What are the best foods to help me sleep?

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

Help me sleep!

Food – what you eat and when you eat can affect how you sleep, therefore it is essential to choose foods that calm your mind and body rather than stimulate you. Many foods which naturally promote rest and relaxation contain tryptophan. Tryptophan is an amino acid that the body uses to make serotonin, the neurotransmitter that slows nerve activity within your brain.

Which foods can help me sleep?

Tryptophan is a precursor of serotonin and melatonin, eating foods that are rich in tryptophan will help you feel relaxed and sleepy. Foods such as turkey, hummus, lentils, and kelp are naturally high in tryptophan and extremely nutritious. My favourite to help me sleep are bananas….. so much so I wrote another blog about bananas! Read it here… Bananas not only contain tryptophan, but also potassium and magnesium which are natural muscle relaxants. Fresh and dried cherries are also one of the only natural food sources of melatonin.

High GI carbohydrates may also promote better sleep when consumed around 4 hours before bedtime as they help to stimulate the release of insulin and tryptophan. Foods likes, potatoes, jasmine rice, honey for example are all pretty good choices.

I heard that calcium can help me sleep… So which calcium rich foods should I eat to help me sleep?

Dairy is the obvious choice. Milk, yoghurt, cheese based products. Calcium is a muscle relaxant and is used by some people to manage stress also. Calcium is effective in stress reduction and stabilization of nerve fibers including those in the brain. Calcium also helps the brain use the tryptophan to manufacture melatonin. If you can choose combinations of food that contain both carbohydrates and calcium you will be on a winner!! Try a bowl of cereal for example.

Some of my other favourite foods which help me sleep include:

– Almonds. They help me sleep as they contain magnesium, which promotes both sleep and muscle relaxation. I often have them as almond butter.

– Bananas of course. Don’t forget to check out my other banana blog!!

– Miso soup. Miso soup contains amino acids that may boost the production of melatonin.

– Oatmeal. This is another winner to help me sleep! It’s rich in calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon and potassium

– Some decaf tea. Tea which contains Chamomile is great! Also green tea (decaf of course) contains theanine, which helps promote sleep.

Eating these types of foods can calm your nervous system and help you to rest better at night but you also need to keep in mind that timing is also important. For example if you eat a large meal too close to bed time it may actually keep you up at night and have the opposite effect!! It usually takes around one hour for tryptophan from food sources to reach the brain.

Help me sleep by avoiding certain foods!

Also you should avoid rich, heavy or high-fat foods before you go to bed. They are hard to digest and may cause heartburn or discomfort if eaten to soon before trying to sleep. Trying to sleep on a full stomach is horrible and uncomfortable!

Drinking too much liquid is the worst for me!! Although the food I eat is important to help me sleep, all that planning is thrown out the window if I drink too much before bed because I need to get up to go to the bathroom during the night.

So do you have any other favourite foods which I could try to help me sleep?? Please feel free to share in the comments section:-)

Good night…

Kim