Food That Help You Fall Asleep Faster
(Men’s Health) What you consume in the hours before slumber may usher you more quickly into dreamland. Let this foods put you to bed:
Cheddar Cheese
Every Turkey Day, we hear about tryptophan. This amino acid helps your body make melatonin, causing drowsiness, says W. Christopher Winter, M.D. author of The Sleep Solution. Cheddar can have up to 60 percent more tryptophan than turkey. Snack on four dice-size pieces of cheddar cheese in the evening.
Black Walnuts
Walnuts pack a one-two punch of tryptophan and melatonin, Dr. Winter says. He recommends less-common black walnuts over English walnut because they contain more tryptophan. Find them in the baking aisle. Have a handful with your cheese or mix them into an evening bowl of oatmeal.
Tart Cherry Juice
This is your new nightcap. People who drank an ounce each of Montmorency cherry juice in the morning and before bed for seven days averaged 40 minutes more sleep a night, a study in the European Journal of Nutrition found. Yep, it’s the melatonin. Try Eden Foods tart cherry juice, which is 100 percent Montmorency cherries.
Collard Greens
Collards have nearly triple the calcium of kale per cooked cup. “Calcium helps tryptophan convert to melatonin,” Dr. Winter says. Saute collard greens with garlic as a side, or chop them and add them to soups and pasta sauces while they’re cooking. The sleep benefit is the same no matter what time of day you eat them. Just eat them.
Jasmine Rice
In an American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study, men who ate about 21 ounces of cooked jasmine rice with 7 ounces of vegetables four hours before bed fell asleep twice as fast as those who paired the vegetables with plain long-grain rice. Jasmine rice’s subtle fragrance is ideal for Indian curry. Or use it in lettuce wraps.