What is the relationship between food and sleep?

 What is the relationship between food and sleep?

Research shows that warm milk, kiwi fruit, eggs, fish, nuts and seeds before bed help improve sleep by producing melatonin.

A good diet throughout the day, regular meal times and exposure to light improve sleep quality, but treatment is necessary if there is a sleep-related disease.

Sometimes, after eating a lot at night, you feel heavy in the morning. Sometimes, eating a full meal can also affect your sleep. Our body has to make extra effort to digest heavy and oily-spicy foods, which can disrupt sleep.

You can improve your sleep by avoiding certain foods and drinks. The quality of sleep can be improved by eating certain types of foods before bed.

Many studies have found that certain foods at night are helpful in improving sleep. Similarly, some studies have shown that eating kiwi fruit before bed can also be beneficial.

What to do for good sleep?

According to some research, drinking warm milk before bed helps you fall asleep. Milk is high in tryptophan, which the body uses to make a hormone called melatonin. This hormone helps to induce sleep.

Melatonin controls our sleep-wake cycle. Its levels naturally increase in the body as the day progresses. In addition, melatonin can also be obtained through certain foods. These include eggs, fish, nuts, and seeds.

Foods rich in melatonin can improve sleep quality and help you sleep longer. However, some research also suggests that just one food or drink is not enough to improve sleep, but rather the role of the overall diet is important.

Marie-Pierre Saint-Onge is a professor of nutritional medicine at the Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia University in New York. She says, “If you eat junk food all day and eat a kiwi before bed, you will get enough sleep, it is wrong.”

According to her, it takes time for the body to extract nutrients from food to produce sleep-inducing neurochemicals, and this process is not completed in a few hours. Instead, what we eat throughout the day affects the quality of our sleep.

Meal timing and method

The most beneficial diet for sleep is a diet made from fresh grains that are obtained from plants. In addition, low-fat proteins such as dairy products and fish are also considered beneficial.

According to a 2021 study by Erica Johnson, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan, people who regularly ate more fruits and vegetables for three months showed significant improvements in sleep.

Those who eat well also sleep better. She says that it is also possible that they are eating well because of the good sleep.

Johnson found that women who ate three or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day were more than twice as likely to improve their sleep symptoms.

One reason for this is that fruits and vegetables, as well as meat, dairy products, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and legumes, are rich in the essential amino acid tryptophan.

A 2021 study in Spain asked more than 1,000 students about their sleep patterns, habits, and diets. The students who consumed the least amount of tryptophan daily had the worst sleep quality.

Researchers found that those who consumed the least amount of tryptophan were more likely to have shorter sleep duration and more difficulty falling asleep. The study suggests that eating foods rich in tryptophan may improve sleep quality.

There are several ways that plant-based foods can improve sleep. These diets help reduce inflammation in the body. Some research suggests that levels of inflammation are associated with better sleep quality.

In the research, St-Onge found that better sleep is associated with a high-fiber diet. Magnesium is another nutrient found in plant-based foods that may help with better sleep. It helps reduce the stress hormone cortisol, which calms the nervous system.

Adults over the age of 30 are generally advised to consume about 320–420 milligrams of magnesium daily. It’s found in green leafy vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains.

Many people are deficient in this nutrient. Experts say one reason for this is the modern Western diet, which is low in plant-based foods and high in highly processed foods. Another reason is that modern farming practices deplete the amount of magnesium in the soil.

In a 2021 study, Heather Houzenblas, a professor of exercise science at Jacksonville University in Florida, tested the effects of magnesium supplementation on people who reported poor sleep.

Participants took a magnesium supplement an hour before bed for two weeks. For the next two weeks, they took a placebo, an ineffective drug. Their sleep was measured with a tracker.

Haugenblas found that when people took magnesium, their deep sleep and rapid eye movement sleep improved significantly compared to the placebo.

Haugenblas suspects that this effect may last longer than two weeks, but She is not sure about this. A good quality magnesium supplement can improve people’s sleep, but it is not a cure-all for all sleep problems, she says.

“If you don’t exercise, eat a lot of processed foods, and have an irregular bedtime, taking it before bed won’t solve all your sleep problems,” she says.

It’s not just food that needs to be considered

No specific nighttime meal can save you from poor sleep, but eating well and at the right times throughout the day can help.

“One of the most important things to do before bed is to not eat for a few hours before bed. In particular, avoid eating high-calorie foods before bed.”

Eating early in the day, especially breakfast, is associated with better sleep. If dinner is eaten right before bed, it can take longer to fall asleep.

“When there is a clear distinction between day and night, it’s easier for the brain to tell it’s time to sleep,” says Johnson. “The brain starts fresh every morning, and early exposure to light is important to reset our body clock.”

“Eating during the day can help the body produce more melatonin,” says the researchers. However, according to Saint-Onge, scientists still don’t know exactly how plant-based melatonin affects the melatonin our bodies make and how it affects sleep.

A plant-based diet is the most beneficial for sleep. Eating at regular times throughout the day can also help. But our diet isn’t the only thing that helps us sleep well.

Researchers say that how physically active we are throughout the day and how well we are mentally healthy also affect sleep. In addition, the amount of time we are exposed to light and darkness is also linked to how well we sleep, they say.

St-Onge says it's important to understand the difference between poor sleep and sleep-related conditions, such as insomnia or sleep apnea.

If you have a sleep-related condition, it's important to get it checked out and treated, she says. Part of the treatment may be dietary changes, but some people may need other treatments.