Improve the quantity and quality of your sleep from a nutritional point of view

 We will discuss both general and nutrional advice to improve the quality and the quantity of your sleep including the "deep sleep" to actually feel rested when you wake up

Poor sleep is linked to affect your:

- Exercise performance

- Brain function

- Hormones 

and leading on the other side to:

- Comfort eating 

- Stress related snacking 

So part of a healthy lifestyle is to make sure to have a good amount of deep sleep, so here some nutritional and general advice to do so

Nutritional advice:

-Turkey: especially for dinner is a good lean source of protein and most importantly tryptophan, which increases the production of melatonin linked to a better quality of sleep 

- Sea bream: this is another good lean protein source rich in tryptophan and also omega 3

- Improve your magnesium intake which improves the relaxation and quality of your sleep, some food high in magnesium are: Nuts, Legumes, Tofu,  Seeds, Fish, Pistachios

- Wholemeal carbs: Pasta and rice are common dinner ingredients and they can promote sleepiness as well, so the wholemeal version is the best choice as far we can avoid big portions 

- Reduce high fat food: the slower and longer time to digest is linked to nightmare and disruption of your sleep at night due to the continues process of your body still trying to digest this 

- Hidden caffein: we all know that this has the opposite effect for your sleep so make sure about certain food that can contain apart from coffee, like: chocolate and fizzy drinks 

- Prunes: with a good mixture of Magnesium, vitamin B6 and Calcium it helps the production of Melatonin and they can be used as a evening/afternoon snack 

- Almonds: rich in minerals, fibers and monosaturated fats, the unsalted version is another good snack alternative since they are a good source for melatonin which improves the sleep

- Kiwi: the amount of antioxidants and ability to reduce folate deficit plus the minerals and vitamins are a good mixture to improve the sleep at night 

- Herbal tea: Decaf and especially camomile can help to relax the nerves before bed time 

- Tart Cherry juice: full of antioxidants and potassium, it promotes sleepiness and since you can find the sugar free and calorie free version this could be used before bed time 

General advice:

- Trying to not eat too late:

 To prevent reflux and at the same time make easier for your body to digest partly or most of the meal before bed time

- Getting more sunlight exposure and reducing blue light: 

Simply keeping your room well illuminated during the day will help to  regulate your internal body clock and help to sleep better at night when the natural light is missing

On the other hand blue lights from electronic devices in the evening have the oppsite effect and reducing them helps before bed time 

- Managing the stress: 

We don't know what a person is going through but managing the worries and mentally pausing them for the next day is beneficial to your sleep since thinking of that during the night unfortunately is not going to solve that problem,  but a good night sleep might be helpful the next day to actually starting to solve whatever is the worry 

Finally here some links related to this topic in case you would like to have more ideas:

https://www.safdietitian.com/2021/12/heartburn-how-to-prevent-or-relief.html

https://www.safdietitian.com/2021/11/night-shift-and-jet-lag-how-to-adjust.html