Bad sleeper? This food before bed improves your sleep

It comes up in almost every list for a healthy lifestyle: enough sleep is always important. It promotes all kinds of different psychological and physical processes in your body. Yet simply ‘sleeping well’ is often easier said than done. This food would help you fall asleep better.

In the Netherlands, 63 percent say they are not positive about their sleep quality, writes the Brain Foundation. In 2018, almost a quarter (!) of Dutch people aged 25 and older suffered from sleeping problems. In other words: a good night’s sleep is not always obvious, while it is essential for your mental and physical well-being.

Sleep expert Leo van der Woerden previously explained to our colleagues BEDROCK shows that even more happens in your brain at night than during the day and many important processes are processed then. A good night’s sleep is therefore really important.

Do you ever suffer from sleeping problems? According to new scientific research, there are certain foods that would help you sleep better.

Food that improves your sleep

This scientific study, conducted by researchers in South Korea, looked at different evening meals and their effect on sleep. To this end, the quality of the sleep of 128 nurses and their meals during an evening shift was examined. Their sleep was measured via self-reported sleep scores and their nutrition was also accurately tracked. What turned out?

Interestingly enough, it turned out that the shorter people ate before going to bed, the better and longer the quality of their sleep became. The study also showed that the more calories and protein the meal contained, the better the participants slept.

What food is that exactly?

However, the results of the research are somewhat confusing, because many studies show that (heavy) meals with a lot of calories are not good to eat shortly before bedtime, because it is quite hard on your metabolism to eat a large meal so late. to digest.

Because the results of the study are fairly new, and the study is relatively small, we can in any case draw the conclusion that the above results will undoubtedly not apply to everyone.

Nevertheless, you can easily apply the lessons of the research in your nutritional routine and ensure that your evening meal always contains sufficient protein, something that you want to pay attention to anyway!

Nutrition with proteins

You can find proteins in the following foods:

• A smoothie that contains enough protein, for example protein powder that you can add.
• Fish: especially animal products contain a lot of protein, so an evening meal with (organic!) fish is a good idea if you want to eat protein-rich.
• Eggs: of course eggs also contain proteins. You can easily incorporate eggs into your dinner, just think of soup with a boiled egg or an omelette with vegetables before going to bed.
• Edamame Beans: These beans are another good example of foods that contain protein. There are about 18.4 proteins per cup, they are also rich in magnesium.

In addition, there is of course a lot of food that is packed with proteins: these foods contain a lot of proteins! Although the results of the study showed that these nurses slept better if they had eaten a high-calorie and protein-rich meal before bed, that is (unfortunately) not an excuse to go fast now late night snacking in the hope that it promotes your sleep.

Remember that you always want to eat a varied diet, preferably in all the colors of the rainbow. You want to have enough carbohydrates, fiber and protein in every meal, so pay extra attention to your protein intake before going to sleep. Perhaps you, just like the nurses, will sleep longer and better afterwards. By the way, if you want to keep your brain healthy, you should eat these things.

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