by Henry Chew

Created on: March 24, 2010

How is food got anything to do with sleep? Turns out, it has got to do with sleep in a large way. What we eat during the day and especially before bedtime, affects the quality of our sleep. In general, there are foods that promote sleeping and foods that hinder it. Generally, there are foods that promote sleep and foods that do the opposite. Let us first, take a look at foods that help us sleep, and why they are able to do so.

*Foods that induces sleep

Basically, foods containing protein call tryptophan makes us want to sleep. Tryptophan is used by our body to produce serotonin and melatonin hormones which minimizes brain activity. This in turn, makes us sleepy. But there is a catch here. The brain needs tryptophan specifically, and not other protein in order to induce sleep. So eating large amount of protein based food might not do the trick. Other proteins like tyramine that excites the brain, might compete with tryptophan in reaching the brain. When more tyramine reaches the brain it will actually keeps us alert rather than makes us want to sleep. What we need to do here is to include carbohydrate in our diet as it will prevent other proteins from reaching the brain other than the intended tryptophan. Below is a list of foods that are high in tryptophan content.

-          Dairy Products : Milk and Cheese

-          Meats and Poultry: Beef, Chicken, Lamb, Ducks etc….

-          Seafood: Fish, Shellfish, Crabs etc…

-          Nuts and Seeds : Hazelnuts, Peanuts, Sesame and Sunflower seeds

-          Rice and Whole grains

-          Soy Products : Soy Milk and Tofu

-          Eggs

*Foods that hinders sleep

Almost everyone knows, consuming foods that contain caffeine are a sure way to keep us awake. Foods containing caffeine top the list of food that keeps us awake. The thing about caffeine is that it triggers a physiological state in our body that is completely the opposite state of when we are asleep. A stimulant, as we normally categorize it, caffeine causes the following physiological condition in our body. It increases heart rate, triggers the release of adrenaline and also glucose in our liver. Other stimulant like alcohol beverages

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