Choosing the right food will help improve sleep quality. If you knew that some foods would prevent you from falling asleep easily, would you still eat these?
Let’s find out which foods can help us sleep well and which foods need to be avoided as much as possible.
Suggested foods to avoid before going to bed
1. Hamburgers and French fries
Studies have shown that people who often eat high-fat foods will not only lead to weight gain, but also abnormal sleep cycles. Therefore, it is best to avoid a high-fat diet.
Step 2: Caffeine
- Coffee: No doubt, Drinking a cup of coffee at night may affect sleep. Even a small amount of caffeine can cause sleep disorders. Caffeinated foods: Not only does coffee contain caffeine, These foods also need to be on guard, Such as chocolate, cola, tea and coffee that claims to be decaffeinated. Drugs: Some drugs may also contain caffeine, such as painkillers, diet pills, diuretics and cold pills. These drugs may contain more caffeine than a cup of coffee. Check the instructions of the drugs taken. If it affects your sleep, it is recommended to consult a doctor to change the drugs or actively treat insomnia.
In order to ensure sleep quality, it is best not to take caffeine 4 ~ 6 hours before going to bed.
Step 3 Drink before going to bed
Dilemma of drinking: Alcohol can help the human body fall asleep faster, but it can also make people wake up frequently, sleep unsteadily, headache, night sweat, nightmare, etc.
If you want to drink alcohol at night, drink more water for each glass of wine to dilute the alcohol in your stomach. Of course, in order to have a good sleep, it is best not to drink alcohol within 4-6 hours before going to bed.
Step 4 Beware of indigestible and spicy foods
Lying in bed after eating is a little uncomfortable, because the work of the digestive system will slow down during sleep. Not only spicy food will make your stomach uncomfortable, thus affecting sleep, eating too much will also cause stomach uncomfortable.
If you want to eat a big meal, try to finish it at least 4 hours before going to bed.
5. Eat less protein before going to bed
Meat and protein are important components of our daily diet, but they are not suitable for eating before going to bed.
High-protein and high-fat foods are difficult to digest, so try to avoid such foods before going to bed. A cup of hot milk and some carbohydrate-rich foods, such as biscuits, are all good choices before going to bed.
Note: Although we often say that milk is rich in protein, this is only compared with other beverages. A glass of milk actually has less protein than an egg.
6. Limit liquid intake after 8 pm
Obviously, if you need to get up and go to the toilet at night, the sleep quality will certainly not be very good.
7. Don’t [take a cigarette to relax]
Nicotine is a stimulant that has similar effects to caffeine. Don’t smoke at night, especially before going to bed or when you wake up in the middle of the night, which will make you more awake and difficult to sleep.
Foods that help sleep
1. Foods rich in tryptophan, such as milk
Most people have heard of the saying that hot milk helps sleep, but what is the basis for what?
Dairy products such as milk help sleep mainly because of tryptophan. Tryptophan is an important amino acid needed by the human body, and studies have found that it is also a substance that helps promote sleep.
Other foods rich in tryptophan include nuts, food seeds, bananas, honey and eggs.
2. Carbohydrate
Carbohydrates are the easiest foods to digest compared to other kinds of foods, fat and protein. Eating a large amount of high-fat and high-protein foods at night will make your body organs pay more attention to the digestive system than sleep when they sleep.
Therefore, if you want to eat snacks late at night, cereal with milk, yogurt with biscuits, or bread with yogurt are all good choices.