er screens and hand-held devices can suppress natural melatonin production, resulting in difficulty falling asleep. • Stimulants: Cigarettes, caffeine, and other stimulants in the evening can interfere with sleep by keeping your mind overactive. Foods with dark chocolate have caffeine and should be avoided late in the day. • Alcohol: While it can make you drowsy and more likely to fall asleep faster, it often disrupts sleep and can deter you from entering the deeper, much needed phases of the sleep cycles. • Heavy meals at dinner: Foods high in fat have been linked to poor, fragmented sleep. Fat triggers the digestive processes and causes a buildup of stomach acids, which while lying down can creep into the esophagus causing discomfort. Heavy meals before bedtime cause the body to spend more time working on digestion rather than focusing on sleeping. It is best to keep your heaviest meal for lunchtime. • Spicy foods: While spicy foods are tasty and have health benefits, they are notorious for causing heartburn, indigestion, and acid reflux. Heartburn can be made worse while lying down because it allows the acids to creep up into the esophagus and burn the sensitive lining. • Diuretic foods: Foods containing water, such as watermelon and celery, are natural diuretics which help push water through your system. Eating these types of foods and drinking anything too close to bedtime can cause you to lose sleep from middle of the night bathroom trips.
Yogic practice for better sleep: •Y oga and yogic breathing: Yoga is a gentle and restorative way to wind down your day. A national survey found that over 55% of people who did yoga found that it helped them get better sleep. Over 85% said yoga helped reduce stress. Breath in yoga is equally important as the physical pose. The gentle and calming yoga breath technique called Ujjayi Breath is also known as Ocean Breath. You start by inhaling deeply through the nose. With your mouth closed, exhale through your nose, while constricting the back of your throat, as if you are saying “ha,” but keep your mouth closed. This exhalation should sound like the waves of the ocean. Use this slow and steady breath to soothe yourself in each of these poses. Here are some restorative poses that are ideal for preparing your body for sleep. - Standing forward bend - Cat stretch - Cow Stretch - Child pose - Butterfly pose - Legs-up-the-wall pose Proper nutrition: elatonin helps control your daily sleepM wake cycles. There are a few excellent sources of naturally occurring melatonin in foods: •F ruits and vegetables (tart cherries, corn, asparagus, tomatoes, pomegranate, olives, grapes, broccoli, and cucumber) •G rains (rice, barley, and rolled oats)
• Nuts and Seeds (walnuts, peanuts, sunflower seeds, mustard seeds, and flaxseed) Tryptophan is an amino acid that when ingested gets turned into the neurotransmitter serotonin and then converted into the hormone melatonin. Here are some of the best foods loaded with tryptophan: • Dairy products (milk, low-fat yogurt, and cheese) • Poultry (turkey and chicken) • Seafood (shrimp, salmon, halibut, tuna, sardines, and cod) • Nuts and seeds (flax, sesame, pumpkin, sunflower, cashews, peanuts, almonds, and walnuts) • Legumes (kidney beans, lima beans, black beans split peas, and chickpeas) • Fruits (apples, bananas, peaches, and avocado) • Vegetables (spinach, broccoli, turnip greens, asparagus, onions, and seaweed) • Grains (wheat, rice, barley, corn, and oats) • Magnesium is a natural relaxant and is referred to as the “sleep mineral”. Excellent sources of magnesium are: • Leafy greens (baby spinach, kale, and collard greens) • Nuts and seeds (almonds, sunflower seeds, brazil nuts, cashews, pine nuts, flaxseed, and pecans) • Wheat germ • Fish (salmon, halibut, tuna, and mackerel) • Soybeans • Banana • Avocados • Low-fat yogurt Calcium is another mineral that helps the brain make melatonin. Sources of calcium include: • Leafy greens • Low-fat milk, cheeses, and yogurt • Sardines • Soybeans • Green snap peas • Okra
March 2020 | thesofiamagazine.com
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