7 Healthy Foods That Help You Sleep Better

Do you often find yourself tossing and turning on your bed unable to fall asleep? Well, we can relate.

Having a good night’s sleep is directly linked with our mental and physical health, and sleep is the main thing that keeps us rested and gives us energy.

The majority of us struggle to fall asleep at night or don’t have a good night’s sleep which can leave us tired with no energy, sleepy, and unproductive, or frustrated the other day.

Everything we do and everything that happens during the day affects our sleep.
Stress, worries, overthinking, and anger, even blue light emitted by your phone or your computer at work, the list goes on and on.

The inability to fall asleep or stay asleep is called insomnia.
Some studies show that 10% to 30% of adults are affected by insomnia, but it might vary depending on the age group.

Food and Sleep

You may have noted how different kinds of food affect your mood, well there is a relation between food and how it makes us feel. 

You may have noticed that coffee makes you energize right? Well, food can affect our sleep too.

There is a variety of foods that can help us regulate our sleep cycle and help us fall asleep easier but there are different types of food that prevent us from falling asleep also.

Foods for good sleep

Throughout time there have been many studies of food that can help you sleep through the night or fall asleep easier or help with insomnia. Here are some of them that you can try before you go to bed to help you relax.

Walnuts

Walnuts are the most popular nuts in some countries and also a very good source of food that will help you fall asleep.

They are full of nutrients, including over 19 vitamins and minerals.
One serving that contains 8 oz or about 7 walnuts, has 4.3 grams of protein and 1.9 grams of fiber.

Keeping in mind all the other health benefits, the fatty acid of walnuts will contribute to better sleep also they contain melatonin which is the major hormone responsible for regulating your sleep wake-cycle.

Kiwi

Kiwi is a fruit that contains very few calories and is full of nutrients.

One Kiwi fruit contains around 42 calories and is full of vitamins and it has the daily amount we need of vitamin C, vitamin K.

Eating a Kiwi before bed has been linked to helping the sleep cycle due to the serotonin that the fruit contains, serotonin is a chemical that the brain releases that helps the sleep cycle also the vitamin C may be responsible for regulating sleep.

Tart Cherry Juice

Tart Cherry or known as the sour Cherry, has a variety of health benefits.
The fruit in itself has a really broad variety of vitamins that our body needs.

8 ounce or 240 milliliter of Cherry contains vitamin C 62%, vitamin A 40%, Potassium 12%, Manganese 14%, vitamin K 7%, and Fiber 4 gr.

Sour Cherries also contain a good amount of tryptophan and anthocyanins, two compounds that help our body produce more melatonin.

Drinking Cherry juice before sleep helps you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer due to the melatonin and other compounds found in Cherries.

Fatty Fish

Fatty fish such as salmon, tuna, trout, and mackerel contain fatty acids and an exceptional amount of Vitamin D.

A 3-ounce serving, for example, Salmon contains 750 units of vitamin D.
Fatty fish are higher in fatty acid such as omega 3 in combination with vitamin D enhance a higher potential to help regulate the sleep cycle

Keep in mind that eating fatty fish before sleep will help regulate your sleep.

Passionflower Tea

Passionflower is a type of flower that is used for tea.
It has been said that passionflower tea helps with anxiety, insomnia, and hot flashes.

Passionflower is rich in flavonoid antioxidants. These antioxidants are linked with the effect of the flower to reduce anxiety.
Passionflower increases the production of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), an acid found in the brain.
This chemical works to inhibit the other brain chemicals that reduce stress.

The calming effects of this tea may help you to fall asleep easier if drinking a cup before bed.

Chamomile Tea 

The famous chamomile tea,  known for its calm effect and also a lot of other health benefits.
Has been consumed for many centuries for its benefits regarding anxiety, inflammation, and insomnia.

It contains apigenin, an antioxidant that affects certain receptors in the brain that may promote sleepiness and reduce anxiety. 

Try giving Chamomile tea a shot if you struggle to fall asleep at night.

Lavender

The herb is known for its amazing smell and color and it has been used since ancient times besides its amazing smell. Lavender has a lot of health benefits.

Lavender has anti-inflammatory properties and is used to treat headaches, toothaches, sores, depression, anxiety, and insomnia.

You can use Lavender as a tea and also as an essential oil.

As an essential oil, you can either massage your forehead or put it in an air diffuser to help relax you before sleep.

Foods that prevent sleep

We mentioned some foods that might help you fall asleep easier and stay asleep during the whole night, but other foods might interfere with your sleeping cycle and you should avoid such foods.

There is a list of some foods that you should avoid before bedtime:

1. Coffee
2. Dark chocolate
3. Processed meat
4. Matcha and anything that contains it
5. Cheese 

If you are having trouble staying asleep or even falling asleep, give it a try to the foods that we listed above that might help you, and avoid those foods that might prevent sleep.