Experts Suggest This Type Of Diet To Sleep Better

A lot of people are getting less and less sleep nowadays, and most of them are blaming their smartphones for keeping them up at night. It may indeed be a contributing factor, then again, experts says that it can actually be more than that, because what we eat during the day can definitely have major effects to the quality of our sleep. Your sleep also gets affected by your activities during that today such as how much you exercise, how much time you have spent outdoors, as well as how much time you spent looking at the screen of your mobile phones and computers. However, one of the major things that affect the sleep are the food and drinks that your body consumes every single day.

Experts says that sleeping just a few hours before bedtime is not really considered as good for the health.

THE FOOD + SLEEP CONNECTION

An incredibly greasy double cheeseburger with fries and soda as well as a double shot of espresso around dinner, can both disrupt your sleep at night, or may even give you a hard time getting some sleep. According to Dr. Ana Krieger, the Medical Director of the Center for Sleep Medicine in New York, the connection between having salad during lunch and sleeping is somewhat less straightforward, however, it is considered as important.

“Eating healthy and allowing the body to absorb the proper nutrients provides the brain with the chemical environment that it needs to produce the neurotransmitters that it needs to maintain adequate sleep,” Dr. Krieger explained. That is because eating foods that are incredibly nutritious and are simply overall healthy, can actually affect the health of the brain and its activity, especially when we sleep.

All the nutrients that the body get from the food act as the building blocks for all the other minerals and proteins that are actually needed, so that the body could create the amino acids that will help the body sleep. A research where they studied the diet of group of people over the course of five nights, found that what they ate during the day, did actually affect how they slept that night, “Data shows that eating less fiber, more saturated fat and more sugar throughout the day is linked with lighter, less restorative sleep.”

WHY DOES IT MATTER WHAT TIME WE EAT AT NIGHT?

Professor Kristin Eckel-Mahan, an Assistant Professor at the Center for Metabolic and Degenerative Diseases at The University of Texas Health Science Center of Houston says, that there is actually a connection between sleep and how the human body actually metabolizes the food. This is because a person’s diet and food choices could help regulate the circadian rhythm pm which is a 24-hour cycle that the human body follows every single day.

The circadian rhythms keep the body clock running on time, which actually helps when it comes to keeping the bodily fluids function well on schedule, one of them is of course to sleep at night and then wake up in the morning. The proper routine is to wake up hungry and eat so the body could have the energy for the rest of the day. “Making good nutrient choices will optimize the circadian alignment between our clocks,” she explained.

Chocolate is considered to be one of the foods that may give you a hard time sleeping

TIPS ON A BETTER SLEEP DIET

• One of the best ways to make sure that you will have a good quality sleep at night is to avoid spicy as well as fatty foods a few hours before you need to go to bed. That is what Georgia Giannopoulos, a registered dietitian from New York said. Foods that are spicy and extensor fatty are way more difficult for the stomach to digest especially during the night, which could then lead to indigestion that could definitely make you feel extremely comfortable once you’re ready for bed.

• According to the National Sleep Foundation, limiting sugar from your diet can actually help you sleep better. Too much sugar will then lead to your blood sugar levels to increase, that can directly affect the body’s energy level through the entire day. Too much energy will definitely give you a hard time to sleep so it is always best to watch your sugar intake.

• We all know how important it is for us to stay hydrated throughout the day, but it actually affects your sleep top. A person who is not properly hydrated may feel irritated, tired, and may have trouble concentrating. Lack of water also dries the mouth and the nasal passage, that could then increase to snoring and leg cramps, that could wake you up.
If you may seem like your sleeping problems are starting to interfere with your everyday life, then it is best to consult your physician because you may be suffering from an illness.