Do you keep hitting snooze and just need “5 more minutes of sleep?” If you struggle to wake up at your first alarm, you may just need better sleep. It’s time to stop hitting the snooze button and learn how to wake up energized every morning. The best part is that the secret to a good night’s sleep can be through the food you’re eating.
Although the time and duration that you sleep are important in the quality of your slumber, the food you eat also plays a significant role. Researcher Dr. Ana Krieger, Medical Director of the Center for Sleep Medicine at New York-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine explains that “eating healthy and allowing the body to absorb proper nutrients provides the brain with the chemical environment that it needs to produce the neurotransmitters that it needs to maintain adequate sleep.” With a healthy and nutrient dense diet, your brain health and activity are provided more function, which ultimately affects your sleep.
In relation, a study led by a group of researchers analyzed a batch of adults on how their diet and sleep were connected. During this five-day experiment, the researchers provided the adults with a diet for the first four days of the experiment, and on the final day, they allowed the adults to choose for themselves. The experiment proved that food choices did, in fact, affect the quality of sleep. In addition, the data also presented that the consumption of less fiber, more saturated fat, and more sugar was connected to lower quality sleep. So the next time you want to have a restorative sleep, you should maybe reconsider that chocolate chip cookie at 9pm.
There are many foods that are recommended to stay away from in order to improve your overall health and sleep, but there are still a ton of great options that can be even more beneficial for your sleep. Certain delicious foods and beverages have been proven to increase the quality of your sleep, which include almonds, walnuts, chamomile tea, passionflower tea, tart cherry juice, turkey, kiwis, bananas, fatty fish, white rice, and more. Ultimately, foods that contain complex carbohydrates, lean proteins, heart healthy fats, are high in magnesium and other micronutrients are key to improving your sleep.
Here are some other quick tips to improve your sleep with food:
1. Be aware of your caffeine intake.
2. Avoid heavy consumption of alcohol before bed.
3. Try not to eat a heavy dinner close to your bedtime.
4. Eat less sugar throughout the day.
5. Stay hydrated.
Learn more about how you can improve your sleep with diet and exercise with Caravan Wellness. It’s time for a good night’s rest!
References:
“The Best Foods to Help You Sleep.” Sleep Foundation, 11 Mar. 2022, https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nutrition/food-and-drink-promote-good-nights-sleep.
DiGiulio, Sarah. “How What You Eat Affects Your Sleep.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/how-what-you-eat-affects-how-you-sleep-ncna805256.
Elliott, Brianna. “9 Foods and Drinks to Promote Better Sleep.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 27 Aug. 2020, https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/9-foods-to-help-you-sleep#The-bottom-line.
St-Onge, Marie-Pierre, et al. “Fiber and Saturated Fat Are Associated with Sleep Arousals and Slow Wave Sleep.” Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine : JCSM : Official Publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, American Academy of Sleep Medicine, Jan. 2016, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4702189/.