By Zoe Bingley-Pullin, Nutrition Expert
www.nutritionaledge.com.au
Sleep is defined as the body’s natural state of unconsciousness. When we are in this unconscious state, the body is repairing itself. The ideal amount of sleep is between six to eight hours each night, but if you are like most people and you get five hours one night and nine the next, you might be doing more harm then you think. When we are asleep the body is enhancing the function of the immune system, it is replenishing hormones such as Testosterone, Melatonin and Human Growth Hormone, and it is giving the body its much-needed rest so that we can be wonderfully active the next day.
Sleep is vital for overall good health and relying on things such as sleeping tablets will do more damage than good. Let’s look at the natural alternative.
- Foods that are high in Vitamin B are fantastic to help improve the quality of your night sleep. Foods high in Vitamin B are legumes, peanuts, meat, salmon and eggs to name a few. Vitamin B is proven to help increase sleep because it assists in the production of serotonin and Melatonin, which are the hormones that help the body sleep and also make us feel good.
- Magnesium, when consumed just prior to going to bed, improves the quality of your sleep because of its fantastic calming effect on the central nervous system. This is the one supplement that every one of my clients loves taking because it has a brilliant overall improvement to their sleep. You can supplement with magnesium (600mg per night) or you can consume food such as almonds, cashews, coca, wholegrain and molasses, which all contain a high amount of magnesium.
- We all like to have a drink now and then but too much alcohol can have a serious effect on the quality of your nights sleep. Although alcohol induces sleep for the first few hours, the last half of the sleep cycle is interrupted and becomes shallower after excessive alcohol consumption. So limiting your alcohol cannot only reduce the calories, it can also increase your sleep.
- If you consume coffee, even up to two hours before going to sleep, you will dramatically increase the time required to “fall asleep” and decrease the period of “Slow Wave” or what we know as “deep sleep”. This is due to the caffeine content in the coffee and its stimulating effect on the body. Try having chamomile tea before sleeping, it is very calming and contains no caffeine.
- Exercise really is so important for keeping our body healthy and feeling fantastic. Regular exercise (three times per week) helps to increases the quality of sleep, it helps you fall asleep faster and it will also help reduce the amount of times you wake in the middle of the night. When we exercise, we release hormones such as serotonin, which is helpful in inducing sleep. So overall exercise is a key component to helping you have a greats night sleep.