Top Ten Foods To Help You Sleep

What you eat and how well you sleep are the two factors that dictate how you feel on a daily basis. With a good night’s rest and proper nutrition, you can feel like you’re on top of the world. Crap food and bad sleep are more likely to make you feel like the world is ending.

The Food-Sleep Connection

Why are sleep and nutrition so intricately related?

Both sleep and wakefulness are controlled by a series of chemical reactions in the body that regulate your circadian rhythm. Certain nutrients affect how long it takes you to fall asleep, how often you wake up during the night, and how you feel the next day.

For example, we typically think of cortisol as a stress hormone, but it is also a metabolic hormone that is released as blood glucose drops. Eating a diet of processed carbs will lead to blood sugar irregularities and elevated cortisol. Combine poor nutrition and non-stop stress and cortisol will be elevated at night, impairing sleep. Fortunately, certain foods can help offset this. These foods counteract that jittery, depleted feeling so that you are able to recover with a decent night’s sleep.

What follows are foods that regulate your circadian rhythm for better energy during the day and deeper sleep at night.

#1: Tart Cherry Juice

Tart cherries contain high levels of phytochemicals that raise melatonin. Melatonin is the hormone that induces sleep and regulates your body’s circadian rhythm. Melatonin can directly influence your core temperature as well as the sleep-wake cycle, making optimal levels at nighttime critical for sleep. Sports scientists like tart cherry juice because it can reduce inflammatory markers that inhibit sleep along with improving melatonin.

#2: Almonds & Walnuts

Almonds and walnuts are another melatonin-boosting food and they contain plenty of magnesium, the mineral best known for its calming benefits. Magnesium’s promotes sleep by helping the body metabolize cortisol. Magnesium also calms the central nervous system and aids sleep quality in people with mild insomnia.

#3: Chamomile Tea

Chamomile has a sedative effect by providing apigenin, an antioxidant that binds to receptors in the brain that promote sleepiness. Chamomile also provides flavones—inflammation banishing compounds that improve immune function and reduce anxiety and depression. Research suggests chamomile can calm the brain and help you get to sleep sooner.

#4: Kiwi

Kiwi fruits provide another chemical that has a soothing, feel good effect on the brain—serotonin. Low serotonin is one reason that people on low-carb diets can have trouble sleeping at night. Improving serotonin levels can help you get to sleep faster and increase ability to sleep through the night by about 10 percent for a more restorative experience. In a 4-week study, adults who ate two kiwis before bed, improved total sleep time by 13 percent.

#5: Salmon

Best known for its omega-3 fats that improve serotonin release, salmon also provides vitamin D, an essential sleep nutrient that many people are deficient in. In one study of insomniacs, supplementing with vitamin D completely restored sleep.

#6: Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin seeds are naturally high in the amino acid tryptophan from which the body manufactures the soothing neurotransmitter serotonin. Pumpkin seeds also provide healthy fats and fiber that are linked with better blood sugar levels during sleep to avoid nighttime awakenings.

#7: Garbanzo Beans

Garbanzo beans are the perfect food for sleep because they are high in tryptophan but lower in the BCAAs that compete for entry across the blood brain barrier. Garbanzo beans are a good source of complex carbs, and provide magnesium, vitamin B6, and thiamine—all of which can aid in relaxation and better sleep.

#8: Blueberries

Blueberries and other purple and red fruits that are rich in antioxidants can lower inflammation that impairs sleep. They also provide a nice dose of slow-digesting carbs to improve serotonin release and help relieve stress after a long day. Plums, pomegranates, and berries are all good choices for after dinner dessert or a bedtime snack.

#9: Passionflower Tea

Passionflower tea provides an array of inflammation-fighting antioxidants including apigenin, which has a calming effect on brain receptors. In addition, passionflower may increase production of GABA, the inhibitory, soothing neurotransmitter that counteracts other brain chemicals that induce stress. In one study, drinking passionflower tea before bed led to improved sleep quality compared to a placebo.

#10: Bananas

Bananas are a nutrient-rich complex carb that provide prebiotic fiber, which can improve gut health. This is important because as much as 2/3 of the neurotransmitters that regulate wakefulness and sleep are made in the GI tract. Additionally, bananas raise melatonin and are high in potassium and magnesium—a combination that can calm the central nervous system, allowing restful sleep.