9 foods to eat before bed + recipes

Healthy sleep is the key to good health and good mood. It helps all sys­tems and human organs not only to relax, but also to renew itself. While we are dream­ing, com­plex meta­bol­ic process­es are tak­ing place in our body, the syn­the­sis of hor­mones and vit­a­mins, the “repair” and replace­ment of cel­lu­lar struc­tures.

Until now, there are sci­en­tif­ic dis­putes about the dura­tion of night and day­time rest for peo­ple of dif­fer­ent ages, gen­der, pro­fes­sions.

In 2018, Cana­di­an researchers, after con­duct­ing a large-scale analy­sis of sci­en­tif­ic data, stat­ed: “There is no mag­ic num­ber or ide­al amount for sleep.” And they set­tled on the fact that any rec­om­men­da­tions should be giv­en tak­ing into account the indi­vid­ual char­ac­ter­is­tics of a par­tic­u­lar organ­ism and lifestyle.

It is impos­si­ble not to notice that there is a con­nec­tion between the eat­ing behav­ior of each of us and the qual­i­ty of sleep. Sci­ence con­firms the asso­ci­a­tion between eat­ing habits and insom­nia, and pro­vides clear dietary rec­om­men­da­tions.

Based on the syn­the­sis of West­ern med­i­cine and East­ern wis­dom, Indi­an sci­en­tists pub­lished a guide to com­bat insom­nia in 2012, which called for:

• for sleep future avoid­ance of stim­u­lat­ing foods (eg choco­late, espe­cial­ly dark vari­eties) and drinks (such as tea, cof­fee, Coca-Cola);
• do not go to bed on an emp­ty stom­ach (it is advis­able to sat­is­fy your hunger with high-car­bo­hy­drate or dairy prod­ucts).

In 2016 Insti­tute of Human Nutri­tion (USA) pub­lished detailed dietary guide­lines for the pre­ven­tion of sleep dis­or­ders. Sci­en­tists have named spe­cif­ic prod­ucts that help fight insom­nia. Let’s talk about the nine most effec­tive and share culi­nary recipes with their par­tic­i­pa­tion.

Dairy products + cottage cheese casserole

A slice of cheese, a glass of home­made cur­dled milk or yogurt, a cup of kefir or milk are allies in the fight against insom­nia. This is because they con­tain tryp­to­phan and mela­tonin, as well as vit­a­min D, the lev­el of which also cor­re­lates with the amount and qual­i­ty of sleep.

Treat your­self to a cot­tage cheese casse­role that can be pre­pared in the microwave or in the oven, using an ordi­nary ceram­ic mug instead of con­fec­tionery molds.

You will need:

• 1 egg;
• 50 g of cot­tage cheese;
• 1 st. l. Sahara;
• 1 st. l. semoli­na;
• a pinch of soda;
• a pinch of salt;
• a pinch of vanil­la sug­ar;
• a lit­tle but­ter for greas­ing the mold.

Cook­ing order:

1. using a mix­er, a reg­u­lar fork or a spe­cial con­fec­tionery whisk, beat the egg with sug­ar and salt;
2. add cot­tage cheese, semoli­na, soda and vanil­la sug­ar;
3. grease a mold or ceram­ic mug with but­ter, sprin­kle with semoli­na or flour;
4. lay out the dough to fill the form by ½;
5. bake for 3 min­utes at a pow­er of 800 W in a microwave oven or a quar­ter of an hour at a tem­per­a­ture of 200 ° C in an oven.

Almonds + rice with nuts and dried fruits

Almonds, wal­nuts and their oth­er clos­est “rel­a­tives”, being antiox­i­dant foods, have a mirac­u­lous prop­er­ty — to induce sleep.

A hand­ful of nuts will help you avoid eat­ing dis­or­ders and tame hunger dur­ing the day and will be a wor­thy end to the evening.

But there are more time-con­sum­ing, but undoubt­ed­ly incred­i­bly sophis­ti­cat­ed ways to con­sume almonds and oth­er nuts. For exam­ple, the recipe comes from the shores of the Mediter­ranean Sea. Rice with nuts and dried fruits in sun­ny Moroc­co is right­ful­ly called “Roy­al”: the taste of the dish will be appre­ci­at­ed by the most demand­ing gourmets.

Would need:

• a cup of peeled almonds;
• a cup of a mix­ture of dried fruits;
• a cup of long grain rice;
• 50 g melt­ed cow but­ter;
• ½ tsp salt;
• ½ tsp saf­fron
• ½ tsp cin­na­mon;
• 2 tbsp. l. nat­ur­al hon­ey.

Cook­ing order:

1. heat the oil in a wide refrac­to­ry dish;
2. add nuts and dried fruits, fry, stir­ring, over low heat;
3. pour 0.7 l of water;
4. add pre-washed rice, bring to a boil;
5. add spices, cov­er, reduce heat and leave for 15 min­utes;
6. turn off the fire, wrap with a nap­kin, leave for anoth­er quar­ter of an hour;
7. serve the dish warm, adding hon­ey before serv­ing;
8. gar­nish with peeled almonds.

Turkey + Nut Breaded Chops

High-qual­i­ty dietary pro­tein is the per­fect late din­ner for those who adhere to prop­er nutri­tion, lead an active lifestyle, and do fit­ness. The turkey fil­let will share its sup­ply of tryp­to­phan and take away more calo­ries from a calm­ly sleep­ing per­son than it gives. At the same time, in the morn­ing he will feel fresh and cheer­ful.

Even an absolute “teapot” in cook­ing can mas­ter the fol­low­ing recipe.

Would need:

• 300 g of turkey fil­let (we remind you that leg meat is more nutri­tious than poul­try breast);
• a pinch of salt;
• a pinch of fresh­ly ground pep­per;
• 1 egg;
• 50 g melt­ed cow or refined veg­etable oil for fry­ing;
• half a cup of any shelled nuts (wal­nuts, almonds, cashews, etc.).

Cook­ing order:

1. fry the nuts in a dry fry­ing pan, cool and grind in a mor­tar or by plac­ing in a bag using a wood­en rolling pin;
2. cut the bird into thin slices;
3. put each por­tioned piece of turkey fil­let (alter­nate­ly) into a food bag and beat it with a spe­cial kitchen ham­mer or any unbreak­able heavy object;
4. beat the egg with salt and pep­per;
5. dip each chop in eggnog, and then roll in chopped nuts, repeat­ing the sim­ple pro­ce­dure twice;
6. Fry on both sides until crispy.

Banana + Protein Carb Smoothie

A demo­c­ra­t­ic trop­i­cal fruit, which has long become a reg­u­lar on the Russ­ian table, improves mood and helps to fall asleep, as it is an excel­lent source of car­bo­hy­drates, con­tains tryp­to­phan and a good por­tion of mag­ne­sium.

We sug­gest com­bin­ing it with oth­er healthy prod­ucts by prepar­ing a pro­tein-car­bo­hy­drate smooth­ie.

Would need:

• 1 banana;
• 1 cup nat­ur­al yogurt;
• 1 tsp chia seeds or ground flaxseed.

Cook­ing order:

1. using a blender, grind and mix all the ingre­di­ents.

Oily fish + creamy mousse

A healthy pro­tein prod­uct rich in valu­able fat­ty acids and vit­a­min D is a great dietary din­ner option for those who want to sleep, lose weight and improve their health at the same time. To get “three in one” and a lit­tle more heav­en­ly delight, we rec­om­mend mak­ing a creamy mousse from fat­ty fish (for exam­ple, salmon, chum salmon, etc.).

Would need:

• 300 g fat­ty fish fil­let;
• a cup of cream (10–15% fat);
• 10 g of gelatin;
• a pinch of salt;
• a pinch of fresh­ly ground black pep­per;
• some green­ery to dec­o­rate the dish.

Cook­ing order:

1. boil the fish fil­let in a small amount of water;
2. cool and chop the fish with a knife;
3. add hot water to the broth, so that it turns out about 100 ml;
4. dis­solve gelatin in the broth;
5. using a blender, beat the cream, fish and broth, adding salt and pep­per;
6. put in molds for freez­ing or in cups;
7. place in the freez­er for half an hour or in the refrig­er­a­tor for an hour, until com­plete­ly solid­i­fied;
8. gar­nish with herbs before serv­ing.

Cherry + milk fruit jelly

Sea­son­al fruit feels great at any time of the year with shock freez­ing, retain­ing the entire sup­ply of use­ful sub­stances, includ­ing:

• flavonoids (iso­ram­netin, kaempfer­ol, quercetin, cat­e­chin, epi­cat­e­chin, etc.);
• phe­no­lic acids (chloro­genic, caf­fe­ic, ellag­ic).

You can enjoy a cup of fresh or frozen cher­ries to have sweet dreams, or make fruit and milk jel­ly with them and pam­per your fam­i­ly or guests.

Would need:

• a cup of fresh or frozen cher­ries;
• a glass of milk;
• glass of water;
• 20 g of gelatin;
• 2 tbsp. l. Sahara;
• a few mint leaves.

Cook­ing order:

1. remove pits from cher­ries. Set aside a few cher­ries to dec­o­rate the dessert, and cov­er the rest with 1 tbsp. l. Sahara;
2. dilute 10 g of gelatin in a glass of hot water, cool;
3. Pour cher­ries with sug­ar with a mix­ture of water and gelatin, put in freez­er molds so that they are half filled, and send to the freez­er;
4. dilute 10 g of gelatin in hot milk, add 1 tbsp. l. sug­ar, cool;
5. remove molds with cher­ry jel­ly from the freez­er and pour the milk mix­ture over them, send them back to the cold;
6. serve the fin­ished jel­ly, gar­nish­ing with whole cher­ries and mint leaves.

Rice + seafood paella

For res­i­dents of many coun­tries, it replaces wheat and oth­er grain prod­ucts, more than cov­er­ing the needs for car­bo­hy­drates. It is thanks to the abil­i­ty to quick­ly sat­u­rate that ordi­nary white rice is rec­om­mend­ed by nutri­tion­ists to any­one who wants to fall asleep quick­ly and sleep sound­ly.

To enrich the mod­est vit­a­min and min­er­al com­po­si­tion of this prod­uct, we advise you to mas­ter the exclu­sive recipe for pael­la with seafood.

Would need:

• 300 g of a sea cock­tail (a mix­ture of blanched shrimp, squid, mus­sels, octo­pus);
• 200 g chick­en breast or turkey;
• 2 cups round rice;
• 1 bell pep­per; 3 large toma­toes;
• 2 tbsp. l. toma­to paste;
• 1 tsp Sahara;
• 3 cloves of gar­lic;
• 4 bay leaves;
• 1 tsp papri­ka;
• 2–3 sprigs of basil and oregano;
• 3 art. l. unre­fined olive or sesame oil;
• 1 tsp salt.

Cook­ing order:

1. heat the oil in a wide and deep refrac­to­ry dish with a thick bot­tom (a cast-iron fry­ing pan, stew­pan or wok pan is best);
2. fry chopped gar­lic until gold­en brown;
3. add the bird fil­let, cut into small pieces, fry, stir­ring;
4. add seafood, fry;
5. add bell pep­per, chopped into strips, and toma­toes (pre-blanch, remove the skin and chop), sim­mer for 2–3 min­utes;
6. add toma­to paste, 1 tsp. sug­ar, spices and aro­mat­ic herbs, salt and sim­mer for anoth­er 2–3 min­utes;
7. add 1 liter of water;
8. dur­ing this time, wash the rice, chang­ing the water until it becomes clear;
9. pour the cere­al into boil­ing water, bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cov­er and leave for a quar­ter of an hour;
10. turn off the fire, wrap with a nap­kin and let stand for anoth­er quar­ter of an hour;
11. serve hot.

Oatmeal + whole grain cookies

Both hors­es and peo­ple feel great if this prod­uct is reg­u­lar­ly present in their diet. Sci­en­tists advise to use it not only in the morn­ing, for break­fast, but also in the evening, before going to bed. In addi­tion to healthy car­bo­hy­drates, whole grain por­ridge and oth­er dish­es with the par­tic­i­pa­tion of oat­meal give us the acti­va­tion of mela­tonin pro­duc­tion.

What could be nicer and tasti­er on a cold evening than a glass of warm milk with fresh­ly baked home­made cook­ies?

Would need:

• 1 cup of her­cules;
• 1 cup whole wheat flour;
• 100 g of soft­ened but­ter;
• 2 tbsp. l. nat­ur­al hon­ey;
• a pinch of salt;
• 1 sachet of bak­ing pow­der;
• ½ cup raisins;
• ½ cup any seeds (sun­flower, pump­kin, chia, flax, etc.) and/or nuts (wal­nuts, pecans, cashews, almonds, etc.).

Cook­ing order:

1. grind soft but­ter with half the flour and knead the dough;
2. con­tin­u­ing to knead, add all the remain­ing ingre­di­ents and the remain­ing flour;
3. place the dough in the refrig­er­a­tor for a quar­ter of an hour;
4. roll out into a lay­er about 1 cm thick and, using molds or a glass, cut out fig­ures from the dough;
5. bake in the oven, lay­ing on a bak­ing sheet, greased with oil, at a tem­per­a­ture of 180 ° C for about 10 min­utes.

Kiwi + fruit salad

The Chi­nese goose­ber­ry, the record hold­er for the con­tent of vit­a­min C, has a mirac­u­lous hyp­not­ic effect, which has been repeat­ed­ly con­firmed in the course of sci­en­tif­ic exper­i­ments. If you eat only one fruit an hour before bed­time, the chance to fall asleep quick­ly and sleep peace­ful­ly will increase by 42%!

Do not spoil the nat­ur­al prod­uct by heat treat­ment. The best option for a vit­a­min dish is a fruit sal­ad.

You will need:

• 1 kiwi;
• 1 banana;
• 1 pome­gran­ate;
• 1 orange;
• a hand­ful of peeled nuts;
• 1 tsp hon­ey;
• 1 st. l. lemon juice.

Cook­ing order:

1. peel fruits, cut into small cubes;
2. sea­son with a mix­ture of lemon juice and hon­ey;
3. arrange in por­tioned bowls, wine glass­es or cups;
4. dec­o­rate with nuts.