Top 7 Foods That Make You Sleep at Night 

Beat Insomnia with these top sleep inducing foods

It’s Thursday evening in late November.  The plates are empty.  Your belly is full of that tasty turkey you’ve been waiting precisely a year to partake in again.  The living room is cram-packed with football fans settling down to watch the big game.  And everyone is asleep.

We have all heard that turkey makes you sleepy.  But is that fact or fiction?  The truth of the matter is that turkey does make you tired.  And so do several other foods that are easily accessible and incorporated into your daily diet.

 If you have trouble sleeping, finding the right food to promote a solid night’s slumber could be a simple solution.

Turkey To Make You Sleep Through The Night

As previously stated, it’s not a myth that eating turkey promotes sleep. However, this big bird might make you super sleepy because of its high protein level, making you feel like taking more than a catnap.

Also, according to Registered Dietitian Bianna Allan, turkey contains the amino acid called tryptophan.  That is an element that releases nature’s sleep aid called melatonin.

No wonder no one can make it through the Thanksgiving Day football game without falling asleep between the protein and tryptophan.  I always thought they just didn’t want to help with the dishes. 

Almonds For Some Deep Sleep

Who doesn’t enjoy almonds?  They taste great, they’re considered a “good” kind of fat, and they’re portable so that you can enjoy them on the go.  Registered dietitian Katherine Margeno tells us that those are just a few of the ways almonds can benefit our lives. 

Almonds are also helpful in promoting sleep.  Containing a nutty amount of the natural sleep aid, melatonin, as well as sleep-promoters calcium and magnesium, almonds make an obvious choice for a healthy before-bedtime snack.

Warm Milk: Not Just for Kids In the Movies

No doubt, you have seen a movie, usually an old black-and-white, where a kid can’t sleep, so the parent offers them a glass of warm milk as the perfect panacea for tossing and turning. But, once again, one wonders if this is fact or fiction.

Marengo assures us that drinking warm milk is the miracle that the parents of Hollywood’s golden age promised.  Containing the fab four factors found in foods to support sleep, warm milk contains tryptophan, calcium, vitamin D, and melatonin. These in combination work very well in inducing sleep.

Marengo also points out that for children, if warm milk becomes a part of their nighttime ritual, it will help promote sleep because they associate the drink with drowsiness.  For lack of a better comparison, warm milk has a Pavlovian effect on children. 

Tart Cherries Fight Insomnia

Johns Hopkins, a leader in medical research, suggests tart cherries before bed can help you fall sound asleep.  Tart cherries are ripe with melatonin, and we know what that does: makes you sleepy. Not only are they a tasty treat, but tart cherries can also bring the sandman on toot sweet.

If you’re not too keen on eating tart cherries, an alternative to downing them whole them is drinking cherry juice.  Maybe you’re not a fan of the texture?  Try cherries in their liquid form and see if that helps them go down easier. 

Kiwi Fruit - Will Help You Fall Asleep Fast

This yummy fruit associated with Australia does more than just taste good; kiwis are great to help you get sleepy.  Elliott brings us some staggering statistics that prove just how great kiwis are as a nighttime snack that will help you not only fall asleep but stay asleep.

She says that studies have shown that people who ate kiwi fruit before bedtime fell asleep 42% faster than those other kiwi-deprived subjects.  Also, they stayed asleep 5% more, and they slept 13% longer. 

The reason kiwi fruit helps us sleep can be attributed to the fact that it contains serotonin.  This chemical helps to promote a healthy, regular sleep cycle.  I’m sold.  Kiwi will be on this insomniac’s shopping list.

Fatty Fish - How to Fall Asleep When You Can't

Don’t let the name fool you.  Fatty fish are an excellent addition to virtually any diet.  They contain a ton of omega-3 and vitamin D, reports Margeno. 

The aforementioned elements promote a good night’s rest, including helping you fall asleep faster, and more importantly, improving the quality of that sleep.  So, in addition to the positives they provide concerning respite, fatty fish are suitable for your diet in general. 

Grains - Makes Sleep Inducing Bedtime Snacks

Munching on grains and complex carbohydrates is a great way to promote sound sleep with your food choices. So while you might associate oatmeal or whole-wheat toast with breakfast, it’s a good option for a bedtime snack. 

Johns Hopkins says that grains are great for a super sleep, attributed to the serotonin they release.  And we know serotonin release relaxes you. So rest is within your reach when you get in some grains before bed.

Lettuce for A Sedative Effect

Margeno lets us in on the low-down on lettuce as food for sleep.  She says that lettuce has a “mild sedative-hypnotic effect” due to the amount of n-butanol fraction the veggie supplies.  Hypnotic, you say?  Heck yeah! 

This green goddess of food is known to help folks fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and sleep better. So why are we not eating lettuce all day, every day?  There doesn’t seem to be a downside to having lettuce in your diet.

While not an exhaustive list, the foods presented here are all things that are easily accessible, good for you, and easy to incorporate into your daily diet.  Most of them are great for bedtime snacks, and the others are suitable for supper.

You love to eat, right?  You love to sleep, yes?  Then you can bring together the best of both worlds by including these wonderfully healthy foods into your diet to help you go to sleep faster, stay asleep longer, and improve sleep quality. 

Go to the grocery store today, and make sure that the foods included here are on your list. Then, pick some up, bring them home, and get them in your tummy so you can drift off to dreamland with a belly full of fabulously healthy food.