When night falls, do you toss and turn and have trouble falling asleep?
Do you wake up from a dream shortly after falling asleep?
As we all know, nearly one-third of people's lives are spent in sleep, and adequate sleep is closely related to our health.
However, with the increasing psychological stress of modern fast-paced life, good sleep has become a luxury, and more and more people are suffering from insomnia.
If you want to improve your sleep quality, in addition to adjusting your lifestyle and de-stressing, you can also add foods rich in sleep aids to your daily diet.
Foods that contain tryptophan
An observational study involving nearly 30,000 Americans found that people with high tryptophan intake had fewer self-reported feelings of depression and longer self-reported sleep duration.
It can be seen that the daily dietary intake of tryptophan can affect sleep.
Tryptophan is an essential amino acid that needs to be obtained from food. After it enters the brain, on the one hand, it can be converted into serotonin, which helps relax the mood, stabilize the mood, and slow down the neural activity; On the other hand, it can stimulate the brain to secrete melatonin, and if there is more melatonin, people are prone to drowsiness.
That said, if you eat more tryptophan-rich foods every day, you may improve insomnia symptoms.
So, what foods contain tryptophan? And how much is it?
Let's take a look
Cheese: 482-574mg 100g
Seafood (salmon, flounder, haddock, tuna, lobster, clams, crab, octopus, trout, etc.): 257-368mg 100g
Whole grains (oats, whole wheat, etc.): 192-398mg 100g
Soybeans and soybean products: 100-575mg 100g
Nuts (pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pistachios, cashews, almonds, hazelnuts, etc.): 193-576mg 100g
Meat and eggs: 167-415mg 100g
Foods that contain B vitamins
B vitamins calm the nerves, soothe restlessness and help you fall asleep.
Fish, eggs, grains, legumes, and dark green vegetables are rich in B vitamins.
Among them, salmon, saury, sardines and other fish contain vitamin B6, which helps to synthesize serotonin, and works with vitamins B1 and B2 to convert tryptophan into nicotinic acid and calm tension; Vitamin B12 eliminates irritability and improves insomnia and waking up in the middle of the night.
Oats are not only rich in B vitamins, but also contain natural melatonin, which helps prepare the body for rest and maintain sleep at night.
Foods that contain magnesium
Magnesium not only helps the brain soothe and relieve stress, but it is also involved in maintaining circadian rhythms.
Studies have shown that magnesium supplementation can improve sleep quality, although the effect is not as obvious as melatonin, but for magnesium deficiency people, it still has a very good effect.
Foods that contain magnesium include dark green vegetables, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, beans, lentils, and certain fish.
Sesame seeds, whether white or black, contain a variety of minerals, such as magnesium and calcium, which can relax tension, calm the nerves, and help you fall asleep.
Foods that contain calcium
Calcium is one of the indispensable nutrients in sleep food, which can help the brain convert amino acids into tryptophan, and tryptophan can regulate serotonin, so calcium is closely related to sleep quality.
Calcium-rich foods include milk, kelp, seaweed, shrimp skin, dried small fish, dried tofu, amaranth, black sesame seeds, etc.
Milk is a good choice, if you don't have milk intolerance, you can give it a try, drink some milk 1-2 hours before bedtime, soak your feet, stretch your tired shoulders, neck, arms, and back muscles, and lie down comfortably to sleep.
So, if you're experiencing insomnia, try these 4 nutrients above
At the same time, we need to know the following:
1.Eating too much fat is not good for falling asleep, especially at night, it is best to eat less greasy.
2.You can eat more protein in the morning and noon, and less in the evening.
3.Eating carbohydrate foods with a high glycemic index at night can make people fall asleep faster.
4.Vitamin B6, vitamin B12, folic acid, vitamin D, vitamin C, and vitamin E all seem to be beneficial in helping prevent insomnia. Supplementing them when they are lacking helps does not mean that the more you eat, the better.
5 Calcium and magnesium are good for relieving anxiety and nervousness, and people with calcium and magnesium deficiency can help improve sleep quality by supplementing them.
References: 1] st-onge a c a rfiber and saturated fat are associated with sleep arousals and slow w**e sleep[j].journal of clinical sleep medicine: jcsm : official publication of the american academy of sleep medicine, 2016, 12(1).
2] lieberman, h. r., et al. 2016. tryptophan intake in the us adult population is not related to liver or kidney function but is associated with depression and sleep outcomes. journal of nutrition 146(12):2609s–2615s.
3] zuraikat fm, wood ra, barragán r, st-onge mp. sleep and diet: mounting evidence of a cyclical relationship. annu rev nutr. 2021 oct 11;41:309-332. doi: 10.1146/annurev-nutr-120420-021719. epub 2021 aug 4. pmid: 34348025; pmcid: pmc8511346.