When sleep eludes us now and then, we often blame it on a stressful week coming up at work.
We know that sleep helps keep us happy, our brains sharp and our immune systems strong, so what to do?
Eatingwell.com gives us some ideas on how a slight change in our diet could help us get our needed shut-eye. Here are some recommendations:
Fish: Most fish—and especially salmon, halibut and tuna—contain vitamin B6, which is needed to make melatonin (a sleep-inducing hormone triggered by darkness), according to an article published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
Tart Cherry Juice: In a small study, melatonin rich tart cherry juice was shown to aid sleep. When adults with chronic insomnia drank a cup of tart cherry juice twice a day they experienced some relief in the severity of their insomnia.
Yogurt: Dairy products like yogurt and milk contain healthy doses of calcium—and there’s research that suggests being calcium-deficient may make it difficult to fall asleep.
Kale: Dairy products are well-known calcium rich foods, but green leafy vegetables such as kale and collards also have healthy doses of calcium.
Bananas: Bananas, well-known for being rich in potassium, are also a good source of Vitamin B6.
Jasmine Rice: Use jasmine rice in place of long grain rice. In a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, healthy sleepers who ate carbohydrate-rich suppers of veggies and tomato sauce over jasmine rice fell asleep significantly faster at bedtime than those who ate long-grain rice. While the authors aren’t sure how it happened, they speculated that the greater amounts of insulin triggered by the jasmine rice increased the ratio of sleep inducing tryptophan relative to other amino acids in the blood, allowing more to get into the brain.
