Melatonin Rich Foods Can Help You Sleep Better
Ah, yes. Elusive sleep.
You may have noticed that as you get older, you get less rest at night and feel more tired during the day. One reason may be due to melatonin.
Melatonin and Sleep
Melatonin is a hormone secreted by the brain and helps a variety of things for men and women, including your internal time clock–like when we fall asleep and when we wake up.
At nighttime, melatonin production goes up. When it becomes light, your melatonin production decreases. This “circadian cycle” is what causes us to sleep and wake.
Melatonin and Age
Although there is some controversy surrounding age and melatonin, it does appear that the body’s ability to secrete the same amount of melatonin, or at least at the same potency, decreases as we age.
According to Dr. Oz, “As you get older, you also lose some of the oomph you get from melatonin, which may explain why so many of us suffer aging-related sleep and health problems. In fact, melatonin production peaks around age 5 and starts a downhill slide from there.”
Oz goes on to say that we can lose as much as 80% of those levels as we get older, which can account for our inability to get a good night’s sleep.
Melatonin Rich Foods
There are melatonin supplements that you can take, but there are also foods that contain melatonin or tryptophan, which can help you sleep better.
Dr. Sears states, “Tryptophan is a precursor of the sleep-inducing substances serotonin and melatonin … Making more tryptophan available, either by eating foods that contain this substance or by seeing to it that more tryptophan gets to the brain, will help to make you sleepy.”
According to Dr. Sears, the best things to eat at bedtime are complex carbohydrates with a small amount of protein and some calcium.
- Also on Prime Parents Club: Study Reports Sleep Improves with Age, Except for Ages 40 to 59
Foods That Help You Sleep
1. Cherries.
Fresh, dried or even cherry juice can help you sleep because it contains natural levels of melatonin.
2. Oatmeal with Milk.
Oatmeal contains melatonin, while milk contains tryptophan. If you combine the two right before bedtime, you may just find yourself resting better.
3. Bananas.
Bananas also contain tryptophan and are also natural muscle relaxants, helping to get you into that relaxed state for a good night’s sleep.
4. Dairy
Remember when your grandmother used to give you warm milk to help you sleep? Well, there may be something to it. Dairy, including milk, cheese, yogurt, and even ice cream, contain tryptophan, releasing serotonin for sleep.
Image: seemann
Category: Over 40
About the Author (Author Profile)
Jacqueline Wilson is a prime parent, wife, published author and freelance writer. She writes here, on Prime Parents’ Club, and on her observational parenting humor blog, WritRams.com: Writer Ramblings on Parenting Imperfectly. Follow her on Twitter as @WritRams and on her Facebook page. She recently wrote an e-Book on the REAL truth about how blogs make money. She recently started Project Purse Club, a support and networking group dedicated to changing the way women treat each other in business and blogging.Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
Jacqueline, I agree with you on consuming melatonin rich foods to sleep better. Aside from eating them, you should also be able to sleep about three hours before midnight because the utilization of melatonin is best when the body is already rested before the increase in the blood levels of melatonin at midnight.