8 Foods To Help You Sleep Better!

Some people have trouble falling asleep. Others can’t stay asleep. And then there are the people who have trouble turning life “off” and tucking into bed at a reasonable hour.

What you eat will have a big influence on the quality of your sleep. You can easily sleep better by making a few changes and being sure to include foods that promote rest.

Almonds 

A handful of these heart-healthy nuts can send you snoozing because they contain both tryptophan and a nice dose of muscle-relaxing magnesium.

Chamomile Tea  

Chamomile is a staple of bedtime tea blends because of its mild sedating effect, which makes it the perfect natural antidote for restless minds and bodies.

Grapes

Finally, the last food that you'll want to consider having before bed to sleep better are grapes. Grapes are the only fruit found to contain the sleep-regulating hormone melatonin, so by adding them regularly to your diet you can help boost the natural sleep-wake cycle in the body. This will then allow you to get to sleep faster each night. Toss some sliced grapes into a small bowl of yogurt for added calcium and you'll have a perfect before-bed snack.

Honey 

Drizzle a little in your warm milk or herb tea. Lots of sugar is stimulating, but a little glucose tells your brain to turn off orexin, a recently discovered neurotransmitter that's linked to alertness.

Jasmine Rice

When healthy sleepers ate carbohydrate-rich suppers of veggies and tomato sauce over rice, they fell asleep significantly faster at bedtime if the meal included high-glycemic-index (GI) jasmine rice rather than lower-GI long-grain rice, in a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. While the authors aren’t sure how it happened, they speculated that the greater amounts of insulin triggered by the high-GI meals increased the ratio of sleep-inducing tryptophan relative to other amino acids in the blood, allowing proportionately more to get into the brain.

Oatmeal

While most people think of oatmeal as a breakfast food, it does work well in the evening due to the fact that the carbohydrates cause a serotonin release in the body. Serotonin is a ”feel good” hormone that decreases stress and puts you in a much calmer state of mind. Oats are a rich source of sleep-inviting melatonin.

Since oatmeal is also a slower digesting source of carbohydrates, you won't have to worry about waking up halfway through the night with crashing blood sugar levels.

Slice up half an apple and add to your oatmeal, along with a bit of cinnamon. Serve with a splash of skim milk if desired.

Warm milk

You might have heard it before and just chalked it up to an old wives' tale, but having a glass of warm milk before bed can actually promote faster sleep. The reason behind this is due to the fact that milk also contains that tryptophan amino acid, and for most people, the warm liquid provides a soothing effect.

Additionally, milk also offers up a good dose of calcium, which works in the brain to help regulate the production of melatonin, which is a substance that's going to naturally control your sleep-wake cycle.

Whole-wheat bread 

A slice of toast with your tea and honey will release insulin, which helps tryptophan get to your brain, where it's converted to serotonin and quietly murmurs "time to sleep."

Note, however, that you should not eat these foods immediately before going to bed, as that can keep you awake due to the increased blood flow to the digestive system; eat them one to two hours before you plan to turn in for the night. This will allow the heaviest part of digestion to take place and also give the sleep-enhancing effects a chance to kick in.