It could be something you ate yesterday that kept you awake last night. Because, aside from stress, our diet is the number one cause of a restless night. So let’s run down the best and worst foods for sleep. We’ll start with the WORST.
It turns out, those high-protein diets we love for weight loss can sabotage our sleep. Dr. Michael Breus wrote The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan. And he says that high-protein, low carb diets provide a steady supply of energy, which is great in the daytime. But at night, it can suppress the hormones that help us relax. And our wide-awake digestive system can keep us from getting deep, restorative sleep.
Another enemy of sleep is Fatty, fried foods. The fattier your dinner is, the less sleep you’ll get. Dr. Breus says, eating foods high in fat can trigger heartburn or stomach issues when you lie down.
So what are the BEST foods for sleep? Dr. Breus says try eating breakfast for dinner.
The healthy carbs in a bowl of whole-grain cereal, for example, will stimulate production of the sleep hormone melatonin.
And if you top your cereal with a banana, you’ll get a dose of magnesium, which is a natural muscle-relaxant.
Finally, wash down your “breakfast-food dinner” with some cherry juice. It contains so much melatonin that drinking 2 cups a day can add 40 minutes to the average amount of time you sleep each night.
