We take sleep for granted. It feels that sleep plays an ordinary role in our lives and we don’t pay much attention to it, till we experience some problems with it – and more problems without it!
About half the adults have experienced insomnia on occasions and one on every ten people is battling with insomnia regularly.
Some interesting facts about sleep:
- The record for the longest period without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes.The record holder reported hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech and memory and concentration lapses.
- Sleepy is just like drunk!
If you lose two hours of sleep, you can impair your performance equal to a .05 blood-alcohol level
- The body processes sugar while in deep sleep, if you don't sleep well sugar levels in your body will rise dramatically.
- Anything less than five minutes to fall asleep at night means you’re sleep deprived. The ideal is between 10 and 15 minutes, meaning you’re still tired enough to sleep deeply, but not so exhausted you feel sleepy by day.
Using Food to Sleep Better (What to eat and what not to)
- A glass of warm milk at bed time sure helps you sleep better as it contains an amino acid – tryptophan - which is sleep inducing. Besides dairy other sources of tryptophan are poultry, banana, soya, oats, other whole grains, beans, chickpea, rice and honey.
- Eating carbohydrates with tryptophan containing foods make this calming amino acid more available to the brain.
- An all carbohydrate snack especially rich in sugars will not offer the benefits of tryptophan; in fact the sugar spikes will cause release in stress hormones and restlessness. A meal or a snack (small portion size) half an hour to an hour before bed time containing complex carbohydrates and a small amount of food stuff with the tryptophan is an ideal sleep inducer - examples… banana milk shake, oats porridge sweetened with honey, cereal and milk,
- If the meal is rich in calcium in addition to complex carbohydrates and trypophan there is an additional benefit as tryptophan is converted into the sleep hormone melatonin in the presence of calcium. So the best food to induce sleep is dairy. These should be ideally consumed an hour before going to bed.
- Avoid spices and fats as they cause a lot of gastric acid secretion causing heart burn and discomfort.
- Proteins take longer to digest and interfere with sleep. Proteins also contain an amino acid tyrosine which perks up the brain. Have a low or medium protein diet at night with some amount of carbohydrates. Also eating the last meal one to two hours before going to bed is very effective.
- We all know that coffee contains caffeine which is a stimulant that robs you of sleep. Be aware of hidden caffeine sources like colas, tea and chocolates. Anti-cold medicines, pain relievers and diuretics (medicines that increase the urine output) also have caffeine. Check with your doctor if your medicines are making you sleepless.
- The effect of caffeine can last from 6 to 8 hours. So if you have problems sleeping, avoid caffeine after noon.
For most, a good night’s sleep is a day well begun next day and of course there are the blessed minority - people in love who don’t want to go to sleep because reality is better than their dreams!!!!!!
