As with many of my other sleep secrets around time of day, eating for a good night’s sleep best begins in the morning. If sleep is a problem in your life, a good breakfast will help you fall asleep at night.
Food nourishes your entire body. When you eat, stress hormones are reduced in your body. These hormones are a natural part of the circadian rhythm, telling us it is time to eat. Eating a good breakfast causes these hormone levels to drop naturally. This calms your body and helps you sleep that night.
Eat a balance of complex carbohydrates, protein and fats, or your health, as well as your sleep, will suffer.
Beware of fad diets that eliminate carbohydrates from your meals. Carbohydrates produce glucose that feeds all the cells in your body and gives you energy. Eliminating carbs from your diet can cause myriad problems.
Eat complex carbohydrates that digest slowly, such as whole grains (like brown rice and oatmeal), lentils and low-glycemic starchy vegetables (like sweet potatoes and squash).
Also beware of eliminating healthy fats from your meals. Your body needs them to maintain steady metabolism and to stabilize the digestion of the carbs. Important vitamins including A, D, E and K are fat-soluble, and fat is needed to absorb them.
Healthy fats include saturated fats found in butter, ghee and coconut oil — not the modern harmful fats from highly processed vegetable oils and margarines, which are profoundly harmful to the body and inhibit sleep to boot! Healthy saturated fats will help you sleep.
You also need some salt (sodium) in your diet. Salt is an electrolyte that controls blood pressure and the amount of blood. Sodium is needed to create the impulses that make your muscles function. Too little salt can make sleep difficult. Sea salt is best as it contains important trace minerals.
For more information on sleep and diet, read Chapter 6 in Sleep Secrets: How to Fall Asleep Fast, Beat Fatigue and Insomnia and Get a Great Night’s Sleep.
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