No More Insomnia! The Foods And Vitamins That Can Put You To Sleep

Insomnia and Nutrition - How and What We Eat Could Affect Our Sleep

By Vishal P. Rao

All the natural and holistic systems of medicine or therapies maintain the powerful effect of diet and nutrition on our body and mind. Like all other disorders, dietary factors play significant role in prevention of insomnia and sleep disorders. We will explore some of these dietary and nutritional factors related to sleep.

Insomnia and Dietary Stimulants

Dietary stimulants are metabolic disruptors that overstress the adrenal and cause the imbalance of hormones.

One of the contributing factors for insomnia is stimulant food and drugs. Caffeine drinks (coffee, tea, cola, cocoa) and chocolates cause an adrenalin rush in the body and wakes people up.

We should feel energized and refreshed after a good sleep. The need to take caffeine in the morning to ‘wake up’ creates a vicious cycle by perking up adrenaline from adrenal glands. Dr. Jonathan Wright, the author of “The New Detox Diet”, has gone to extreme by calling caffeine an insecticide. He cites that plants use caffeine to kill insects.

MSG (monosodium glutamate) is another ingredient of grocery store products. Avoid it as it predisposes to sleep disorders, migraine headaches and even Alzheimer’s disease.

Refined white sugar is another stimulant that perks the level of glucose in blood and stresses the pancreas.

Insomnia and Carbohydrates

People who eat short-lasting kind of sugars in evening are more prone to wakefulness in night. The sugar in their food is released sooner and metabolized in body. A drop in glucose level promotes the release of glucose regulating hormones (adrenalin, glucagon, cortisol and growth hormone) and this wakes them up.

Eating right foods in the evening that has long-lasting type of sugar and release sugars gradually do help in having better sleep without awakenings.

Exposure to sunlight is minimal in short days and long nights of winter.

Then melatonin hormone is above normal. High level of melatonin in brain suppresses serotonin and it results in feeling down, drowsy or getting the blues.

The common, easy and wrong way to get over the blues is to eat