9 nutrients to improve sleep

A long and rest­ful night’s sleep is very impor­tant for a per­son. Thanks to him, the body can relax, recov­er, get rid of the effects of stress. While we sleep, very impor­tant meta­bol­ic process­es take place that ensure our health and opti­mal func­tion­ing. A lot of sci­en­tif­ic research has been devot­ed to sleep prob­lems. As a result, sci­en­tists came to the con­clu­sion that with the help of cer­tain sub­stances it is pos­si­ble to improve its qual­i­ty.

It is bet­ter if you find them in ordi­nary food. After all, our body has evolved for a very long time to learn how to extract vit­a­mins, min­er­als and oth­er bio­log­i­cal­ly active sub­stances from organ­ic prod­ucts. There is no guar­an­tee that it will eas­i­ly absorb ascor­bic acid, potas­si­um and oth­er nutri­ents from dietary sup­ple­ments. Our cells and healthy gut bac­te­ria feel much bet­ter about get­ting them from real food than from any dietary sup­ple­ment.

Of course, there are times when it is strate­gi­cal­ly impor­tant to con­sult a doc­tor and include dietary sup­ple­ments in your diet to help fill gaps in your diet, to quick­ly get the nutri­ents you are defi­cient in. Our advice is for those who do not have sys­temic patholo­gies and oth­er seri­ous rea­sons for vis­it­ing a doc­tor.

Find out what to include in your meals to ensure a good night’s rest. Here is a list of the most impor­tant sleep-enhanc­ing nutri­ents and a list of func­tion­al foods that are their best food sources.

Selenium for Immunity Optimization

It hap­pens that a per­son sleeps poor­ly and does not real­ize that his prob­lems are due to a lack of sele­ni­um in the diet. This nutri­ent is part of 30 dif­fer­ent chem­i­cal com­pounds present in the human body. Sele­ni­um ensures the effi­cient func­tion­ing of the thy­roid gland, the suc­cess­ful func­tion­ing of the immune sys­tem, is respon­si­ble for meta­bol­ic process­es and redox reac­tions. Accord­ing to med­ical sta­tis­tics at the turn of the 20th and 21st cen­turies, about 80% of Rus­sians expe­ri­ence a defi­cien­cy of this trace ele­ment.

The best food sources of this sub­stance are:

• brazil nuts;
• sun­flower seeds;
• beef;
• oys­ters;
• chick­en;
• mush­rooms.

Vitamin C for health

It turns out that ascor­bic acid is impor­tant not only for pro­tec­tion against patho­log­i­cal microflo­ra, strength­en­ing immu­ni­ty, etc. Sci­en­tif­ic stud­ies show that peo­ple with low lev­els of vit­a­min C in their blood have more trou­ble falling asleep and are more like­ly to wake up dur­ing the night.

Excel­lent sources of ascor­bic acid are:

• kiwi;
• Straw­ber­ry;
• green leafy veg­eta­bles;
• cit­rus;
• Bell pep­per;
• papaya.

Tryptophan for dinner guarantees rest

It is one of the most impor­tant bio­log­i­cal­ly active sub­stances for the human body, because this essen­tial alpha-amino acid is a pre­cur­sor of sero­tonin. Signs of its defi­cien­cy are not only insom­nia, but also depres­sive states, crav­ing for alco­hol, and chron­ic fatigue.

If you want to get a serv­ing of tryp­to­phan, on your plate should be:

• turkey;
• chick­en;
• eggs;
• sweet pota­to;
• chia seeds;
• bananas;
• pump­kin seeds;
• almond;
• nat­ur­al yoghurt, etc.

Potassium-enriched meals can help you sleep peacefully

In the jour­nal Sleep back in 1991, the results of a study by Amer­i­can sci­en­tists were pub­lished. Through exper­i­men­ta­tion, they have found that potas­si­um can be espe­cial­ly help­ful for those who have trou­ble falling asleep.

Bananas are often tout­ed as the best source of potas­si­um. But there are oth­er prod­ucts that are not infe­ri­or and even ahead of its con­tent, while avoid­ing excess sug­ar:

• leafy greens;
• pota­to;
• sea­weed;
• broc­coli;
• mush­rooms;
• avo­ca­do.

Calcium for Pleasant Dreams

Per­haps you can’t close your eyes for a long time at night or sleep anx­ious­ly due to a lack of cal­ci­um in your diet. The Euro­pean Neu­rol­o­gy Jour­nal has pub­lished research find­ings that prove that the lack of deep sleep and REM sleep dis­or­ders is often caused by a lack of this impor­tant min­er­al in the body.

The most afford­able sources of cal­ci­um:

• cab­bage;
• greens;
• mus­tard;
• sar­dines;
• sea­weed;
• sesame seeds.

Vitamin D for the nervous system

The jour­nal Med­ical Hypoth­e­sis pub­lished the results of a two-year exper­i­men­tal work of sci­en­tists from the Uni­ver­si­ty of North­ern Cal­i­for­nia. They found that there is a strong cor­re­la­tion between vit­a­min D defi­cien­cy and exces­sive day­time sleepi­ness, as well as dis­or­ders such as insom­nia, dif­fi­cul­ty falling asleep, and the like. In 1500 vol­un­teers who reg­u­lar­ly took cal­cif­er­ols, per­sis­tent improve­ments in sleep qual­i­ty were record­ed.

The Jour­nal of Clin­i­cal Sleep Med­i­cine pub­lished the find­ings of sci­en­tists from Louisiana State Uni­ver­si­ty that a lack of cal­cif­er­ols is asso­ci­at­ed with exces­sive day­time sleepi­ness and insom­nia at night.

There are sev­er­al valu­able sources of cal­cif­er­ols:

• salmon, tuna, mack­er­el and oth­er marine fish;
• shi­itake mush­rooms;
• oys­ters.

Omega‑3 polyunsaturated fatty acids against insomnia

A study con­duct­ed at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oxford has con­firmed the rela­tion­ship between polyun­sat­u­rat­ed fat­ty acids in the diet and the qual­i­ty of a night’s rest. All 362 chil­dren from 7 to 9 years old who took part in a sci­en­tif­ic exper­i­ment and received 600 mg of sea­weed in addi­tion to their usu­al menu for 16 weeks began to sleep bet­ter.

Food sources of omega-3s are:

• chia seeds;
• hal­ibut;
• wal­nuts;
• salmon;
• pump­kin seeds;
• flax seeds.

Melatonin is the main sleep hormone

It reg­u­lates sleep by being respon­si­ble for cycles. It is pro­duced by spe­cial cells of the pineal gland — pinealo­cytes. To effec­tive­ly pro­duce mela­tonin, the body needs to get enough tryp­to­phan.

It is desir­able to enrich the diet with foods that stim­u­late the pro­duc­tion of mela­tonin or con­tain a small amount of this hor­mone:

• oranges;
• cher­ry;
• pineap­ples;
• wal­nuts;
• bananas.

Pyridoxine for stress protection

This essen­tial nutri­ent helps mod­u­late our body’s defense response to stress and pro­motes relax­ation.

Among the best sources of vit­a­min B6:

• cashew nuts;
• sea­weed;
• bananas;
• spinach;
• avo­ca­do;
• fish;
• eggs;
• toma­toes;
• peanut but­ter;
• sweet pota­to.

It is bet­ter if all these nat­ur­al prod­ucts are sub­ject­ed to gen­tle pro­cess­ing in order to pre­serve the vit­a­mins and oth­er bio­log­i­cal­ly active sub­stances in their com­po­si­tion as much as pos­si­ble. Include them in your diet more often and sleep peace­ful­ly!