“You are what you eat.” This is popular slogan reflects the serious consequences our eating habits can have on our lives. Food affects health, vitality, and mood. When assessing a sleep problem, amend this phrase to “You sleep what you eat,” since your choice of when and what you eat affects your sleep.

Schedule your evening meal at least 3 hours before bedtime. For better sleep, as well as overall health, eat a large breakfast, a moderate lunch, and a light dinner with a small portion of protein. Or eat smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day to maintain consistent blood sugar levels.

Ask yourself, “Does my daily diet promote health and sound sleep?” A heart healthy, anticancer diet that is high fiber, loaded with nutrient rich fruits and veggies, and low in fat improves your general health and help foster sleep.

Conversely, eating too many fatty foods can curtail your sleep. In The Sleep Rx, Norman Ford calls dietary fat a “gremlin food that promotes insomnia.” Why the harsh characterization? Because, Ford explains, “virtually every disease or dysfunction attributed to eating a high fat diet and to being overweight has a detrimental effect on sleep and cause insomnia.”

Vitamins and minerals are also important for sleep. “Nutritional deficiencies or poor absorption of nutrients can cause chronic insomnia,” report Peter Hauri, PH.D, and Shirley Linde, Ph.D, the authors of “No More Sleepless Nights”. So, make sure to get your share of claming calcium.

The National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine reports that the majority of Americans do not get sufficient amounts of calcium. Average consumption is 500 to 700 mg, most people need 1200 to 1500mg. in addition to building strong bones and teeth, calcium helps regulate healthy nerve and muscle functioning. Supplemental calcium relieves premenstrual symptoms too.

A combination of calcium and magnesium acts as a mild relaxant and sleep promoter. Other vitamins and minerals associated with sound sleep are the B vitamins, zinc, copper, and iron. A nutritionist can help you assess your need for supplementation.

Certainly, our overall nutritional status affects how we sleep, but can individual food sedate or stimulate? Anecdotal accounts of sleep including warm milk and turkey dinners seem to say so, yet the claims are not scientifically substantiated.

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 7th, 2008 at 5:53 pm and is filed under Insomnia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.