If you’re having trouble with sleep quality, you may have already tried some of the more common suggestions: follow a regular sleep schedule, putting your phone away Long before you close your eyes, and get enough exercise. While these are all helpful tips backed by valid science, you may find that they aren’t enough on their own. If you’re looking for another change to help improve the quality of your sleep, consider taking a look at the foods you eat.
While we’ve long known that dietary choices are linked to sleep quality, new research finds that one specific eating habit — following the Mediterranean diet — can help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep through the night. the new studio, published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, reviewed twenty previous studies published between 1975 and 2021 to compare diet composition with sleep quality. The researchers highlighted the Mediterranean diet as one that contained the main qualities related to a better quality of sleep.
“It appears that those who eat more fiber, healthier fats (such as polyunsaturated fats), fruits and vegetables rich in serotonin and melatonin, and anti-inflammatory nutrients (such as antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids) sleep better.” Katherine Wilson, author of the study, says Eat this, not that! of the results “But more study is needed to explain what drives these associations.”
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Wilson adds that a range of other habits, including limiting caffeine consumption and the use of the screen, could also help with the quality of sleep and that varies from person to person, “almost like your fingerprint”.
Even when it comes to your dietary choices, it pays to have a more than 360-degree view. So if a particular habit change isn’t working for you, it’s worth trying other things until you find the routine that works best for you.
“One thing that many people find difficult to understand about the connection between food and sleep is that the existing data suggests that it is less about specific foods and more about general eating patterns,” he says. Michael A. Grandner, Ph.D., MTR, author of sleep and health.
Taken together, the evidence suggests that, in general, healthy nutrition Sleep patterns, especially those that provide sufficient nutritional balance with most of the caloric intake concentrated more in the middle of the day, may be more beneficial for sleep health. Worrying about individual foods and nutrients may be missing the big picture.”
For more information on how to wake up feeling well-rested, check out these 20 ways to double the quality of your sleep.
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