Diet to help sleep, key points noone should miss

Insomnia shortens lives, leads to multiple health problems. Is there a diet to help sleep? Yes, there is. You see, I also used to have troubles sleeping, I would wake up at around 3 am, or 5 am, each and every night. Eventually, it made me feel tired, nearly constantly, my skin aged, and my mitochondria weakened, as well as telomers and chromosomes. This is what happens to you when you don’t sleep well. Finally, I cured them all, my mitochondria, telomers and chromosomes (read about them here). 

Listen to yourself

Know that if you wake up in the middle of the night, it means something. You are woken up by your own body, organs that are busy doing things. One of the reasons that might be causing that is the way you eat, what you eat or at what time. When I woke up at around 5, what I used to do, was to have a sandwich: a simple piece of bread with butter. After I ate it, I would fall asleep again with ease. It was because food meant safety to me, and it helped me sleep. Know, that your reasons are unique, what you will read here is a suggestion based on research and science.

What we will publish here I learned from Dave Asprey, Satchin Panda, Lina Nertby Aurell and Mia Clase (“Food Pharmacy”).

Knowledge is Power… when you use it

Dave Asprey

Dave Asprey is an American entrepreneur, a writer and a biohacker. A creative entrepreneur. This is what we like here in our company, because, simply, we are the same. What’s more, we like to have fun, and to imagine that everything is possible. He wrote several books that became bestsellers, including “Super Human”. Moreover, the man took himself from the darkness of illness to the light of the reversed biological age fuelled by health. These things are normal, there are people who do that, but what I like is the fact that he shares his knoweldge (thoroughly researched: we love that) in his books. And, we sent one of our beautiful organic beds to a person from his company 🙂

Satchin Panda

Satchin Panda (I am just learning about him), is a scientist, teacher and researcher at Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California, USA. He writes books about his discoveries as well. Satchin studies longevity and circadian rhythms, the effests of diet on sleep, gienes, diet to help sleep and more. Finally, in this article we will write about his findings related to eating late at night, blood sugar, melatonine and adrenaline. All related to sleep at night.

Lina and Mia

Are the authors of “Food Pharmacy”, a book that dives into human intestines, to explore its bacterial flora, food that influences it and human immune system. Professor Stig Bengmark, who is a researcher and lecturer about health, wrote a book “Anti-Inflammatory Diet Solution”, discoverded, that our intestines are responsible for around 80% of our immune health. What’s more, he focuses on researching the optimal gut bacterial flora. Lina nd Mia cooperated with him..

How did you sleep last night?

Have you had difficulties sleeping last night? Did you wake up at around 3 am or 5 am in the morning? If yes, you might be feeling tired during your day, with lower concentration. The good news is, that the solution to this problem might be quite simple, and related to something most of us like: food.

The closer to your sleep time, the less food we should eat. The lighter it should be, and quite specific.

The best time to eat in the evening

Eat your last meal in the evening 2 to 3 hours before bedtime, If you eat a large meal late at night, you will have troubles sleeping and wake up tired, because your body instead of resting will have to deal with the extra energy from food. Your digestive system will need to work, so your will quite likely have troubles falling asleep.

Know how much to eat in the evening

Your supper should be nutritional, light and low in calories. Make sure you have on your plate good proteins, carbohydrates with a low glycemic index, vitamins (especially from B group), minerals (carbohydrates with low glycemix index are those that cause low sugar level after a meal. It is important, as high sugar level causes rapid insulin production, which we feel as a surge of energy and then a drop, which triggers the realese of adrenaline. It makes you awake at night.)

In the evening avoid this type of food

In the evening avoid food that is high in simple sugars, fatty and fried. It includes:

• white bread,
• pasta,
• pizza,
• fat meat,
• sweets,
• jams.

food to avoid

It is not all. If you ate ginger, fresh garlic, onion, chocolate, peanut butter, chili, you would feel allerted, which is the opposite to being calm and relaxed. Moreover, avoid: sweet nuts, salty snacks, popcorn. They are especially dangerous to your good night’s sleep. This is not a diet to help sleep, because salt keeps water in the body. What’s more, it results in the tension of smooth muscles in the arteries and increases the amount of blood flowing through blood vessels. The result? Higher blood pressure and possible insomnia.

Avoid fried or bloating foods

Here, it is best not to eat fried fish, meat. Moreover, beans or cabbage will disturbe sleep. Other fresh vegies should be eaten in moderation, because they need time to be digested. They will stay in the digestive system, which may influence your sleep or quality of dreams. Think about having empty stomach before afalling asleep.

Fruits to avoid

It is better not to eat fruits in the afternoon and evening, because they contain sugar, which disturb digestion. Your digestive system should be calming down in the evening. Fruits make the mind alert too.

Among all the fruits there are some, which have low glycemic index. Those fruits can be eaten in moderation in the evening, or added to the coctails. These are:

• bananas,
• berries,
• black and red currant,
• raspberries,
• blackberries,
• cherries,
• peaches,
• apples,
• plums,
• pineapple,
• oranges,
• grapefruit,
• apricots,
• strawberries,
• nectarines.

Moreover, you can add dry plums, apples, cherries. Generally it is best to eat fruits in the first half of day, because your metabolism is faster in that time, and the digestive enzymes are active. Energy coming from them will be used before noon, which will not only help you sleep, but also not put on weight.

Intermitten fasting

The best food to support a good night’s sleep

As mentioned above, there are fruits that can be eaten in moderation in the evening. Especially the bananas,because they contain tryptophan. It is necessary in serotonin and melatonin production, two hormones associated to healthy sleep. In a diet to help sleep, the banans are a must. Moreover, they have vitamins B (B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B11, B12), what’s more they have magnesium, which helps calm you down. You may add some walnuts to the banans, because they are full of fatty acids which help transform tryptophan into melatonin. Walnuts have melatonin.

Almond milk

Magnesium can be found in almonds, almond milk. Almond milk is full of proteins, B vitamins, vitamin E, PP, magnesium, iron, manganese, copper, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, tryptophan. It also has unsaturated fatty acids, less carbohydrates and sugars than normal milk. To know more about sleep, and how important it is to be relaxed when falling asleep, read our lengthy article “Sleep tips“.

Reference

Satchin Panda

Stig Bengmark