What to eat to sleep well: follow these 5 tips
You are certainly aware of the importance of a good night's sleep, but sometimes it just seems impossible to get 8 hours of sleep in a row. There can be many reasons for this, but have you ever thought that your diet can also make the difference between a restful night and one punctuated by constant awakenings or even insomnia?
The foods you introduce into your body, in fact, greatly affect your ability to fall asleep quickly and stay asleep for a long time, so if you are tired of tossing and turning in bed, find out what to eat to get a good night's sleep and wake up in the morning refreshed and full of energy.
What to eat to sleep well: the importance of cooking
Before finding out what to eat to sleep well, it is necessary to make a small premise. Choosing the correct foods for sleeping peacefully will not help you much if you do not also decide to resort to the most digestible types of cooking: you may never have thought about it, but cooking sets in motion processes very similar to digestive processes, making even the most complex chemicals simpler, and therefore easier to assimilate.
Recipes for sleeping well include those that involve steaming, a system that takes advantage of the capacity of water vapor, allowing you to minimize the amount of fat needed to cook food, as well as those that employ boiling, which by their nature do not require the use of oil and butter.
Alternatively, baked foods, which will naturally lose excess fat due to the intensity of the heat, and stewed foods, which while losing a small amount of nutrients as a result of the long cooking time, offer good digestibility, will do very well.
But now that we have clarified how to cook foods to fight insomnia, let's see what to eat to sleep well and longer.
What are the foods for better sleep?
Having given you the first tip for better sleep, let's tackle the main topic of this article: what to eat for good sleep. The foods for quality sleep are several and fortunately of different types, so that you can get all the macronutrients you need for dinner.
Broadly speaking, foods for sleep fall into three types: those rich in melatonin, which we will discuss later; those that contain magnesium, such as dried fruits, fish, artichokes, and leafy greens; and those that provide potassium, such as peaches, green beans, zucchini, salmon, and chicken. The latter two minerals, in fact, possess muscle relaxant properties, so foods containing them are considered the best foods for better sleep.
In any case, remember that a diet against insomnia requires a light but balanced evening meal, so always plan a menu that knows how to satiate you, without weighing you down.
Melatonin-rich foods: 5 foods to fight insomnia
Among the things to eat to sleep well, could foods rich in melatonin, the hormone that regulates the body's sleep-wake rhythm, be missing? Of course not. Here, then, is a short list of what to eat to sleep immediately and more soundly.
- Oats-a natural source of melatonin, oats are rich in complex carbohydrates, which help increase serotonin levels in the brain, improving mood and promoting sleep.
- Tomatoes-rich in melatonin, tomatoes are perfect for a light dinner because in addition to regulating the biological clock, they facilitate digestion and sleep.
- Almonds-they are rich in magnesium, a mineral that helps relax muscles and relieve stress. In addition, almonds also contain melatonin and tryptophan, another sleep-regulating chemical.
- Bananas - this fruit is rich in tryptophan, but especially in melatonin, as well as potassium and magnesium. In short, if you are wondering what to eat to get a good night's sleep, bananas are really the best!
- Cherries-a natural source of melatonin, cherries contain large amounts of it. Think one study showed that drinking a glass of cherry juice a day can increase sleep by as much as 90 minutes.
What helps you sleep better is now clear, so now let's figure out what to avoid eating before bedtime to get a better night's rest.
What NOT to eat to sleep better
Speaking of dieting to improve sleep, among the tips cannot miss the one on foods to avoid at all costs. So, what not to eat to sleep well? Among the foods to be eliminated, at least in the hours immediately before bedtime, there are certainly fatty foods, which take longer to digest and prevent a deep and restorative are.
In addition, sweets should be avoided, especially chocolate, which gives off a stimulating action due to the caffeine it contains. Completely prohibited, then are coffee and alcohol, which seems to give a relaxing effect, but actually disturbs the sleep cycle, making it ineffective for the purpose of energy recovery.
A separate mention should be made of spicy foods, which, while they are on the list of foods not to eat before bedtime, should be eliminated altogether from the diet of those suffering from digestive problems and gastroesophageal disorder, a condition that deserves a paragraph of its own.
What to eat at night to sleep well when suffering from gastroesophageal disorder
The fifth and final tip on what to eat to get a good night's sleep is especially for those who suffer from gastroesophageal reflux, which mostly manifests as stomach acid rising up right at night, causing burning and pain.
Things not to eat in order to sleep peacefully when suffering from this disorder certainly include spicy foods and chocolate, but also fried foods, pork and lamb, spices, onions, garlic, citrus fruits and carbonated drinks. In contrast, eggs, fish, grains and fruits low in citric acid, such as apples, melons and bananas, the sleep food suitable for everyone, even toddlers, will do just fine.
In these cases, however, we feel like adding a sixth piece of advice: certainly continue to pay attention to what to eat to get a good night's sleep, but entrust the quality of your sleep to Pharmaflex Reflux, the orthopedic pillow that reduces acid reflux discomfort and allows you to rest better and longer. Choosing what to eat to sleep well is up to you, but the quality of your sleep also depends on the pillow you decide to rest on.
