Sleep Foods: How Can Your Diet Help Your Sleep?

What you eat and drink can have a dramatic effect on your sleep patterns. But, while your mother may have told you that there is nothing better for curing insomnia than a warm, milky drink, scientists have suggested otherwise. Milk is chock full of tryptophan, the sleep-inducing amino acid, but in a form that is not easily absorbed to be used by the brain. Much of the benefit from drinking hot chocolate or warm milk is, say experts, psychological. So, what to eat for a successful night’s slumber? Here is the latest evidence on diet help for a better sleep.

Porridge or toast

Louise Sutton, dietician at Leeds Beckett University, says that eating a carbohydrate-rich meal or snack, such as toast or porridge, 2-3 hours before bedtime can be helpful. Carbs stimulate the release of the hormone insulin in the body. That, in turn, opens the pathways for tryptophan, the sleep hormone, to reach the brain as they are absorbed by the body. ‘The consensus is that a carbohydrate-rich meal at dinner will help you sleep, whereas a protein-rich one is more likely to make you alert,’ Sutton says.

Oily fish

Eating plenty of mackerel, herring, tuna and salmon – all of which are good sources of healthy omega-3 DHA fatty acids – could be the diet help you need to improve your sleep quality, according to researchers at the University of Oxford. Professor Paul Montgomery and his team found that a 16-week course of daily 600mg omega-3 supplements improved the sleep quality and duration of 362 school children (1). Other researchers have shown that adults with low levels of DHA in the blood are more likely to experience sleep disturbance. Of course omega-3 can also be found in a variety of seeds and beans, with DHA created by the body with high intakes of omega-3.

Tap water and tomatoes

When researchers at the University of Pennsylvania conducted a comprehensive study of sleep-inducing foods (2), they found that good sleepers generally ate a larger variety of fruit and vegetables. But there were other differences. Poor sleepers drank less tap water during the day and had a particularly low intake of the beneficial antioxidant compound called lycopene, found in healthy red and orange-coloured foods such as carrots, squash and tomatoes. Consuming more of both, they suggested, could make a difference to your zzz time.

Sleep diet help with cherry juice

Drinking a glass of tart cherry juice every morning and evening may aid your sleep, according to a report Louisiana State University (3). Researchers there found that adults with insomnia who drank a glass of Montmorency cherry juice twice a day for two weeks saw sleep time increased by nearly 90 minutes. How?  The cherries are a natural source of melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate the sleep-wake cycle.

Read more about the benefits of cherries for sleep.

Rice

If you’re looking for some more diet help that will positively impact your sleep then look to white rice. Scientists recently discovered that, when it comes to sleep, eating a lot of white rice can trigger a deep slumber. Japanese researchers (4) analysed the diets of almost 2,000 men and women and found that a higher rice intake meant people scored much better on a sleep scale – i.e. they slept well. However, eating bread products – including white bread, pancakes and pizza – had no effect on the quality of sleep, while noodles and pasta were found to have a detrimental impact. This anomaly is yet to be explained, but it could be down to differences in the foods’ glycaemic index, or the effect it has on blood sugar.

There are so many conflicting opinions on which foods are good or bad for various aspects of your life that it can be difficult to keep up with current trends, but these foods will certainly help you sleep better. If you have any questions about which foods can help you sleep, please leave a comment below.