Diet for sound sleep, menu for insomnia

Sleep is essen­tial for every per­son. But it hap­pens that there are prob­lems with this func­tion of the body. Insom­nia can occur due to stress at work or at home, poor diet, uncom­fort­able indoor cli­mate. A spe­cial diet will help to cope with this prob­lem and return sound sleep. The diet menu offered by Med­AboutMe is hearty and healthy, so you won’t go hun­gry.

What is the purpose of the sleep diet?

Of course, it is impor­tant to eat foods that con­tain vit­a­mins and oth­er ben­e­fi­cial sub­stances that enhance sleep, and refuse those that dis­turb it. And you need to fol­low a diet for quite a long time, espe­cial­ly if you have been suf­fer­ing from insom­nia for a long time.

The diet menu must include foods that are rich in vit­a­mins C and group B, mag­ne­sium, cal­ci­um, cop­per, iron, and tryp­to­phan. What are these prod­ucts?

Here are the main ones:

• cit­rus;
• buck­wheat;
• bananas;
• nuts;
• fish;
• oat­meal;
• cocoa;
• rice;
• pas­ta made from durum wheat;
• yogurt;
• dates;
• low-fat milk;
• herbal teas.

Vit­a­min C makes it eas­i­er to fall asleep, so it is advis­able to con­sume grape­fruits, lemons, tan­ger­ines, oranges and fresh­ly squeezed juices from these fruits. B vit­a­mins nor­mal­ize the func­tion­ing of the ner­vous sys­tem. Mag­ne­sium reg­u­lates the uni­for­mi­ty of sleep, calms the nerves, fights stress. There­fore, cere­als, bananas and nuts should be includ­ed in the menu. The com­plex car­bo­hy­drates found in cere­als and pas­ta, whole grain breads are sooth­ing. How­ev­er, they should not be con­sumed in large quan­ti­ties, as they can cause weight gain. Not the last role in the diet is played by foods con­tain­ing tryp­to­phan. This amino acid helps pro­duce sero­tonin. The best source of tryp­to­phan is milk, soy­beans, and eggs.

All these prod­ucts must be on the diet menu for sound sleep.

As for harm­ful prod­ucts, these are:

• alco­hol — at first it caus­es drowsi­ness, but then insom­nia begins;
• fat­ty foods — meat, dairy prod­ucts, offal. They are digest­ed for a long time and cause heav­i­ness in the stom­ach, which means they wors­en your well-being;
• hard cheese — it is bet­ter to use it in the morn­ing, as it pro­duces tyra­mine — an invig­o­rat­ing sub­stance;
• caf­feine — tea and cof­fee are also bet­ter to drink in the morn­ing, as caf­feine invig­o­rates;
• sweets — they dra­mat­i­cal­ly increase blood sug­ar lev­els, which con­tributes to emo­tion­al arousal.

Detailed diet menu

In the diet menu, you can include any healthy prod­ucts that help you fall asleep. And you can make it your­self, there are many options. We offer one of them.

Sam­ple diet menu:

• in the morn­ing — por­ridge (bet­ter — buck­wheat or oat­meal), banana, cocoa;
• snack — cit­rus fruits (two tan­ger­ines, or an orange, or half a grape­fruit);
• lunch — fish soup, turkey, sal­ad, com­pote;
• after­noon snack — nuts and yogurt;
• din­ner — scram­bled eggs or fish stewed with veg­eta­bles, herbal tea or warm milk.

Break­fast dur­ing the diet is a must. It can be cere­al or pas­ta, boiled eggs. You can make a sand­wich with whole grain bread, turkey or chick­en and veg­eta­bles. It is advis­able to sup­ple­ment break­fast with cit­rus fruits. Lunch can be any­thing, but the food should be sat­is­fy­ing. A light sal­ad is not enough. How­ev­er, you can’t overeat either. Snacks can be as fol­lows: nuts, yogurt, cot­tage cheese, milk, fruits. But din­ner is the most impor­tant meal of the day. It should be ear­ly (three hours before bed­time) and not too dense. It is good to choose fish with rice or veg­eta­bles, pas­ta with sal­ad, you can cook an omelette. As for drinks, it is advis­able to drink warm milk or cocoa, and herbal teas are also very con­ducive to sleep. You just need to choose them cor­rect­ly, because some herbs invig­o­rate. Lemon balm, chamomile, mint, laven­der, oat grass have a calm­ing effect. And it is best to drink drinks an hour or a half before bed­time.

Recipes for health and sleep

What recipes are suit­able for this diet? There are a lot of them. These are var­i­ous meat, fish, veg­etable dish­es. Here are some easy and deli­cious recipes.

Soup with oatmeal

Light­ly fry a glass of oat­meal in a dry fry­ing pan. Cut the onion and car­rot into cubes and sauté, add 250 g of toma­toes and sim­mer. Bring a liter of water to a boil and put veg­eta­bles in a saucepan, bring to a boil and add cere­al. After five min­utes, add four cloves of gar­lic. Sim­mer for two more min­utes and remove soup from heat. When serv­ing, sprin­kle with herbs and put a slice of boiled egg.

Fish with vegetables

Wrap one medi­um egg­plant, a small zuc­chi­ni and a yel­low bell pep­per sep­a­rate­ly in foil and bake in the oven at 200°C. Then cut the pre­pared veg­eta­bles into small pieces, cut four toma­toes into cubes, chop two cloves of gar­lic. Salt and pep­per the veg­eta­bles and driz­zle with olive oil. Bake 500 g of salmon fil­let in the oven, then divide into small pieces and mix with veg­eta­bles. Sprin­kle every­thing with wine vine­gar and sprin­kle with chopped herbs.

Buckwheat in pots

Rinse 200 g of buck­wheat and put on the bot­tom of the pots. Pour in water so that it is 1 cm high­er than buck­wheat. Cut one sweet pep­per, car­rot, toma­to, small egg­plant into cubes and put in a pot. Salt every­thing and cook in the oven for about 30–40 min­utes.

Lenten cake with banana

Pour a hand­ful of raisins and some cran­ber­ries with water to make the berries soft­er. You can take dried apri­cots or prunes — any dried fruits. Mash two ripe bananas well with a fork. Add half a glass of sug­ar, four table­spoons of veg­etable oil, a lit­tle salt, orange juice (one glass) and a tea­spoon of soda to bananas. Then mix dried fruits and a hand­ful of chopped wal­nuts into the dough. After five min­utes, add two cups of flour and knead well. Cook the cake in the oven for about an hour.

Don’t for­get warm milk and herbal teas. These drinks will help improve sleep and improve health. Tea recipes are very sim­ple: brew a spoon­ful of raw mate­ri­als with a glass of boil­ing water and insist. You can mix herbs or cook them sep­a­rate­ly. Hon­ey and a slice of lemon can be added to tea.

A spe­cial diet for sound sleep is very effec­tive if fol­lowed for a long time. So try this food if you suf­fer from insom­nia.