Home Instead: Are you having trouble sleeping?

Are you having trouble sleeping??
Do you let yourself have that midnight snack if you're having trouble sleeping and you think hunger might be part of the problem? Home Instead suggest five foods that can actually help you drift off:


1. Cherries.
 Fresh and dried cherries are one of the only natural food sources of melatonin ( a hormone found in animals, plants, and microbes) the chemical that controls the body's internal clock to regulate sleep. Many researchers who tested tart cherries and found high levels of melatonin recommend eating them an hour before bedtime or before a trip when you want to sleep on the plane instead of using sleeping tablets perhaps!

2. Bananas. Potassium and magnesium are natural muscle relaxants, and bananas are a good source of both. They also contain the amino acid L-tryptophan, which gets converted to 5-HTP in the brain. The 5-HTP in turn is converted to serotonin (a relaxing neurotransmitter) and melatonin ( a hormone found in animals, plants, and microbes).

3. Toast. Carbohydrate-rich foods trigger insulin production,e.g of other carbohydrate foods ( cereals, breads and pasta) which induces sleep by speeding up the release of tryptophan ( essential amino acid),a brain chemical that relaxes you and send you to sleep.

4. Oatmeal. Like toast, a bowl of oatmeal triggers a rise in blood sugar, which in turn triggers insulin ( a hormone produced in the pancreas by the islets of Langerhans, which regulates the amount of glucose in the blood) production and the release of sleep-inducing brain chemicals. Oats are rich in melatonin(a hormone found in animals, plants, and microbes), which many people take as a sleep aid.

5. Warm milk. Like bananas, milk contains the amino acid which turns to 5-HTP( naturally occurring amino acid) and releases relaxing serotonin. It's also high in calcium, which promotes sleep.

 

 

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