as clean-up time for the body,â says Taylor. âIf you go into the
evening having just eaten foods that are cleansing and detoxifying, youâre
helping that clean-up cycle. Vegetables and fruit are the most detoxifying foods
you can eat.â
Soups and stews.
Adding sleep-inducing foods to your diet will certainly help you get your beauty
rest, but you should also pay attention to how you prepare them. âCooking
sleep-inducing foods at low temperatures for long periods of time is ideal,â
says Taylor. âSoups and stewsâparticularly those filled with fiber-rich veggies
and legumesâand low-fat casseroles are much more calming and relaxing than
seared meats and hot, spicy foods because when you cook something for a long
time, the cooking process acts almost like our own digestive system,â says
Taylor. Long cooking times break down the starches and sugars in foods, so your
body doesnât have to work very hard to access their nutrients.
Next: Five foods to avoid for a good nightâs
sleep
Sleep sappers
Fatty, high-protein
foods. We all know how important it is for good heart health to ease up
on saturated animal fats, but doing so can also help the state of your adrenal
glandsâimportant not only for good sleep but also for your overall health. Red
meat contains high levels of the amino acid tyrosine, which causes the adrenal
glands to pump cortisol through your body. This hormone is part of the
fight-or-flight reaction that prepares us to face or run away from dangerâand
certainly puts us in a heightened state thatâs hardly conducive to falling and
staying asleep. âUnder normal circumstances, your adrenal activity is at its
highest when you wake up and then descends throughout the day so itâs at its
lowest ebb before you go to sleep,â says Taylor. âTo promote good sleep, you
need to support this adrenal rhythm with the foods you eat.â And for most that
means turning the typical American diet upside down. Because high-protein foods
stimulate the body, eat them in the morning and at midday, suggests Taylor. For
dinner, steer clear of meats and other high-protein foods that will spike your
adrenal glands and opt for vegetables and plant-based sources of protein
instead.
Caffeine. While you
may think that morning cup of joe or two wonât interfere with your ability to
wind down later in the day, think again. Caffeine is a powerful stimulant that
affects the central nervous system. Although most doctors say it takes between
four and seven cups of regular coffee a day to hinder sleep, caffeineâlike red
meatârevs the body up. âCaffeine can overstimulate the adrenals, which actually
compounds fatigue as it wears off,â says Kravich. If you must have your morning
cup, eat something nutritious with it and add milk or soy milk to dull the
negative effects of the caffeine.
High-sugar, empty-calorie
sweets. âThink of cakes and cookies as the other end of the spectrum
from whole grains,â says Taylor. âSweets give you quick energy followed by a
crash,â she says. âBecause the energy you get from sweets isnât long and
sustained, odds are youâll wake up because youâre hungry.â Instead of typical
desserts, opt for fruit or even some healthy fats and whole grains, such as a
quarter of an avocado spread on whole grain toast. âHealthy fats are satisfying,
and they calm the nervous system,â says Taylor.
Cold foods. Even
during the hot summer months when you might be craving cold foods, such as
salads, smoothies, and ice cream, do keep in mind that theyâre not necessarily
the best for promoting sleep, says Taylor. âWhen you eat cold foods, your body
has to work hard to bring the foodâs temperature up to your body temp,â she
says. âIf the food has been cooked, your body doesnât have to spend as much
energy breaking down the food, which is ideal for evening meals when the goal is
to help your body unwind and work less.â Instead of a cold salad, for example,
steam veggies and eat them at room temperature with a good olive oil drizzled on
top.
Monica Bhide is a Dunn Loring,
Virginia based food writer whose work has appeared in The New York
Times, The Washington Post, and Food & Wine. Her book,
Modern Spice: Inspired Indian Flavors for the Contemporary Kitchen, was
released this month by Simon & Schuster.