Everybody wants a good sleep but the kind of sleep you get also depends on the type of food you eat at night. There are foods that can make your sleep time a nightmare, and there are those that make you sleep well.
There are several things happening in the body that determine how much you sleep and quality. Among those things are the kinds of foods you eat throughout the day and the ones you eat before retiring to bed.
If you want better sleep, there are some specific types of foods you need to eat. These said foods will not only take care of your stomach and ensure you don't get hungry at midnight, but they will also make sure that you are accorded with the required healthy sleep.
These foods can be your daily diet, or you can have them as snacks late at night before you retire to your bed. Healthy sleep is very important in human development and so, let nothing stop you from achieving the much-needed sleep. Some of the suitable foods before retiring are discussed below.
Bananas
For you to have a good sleep, your body muscles need to relax. And the best-known nutrients in the relaxation of muscles are potassium and magnesium. Banana is a very important source of these much-needed nutrients.
So, as you consume some banana during the day, remember to keep some for the night if you want to have a superb night.
For your body to regulate sleep, you need serotonin produced by amino acid known as tryptophan. This tryptophan amino acid makes you feel a nap, which eventually leads to some sleep. At least have some banana diet before heading to bed to make you ready for the night.
Chamomile Tea
Having stomach aches and anxiety during the night are most of the enemies of good sleep. No one loves to have such complications, especially when bedtime is approaching.
Stress can make you stay awake the whole night. But with this chamomile tea, which is more herbal, the stomach complications and anxiety have always been done away with.
Chamomile tea ensures that you are stress-free at night and also clears any upsets caused by stomach disorders. This, in turn, gives you ample time to lie down and relax after a long day of exhaustion.
Make sure you switch off all your gadgets such as phones and TV while taking your chamomile tea to ensure its effectiveness. You can as well sit quietly, listen to some music, or read some book as you slowly sip your chamomile tea.
Carbohydrates
For you to experience some sweet dreams while sleeping, there are various ingredients that ease your body to have that sound sleep. These ingredients are found mostly in carbohydrates.
This doesn't mean that you have to eat some bread or even pasta at night since they are also rich in carbohydrates. Instead, try out some cereals and also milk before jumping onto your bed.
You will enjoy the outcome though you will be asleep. Remember the serotonin in bananas? Milk, too, has this ingredient, which plays a major role in aiding sleep. Apart from you falling asleep very fast, once your body has absorbed the tryptophan, you will also fall asleep very fast.
To avoid waking up in the middle of the night because of cravings, take your carbohydrates much earlier. The best time should be 30 minutes before resigning to bed to keep you away from sleep distractions caused by a hungry stomach.
Having well-taken care of the stomach will allow you to sleep soundly.
Read more, 5 Consequences You Need to Know About Going to Bed Hungry.
Cherry Juice
Despite having some easy and sound sleep, your body sometimes needs to stay in bed much longer. Other foods, such as bananas and milk, help you sleep easily.
That is very different from cherry juice, which contains melatonin that ensures your body stays much longer in bed. Of course, after a long day of activities, our body needs deep sleep, which is only achieved if you take some cherry juice before covering yourself with a blanket.
So generally, cherry juice has a lot of significance ranging from sleep inducement, ensuring deeper sleep. You need this juice to get quality sleep and a peaceful night.
Chickpeas
Lacking vitamins in your diet can disrupt your sleeping system. The much-needed vitamin in the sleep cycle is commonly vitamin B6, which helps convert tryptophan into serotonin.
This vitamin B6 is mainly found in chickpeas. Chickpeas are commonly used as a snack but are also eaten raw.
You can add them to your meal after cooking them or after tossing them in a salad. The best thing is that these chickpeas can suit any meal. You can as well have humus because they are also made of chickpeas and make very healthy snacks.
Walnuts
Getting to sleep doesn't mean you have to eat a lot. Instead, you can have a few snacks, and you will still enjoy a peaceful night.
Walnuts are some of the snack foods which can help you get some good sleep. You can also enjoy a deeper sleep.
Melatonin nutrient helps to regulate your sleeping patterns. As an adult, you need 1 to 5 grams of melatonin daily to increase your drowsiness. These walnuts ensure you have healthier sleep.
Oranges and Grapefruits
Lack of sleep at night is an event no one would associate with. And lacking sleeping doesn't just happen without any triggers.
Without vitamin C, you can ponder a lot in your bed before going to sleep. With less vitamin C, you are likely to remain asleep even the entire night.
Apart from ensuring you remain asleep throughout the night, vitamin C also prevents you from getting leg syndrome, making your legs restless. Vitamin C helps a lot in curbing the restless leg syndrome and ensures you have a deep sleep with no interruptions.
Avocado
Having a destructive tummy at night is something most people do not love. Tummies sometime create a lot of problems, which can make you lack sleep throughout the night.
But with avocado in your diet before heading to bed, your tummy problems can well be taken care of. Avocado has well-established unsaturated fats. These unsaturated fats ensure your tummy feels okay.
So as you prefer taking this pulpy fruit during the day, try to incorporate it in your diet during the night. The avocado will improve the quality of your sleep by ensuring that your tummy is okay.
Apart from providing you with quality sleep and fewer tummy worries, avocado also improves your digestion system. With good digestion, your health is always on the right track. And having a healthy life improves your sleeping cycle.
Yogurt
It is quite true that yogurt and milk share the same benefits. But when it comes to digestion, these two are totally different.
Yogurt is tenderer than milk, making it more digestible than milk. So in case you have a problem digesting milk, then I bet that yogurt can be much suitable for you. Ending your dinner with a sip of yogurt will add you to some good sleep quality.
Both yogurt and milk contain calcium nutrients. And research has proven that low or less calcium in our body interferes with our sleeping patterns.
Deep sleep is very important for our improved health, and lack of calcium in your body can deprive you that much-needed sleep. Not returning to sleep after several waking up is something you would not want. At least drink some yogurt before going to bed to get that much-needed sleep.
Peppermint Tea
Feeling fresh after a long day work is a dream of every person. Peppermint is an herb containing some methanol. After taking this methanol herb, your muscles feel relaxed. And relaxed muscle after an exhausting day with eventually leads to deep sleep.
Deep sleep and good rest are what we need during the night.
We need water for various reasons in our bodies. Most importantly, when we feel hydrated, falling asleep can never be an uphill task. Water helps maintain our body temperature, and we are well aware that when temperatures of our surroundings are not that favorable, getting some good quality of sleep can only be a dream.
It's very difficult to get back to sleep if you've woken up at midnight because of adverse temperatures. Always avoid dehydration by all means possible.
Valerian Tea
Talking of tea, who doesn't love tea? Tea has become a favorite to many people starting from young ages to adults, both male and female. Valerian tea is not an exception for tea lovers.
Its flowers were used to produce perfumes in five centuries way back. It was a very popular herb back then in the 16th century. The Greeks also used it as a sedative.
Apart from the signs mentioned above of valerian tea, let us talk about improving your sleep.
Valerian tea plays a very vital role in calming down your nerves. With calmed nerves, falling asleep is indeed very easy. Valerian tea ensures you sleep without disruptions.
Peanut Butter
Try out peanut butter for some time after finishing your dinner, and your stomach is still craving for some dessert. Peanut butter has many tryptophan nutrients in it, and the importance of this nutrient has already been discussed severally in this article.
With the tryptophan aside, peanut butter boosts the metabolism rate in our body. And with metabolism, a lot of calories are burned when we sleep at night.
Suggestively, peanut butter also acts as a sleep-inducing agent when put on a whole-wheat bagel. The next time you go shopping, make sure you include peanut butter on your shopping list if you want to get rid of sleeping deficiency.
Fish
Vitamin B6 and Omega 3s are found in some fish. Mark the word some fish, meaning not all fish are rich in these nutrients.
The Omega 3s fatty acids can regulate sleep patterns and quality. These acids ensure you don't feel sleepy the following morning because you'll have enough sleep. Vitamin B6, which is found in fish, ensures your body is relaxed and feels comfortable at night by converting the tryptophan into serotonin.
With relaxation and the comfort feeling brought about by serotonin, you can easily fall asleep. Combining these two nutrients gives you the satisfaction of having fish for dinner if you want to have a long and sound sleep without getting hungry in the middle of the night.
Popcorn
This may sound funny! Yes, it doesn't mean that you should have popcorn for your dinner. After enjoying your well-prepared dinner, try out popcorn before retiring to bed.
They have a carb complexity, which ensures you fall asleep with the help of serotonin. The most preferred popcorn is usually the unseasoned ones, which cannot interfere with your stomach.
The low-carb popcorn ensures you don't remain awake throughout the night because of the tummy problems. Stomach aches can cause anxiety, which can keep up even the whole night. Be selective a little bit with the popcorn you choose to have before heading to bed.
Related, How to Fall Asleep with Anxiety：12 Tricks To Get Some Sleep
Try Chicken Noodle Soup
Chicken noodle soup is one of the comforting foods available. Nothing is important, like having a comforting meal for dinner when you are about to go to bed.
This kind of food will induce sleep by calming your nerves down, making you feel relaxed. With the cool nervous system, your body also feels safer. And the soup also helps you in the digestion process. Indigestion can keep you awake the entire night.
Conclusion
Sleep plays a very important role in our development leave alone our daily activities. Foods we eat before going to bed mostly affect our sleep, whether positively or negatively.
Not all foods can ruin our night of sleep, and not all foods can make our nights bearable. If taken, preferably before going to bed, the food mentioned above, problems associated with less or no sleep can be very scarce. Choose the food you eat wisely before jumping onto your bed in case you want better sleep.