Understanding why you’re having trouble sleeping is an important first step towards solving the issue. There can be bigger factors, such as making sure you have the best mattress for your sleeping position or daily stressors inhibiting your sleep, that you’ll need to look into.
Smaller factors such as environmental factors and certain lifestyle influences can also shape your sleep habits. While there isn’t one singular natural cure-all for improved sleep, some research has gone into finding out certain foods that help you sleep.
Here are our top picks for foods that help you sleep better, and some other ways you can solve your issues with trouble sleeping.
Eating your way to better sleep
When you’re trying to use natural sleep remedies over medical means to solve sleep deprivation, food and diet are the first things that come to mind.
Almonds and walnuts tend to top most lists for healthy foods, but their relationship to the quality of your sleep has to do with the fact they are a source of melatonin, which is a hormone heavily involved in sleep-regulation. Since they’re also rich in magnesium, it’s also been seen to reduce stress levels, which can be a factor contributing to sleep deprivation.
If you’re a meat-eater, turkey contains an amino acid called tryptophan which helps with producing melatonin, just as almonds can. The protein in turkey might also encourage feelings of being tired, which can help with getting to sleep faster. The vitamin levels in certain fatty fish such as salmon and tuna have also been shown to help people who have trouble sleeping fall asleep faster.
When it comes to drinks, chamomile tea and passionflower tea seems to offer extensive health benefits, from a reduction of inflammation to improved skin. They also contain an antioxidant known as apigenin, which promotes sleepiness and reduces insomnia overall.
Additional factors affecting the quality of your sleep
No amount of chamomile tea will help you get to sleep if you’re trying to do so on a fifteen-year-old, worn-out mattress. The best mattress for your sleep position and lifestyle is an incredibly important part of your ability to combat any trouble sleeping.
Memory foam mattresses are the best choice for the most comfortable mattress for their sleep style while still having some functionality in the form of support. The best mattresses are known for their motion isolating features, which means you can happily enjoy your midnight snack in bed without worrying if your tossing and turning may cause a spill.
Memory foam mattresses are also great for relieving the body of certain pressure points, which can be especially important if you work a strenuous job, are an athlete, or if you’re heavier-set and need something that won’t impede you from having a food night’s rest.
A lifestyle change for better sleep
The reasons behind investing in the best mattress for your back or drinking several cups of chamomile tea remain the same: to achieve better sleep is to achieve a more balanced version of yourself.
Focussing on your wellbeing warrants a totally different lifestyle, one that doesn’t just involve integrating more almonds and walnuts into your salads. Learning the foods that help you sleep faster is just one step in many of narrowing down why you might be having trouble sleeping.
Redecorating your room so that is a space for optimum rest also comes to play when solving issues with trouble sleeping. This is where investing in the best mattress you can come in, along with other sleep accessories such as weighted blankets or bed frames that can help with this further.