Today I wanted to share a brilliant guest post and insightful infographic from NapSeason. As regular readers know, sleep is something I’m passionate about, partly due to my lack of it! Struggling with poor sleep and insomnia can be exhausting, so here are some ideas on nutrients to help you get a good night’s sleep.
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9 Powerful Nutrients That Help You Get A Good Night
Sleeping one of the best way to heal, recover and relax the human body. Unfortunately, a lot of people nowadays seem to be struggling with getting enough sleep. This results in not waking up rested and feeling tired for the rest of the day.
The matter should be addressed from two fronts, to tremendously increase your sleep quality. First you should remove the eating habits that obstruct your sleeping patterns. And secondly you need to introduce habits and foods into your life that enhance your sleep.
Let’s talk about the first: What are bad eating habits for your sleep. In general, you should avoid the following:
- Food that takes a long time to digest
- Foods that are rich in sugar
- Junk food in general
- The sweetener aspartame. Not only does this has a stimulating effect, it is also known to reduce the levels of serotonin and melatonin (these two regulate your sleep).
If you are interested which nutrients and food you should take to enhance you sleep, check out the infographic below.
Quick tip : For one week write down what you eat and drink, and check if there are any links between certain foods and your sleeping patterns.
[ This is a sponsored guest post from NapSeason and as such the ideas and opinions expressed are of the writer. ]
38 comments
I love the infographic! such useful tips. it’s quite difficult to sleep in the UK at the moment because of this heatwave!
The heat is certainly hampering sleep efforts for a lot of people. Hopefully it’s a little cooler this weekend and the coming week, too. I’m glad you loved the infographic! Thanks for the comment and I hope you have a good weekend.xx
I constantly struggle with sleep, so I very much appreciate this post. Thank you.
I’m sorry you struggle with sleep too; it’s awful to lack sleep, so I do empathise. I’m glad you liked the post, and I hope that some dietary changes and boosting a few nutrients can help a little with getting into a better sleep routine 🙂
Thanks for giving us the opportunity to be featured here on invisiblyme the infographic looks great. ????
I will be open to answering questions or comments regarding this post so feel free if anything is unclear
You’re welcome – I’m glad you shared it with InvisiblyMe, it’s been my pleasure to publish it. There was a reader, Alyssa, who asked about magnesium in the comments and the best time to take it. I suggested likely in the evening; would I be right in thinking magnesium-rich foods are best closer towards bedtime?
I like to take magnesium in the evening cause I noticed that it has a relaxing effect on me ( could be a placebo). But yeah if you want to sleep better I can recommend consuming some magnesium-rich foods for dinner. Let us know how this works out for you.
That’s great – Hopefully a few people here can benefit from giving this a try!
Awesome information! I knew tryptophan was in turkey, but shrimp and lobster? My favorites. Living the Inner City Life, I’m not looking for elk meat. lol
I had no idea about the shrimp & lobster either – you learn something new every day! Glad you liked the infographic – Hope you get some good sleep this weekend 🙂
Thanks for this great information. I appreciate the graphics, too.
I’m glad I could share it with you; I loved the infographic too, very easy to digest, so to speak!
Thanks for the comment, Melissa, I hope you have a good weekend.x
love this! would like to add another — listen to our bodies
That’s a good point to add, thank you. I agree that it’s so important to listen to our bodies, to ‘go with the flow’ sometimes for what we need rather than what we think we ‘should’ be doing. Glad you liked the guest post =]
I loved this post! You have provided some very incredible and valuable information! I have been struggling with sleep for a while now and desperately need to get more sleep because we all know the lack of sleep and chronic illness does not get a long! I actually started taking magnesium because I read how helpful it can be, but now I am not sure if I should be taking this in the morning or evening. Do you by chance have any suggestions? I always value your advice!!!
I struggle a lot with sleep so I empathise. And you’re right, lack of sleep and chronic illness do not make good friends! The author of the post may have a better suggestion here, but I would probably say evening for magnesium, if indeed it would make a difference between AM/PM. It works well alongside calcium too for absorption. The other thing you could consider is Epson salt, added to a bath at night is another good way to get magnesium =]
Thanks for the great comment, and I hope you get some decent, much-needed sleep this weekend xx
This is so useful! I sometime struggle with sleep, and especially in this heat! I knew about magnesium but none of the other. xxx
I think a lot of people struggle that bit more in the heat. My body doesn’t care, it’s so stubborn with not wanting to sleep! I think adapting and boosting your diet to try to help is a great way to try to ease yourself into a better sleep routine, and magnesium has a range of benefits so it’s definitely one worth looking at. Glad you liked the guest post! I hope you & Dizzy have a good weekend =]
xx
Great advice on ways to sleep better with a proper diet. I wanted to get back into drinking more tea and this post helped me to remember the benefits. The picture is also very helpful. Thank-you for sharing this!
I’m so pleased you liked the guest post; NapSeason are great for all things sleep, so I’m glad I could share their advice & infographic. Take care Christy and enjoy your tea! 🙂
I didn’t know that about aspartame. I don’t like it much anyways but didn’t realize it had a caffeine-like stimulant effect
I know it gets a pretty bad rep but to know it can affect some people in terms of sleep is an interesting one. Do you eat/drink many products with aspartame in? xx
I have always been told to have a banana and glass of milk half an hour before sleep. But this is very interesting! I never knew certain foods could help with mental health too!
I learnt a lot.
Erin | http://kittyjadeblog.com x
I think both nanas and milk are common staples for the before-bed routine, and they have other great benefits too. It’s good to know there are other foods to also support your body and help it wind down for sleep. Glad you found this post informative! 🙂
Take care and have a lovely weekend, Erin xx
this was such an informative post, i liked it a lot.. cannot sleep at all these days so i clicked
so fast when i saw this <3
Sareena | http://www.theallofitblog.wordpress.com
Aw, I do empathise, lack of sleep is awful. Have you ever looked at adapting your diet a little to include these sorts of foods? I hope that if you try to include more of these that it can help, because we need all the help we can get I think when struggling to get enough zzzz’s. xx
I didn’t know this, but now I do. Thanks for such an informative post.
Have a fabulous day and weekend. ♥
I’m glad it taught you something new! Thank you for the comment – I hope you have a lovely weekend too xx
What a great infographic! I don’t sleep well, as I usually have to get up multiple times in the night due to my prostate problems. The recent heatwave hasn’t helped either. I shall definitely be trying out some of these suggestions!
I’m sorry you’re struggling with sleep too, Nick. Do you manage to get back to sleep after getting up in the night, or is that difficult to do as well? I hope that including some more of these sleep-friendly foods can help even if just a little, try to convince your body to shut off ready for sleep a little more easily. Thanks for the comment and I hope you have a good weekend ahead (plus it should be a little cooler, which may help!) 🙂
Thanks, Caz. It varies, to be honest. I can usually get back to sleep in the first part of the night, but in the early hours of the morning I can struggle. This morning I woke up at 4.30 and couldn’t go back to sleep. So I got up, made myself a cup of tea and a slice of toast, and watched the news channel for a bit. Then I went back to bed and got another hour or two of fitful sleep. It’s not ideal, but I am at least used to it now! As you say, the cooler weather over the next few days should help somewhat. I hope your own health issues are under control.
It’s weird because I tend to experience the same, though it could be 2am when I wake up after getting to sleep at 12am (despite going at 10…) or 4.30am when I’m up. I’ve found that doing other things for a while, be productive, having breakfast, watching something or reading, can help me get an extra hour or two in the morning. I think eventually, after you’ve tried various things, you have to figure out something that works for you, ideal or not. I hope the weekend treats you well, Nick =]
Great post! I often have difficulty sleeping, so this is very useful.
Glad I could share it – I hope even little changes with adding more of these foods can help a tad because difficulty sleeping can be truly awful. Here’s to better sleep for both of us soon! 🙂
Thank you for all the great information. Hope you are much better now <3
I hope the information can help a little for those wanting to improve their sleep – thank you for the kind comment 🙂
Loved the post and the info-graphic!❤
Glad you liked it, I’m happy I could share it! Have a great weekend 🙂