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These Foods Might Be The Key to Sound Sleep

foods for sleepHow many hours do you spend in bed, wriggling and writhing with flowing thoughts? It’s been 2 hours now, your eyes are closed but that peaceful, quality sleep somehow seems to evade you every time. How many sheep do you count before you realize there is something horribly wrong here? We’ve all suffered from sleepless nights at some point. While there are many factors at play here, it is nothing that a healthy lifestyle, a hygiene routine and most importantly, food can’t fix. Let’s explore some foods for sleep.

Top Foods Which Can Help You Sleep

  1. Milk, in general, contains ingredients that are known to help people sleep. For instance, milk contains tryptophan – an amino acid that can help the human body produce serotonin – a brain chemical which can induce deeper and more restful sleep by creating melatonin. If you have sleep issues, some warm milk with a little bit of jaggery and turmeric 15-30 minutes before going to bed should do the trick 
  2. Almonds contain high doses of melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate the sleeping and waking cycle. Around 5-6 whole almonds contain a good amount of magnesium and of calcium – two minerals that help promote muscle relaxation and sleep especially in people who lose sound sleep due to muscle tetany or leg pain. These can be consumed in the evening or even before bedtime. It’s great for people who sleep late as they can munch on these for a good night’s rest. 
  3. Chamomile Tea: For years, chamomile tea has been used as a natural remedy to reduce inflammation, anxiety and treat insomnia as well. In fact, chamomile is commonly regarded as a mild tranquilizer or sleep inducer. Chamomile tea contains an antioxidant called apigenin, which may help initiate sleep. You can brew 1 tea bag/ fresh chamomile tea with hot water and drink it before bed or late evening. 
  4. Walnuts contain a few compounds that promote and regulate sleep, including melatonin and serotonin. Each serving of walnuts also contains other nutrients that can help induce sleep such as magnesium. You can munch them along with almonds for combined benefits late in the evening for snacks.  

Avoid drinking tea or coffee before bed. Caffeinated beverages disrupt sleep and even create problems such as acidity and gas. We hope the above foods help you get that sound sleep you’ve desired for such a long time. 

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. For more on sleep, check out Healthy Reads. To get guidance on how to improve sleep and sleep quality, ask a GOQii Coach by subscribing for personalized coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr 

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Tips to Help You Sleep Better!

sleep better

Sleep! You might have already so many articles about this especially when you’ve not been getting quality sleep. Before we go deeper into how you can sleep better, let us first understand how we define sleep! As per the world’s sleep research, William Dement (Author of promise of sleep) defines sleep as the ‘Moment when the brain starts producing theta waves’.  

Too technical! What exactly are theta waves? I don’t want to get too technical, so I will talk about medical jargon in the most simplest way possible.

The Brain Produces ‘Waves’ All The Time!

While you are awake (concentrating), your brain produces beta waves. When you are daydreaming, relaxing or lying around, your brain produces alpha waves. While your body is in the transition from relaxing to sleeping, that’s when your brain starts producing theta waves. When your body is in deep sleep, your body produces delta waves. sleep better

During this period, your body starts producing growth hormones. I always tell this to my patients. Your body undergoes repairs when you enter deep sleep which is very crucial for overall well being.

When I was learning more about sleep, the one question that often came to mind was, “How and when do we get dreams?”

After theta waves, there is one interesting thing which happens. It is called as REM Sleep or Rapid Eye Movement Sleep. This is when your eyes are moving with closed eyelids. You might be dreaming but you will not remember your dreams completely the next day.

According to me, these are just basic things about sleep which everyone should be aware of (and with good reason).

Do you ever get a feeling of waking up tired after sleeping for almost 9 hours?

When I ask this question to my patients, they say, “I am tired all the time!”

This is called as Sleep Deprivation.

How Do You Know That You Are Sleep Deprived?

I read a lot! One of the books that I read on sleep is the Promise of Sleep. The book spoke about a very cool way of figuring out if we are sleep deprived or not. Check out the steps below:

  • Go to bed with a spoon in your hand
  • Your hand should be in a position where the spoon is over the floor and not over the bed
  • Note the time when you plan to sleep
  • As soon as you fall asleep, your hand muscles will relax. Once this happens, the spoon will fall on the floor and the noise will wake you up.
  • Note the time when you wake up. That’s your own sleep latency.

There are many other sleep tests which are done as well to figure sleep deprivation out.

Now that we understand what happens when we sleep,

Follow These Tips to Sleep Better

As always, we go back to our basics: Sleep Hygiene

  • Restrict Tea/Coffee/Green Tea and other caffeinated drinks. Caffeine circulates in the system for at least 7.5 hours. Taking caffeinated drinks close to bedtime can mess your sleep schedule.
  • Make sure you create a sunset kind of environment post sunset with yellow dim lights so your body realises that it’s the time for you to relax, rest and sleep. Same thing goes for the gadgets! Blue light from your devices block the sleep hormone production. If you have long screen hours, try using blue blocking glasses post sunset.
  • Make sure that your room temperature is around 19-20. Usually, our body temperature tends to fall when we sleep. This will help you in maintaining an ideal body temperature when you wake up.
  • Try to avoid exercising, watching exciting/horror movies which will keep your mind active for a long period of time.

Apart from the basics,

Try the Sleep Restriction State Method

  • If you think you sleep 4 hours per night, then sleep for 4 hours only
  • Go to bed at 1 AM and set your alarm clock for 6AM. You’re not allowed to go to bed earlier than 1AM, or wake up later than 6AM.
  • You will be tired the following day. Extremely tired! That’s a good thing. You will be wondering, what is good in being tired but this will drive you to sleep earlier the next day
  • The next day, you add ½ hour to the sleep time. You go to bed at 12:30AM instead of 1 AM and wake up at 6AM.
  • Keep increasing your sleep window by ½ hour per day till you feel the sleep debt is paid off.

Why are we doing this? It’s because during this time of the sleep window, you won’t be allowed to use stimulants to keep yourself up. No coffee or any kind of caffeinated beverages. We are doing this so that your body starts building up the fatigue, drowsiness and eventually you will end up sleeping. This will help in recovering your sleep debt.

Sometimes, stiff neck muscles will decrease the blood supply to the brain, which results into fragmented sleep. Getting a physio evaluation for the same will also help in improving sleep quality.

We hope these tips help you sleep better! Do type your thoughts and queries in the comments below!

To read more on sleep, check out Healthy Reads. To get these tips directly from your GOQii Coach, subscribe for personalized coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

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5 Eating Habits To Avoid Before You Sleep

eating habits

With lockdowns, work from home and everything in between, our sleep schedule since the past 1 year has certainly changed. Some of you might have even faced disturbed sleep or worse – insomnia. And the lack of sleep contributes to issues such as indigestion, acidity and even mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. Apart from practices like meditation, mindfulness, exercise and deep breathing techniques, even what you eat can impact your sleep. So if you’re aiming for a good night’s rest but are unable to achieve it, here are some eating habits you should avoid for a good night’s rest! 

Avoid These 5 Eating Habits Before You Sleep 

  1. Junk Food: like pizza, burgers have refined flours and simple sugars which take longer to digest, disturbing your digestive system at night causing disrupted sleep and because of their high sodium count, they can leave you feeling bloated, causing sleep-stealing discomfort. Also, you might feel thirstier after consuming junk food. Foods high in calories are digested slowly and may cause stomach upset, cramping, bloating or heartburn if eaten before bed.
  2. Sugars: Sugary food gives you an extra dose of unwanted energy, which is not needed at night. When you eat a lot of sugar before bed, your blood sugar climbs high and then falls rapidly as your body releases hormones to bring the levels under control. This swing in hormones and blood sugar levels impairs sleep. The other reason to avoid starchy or sugary food is it gives you immense energy in a very short period making the body highly active.
  3. Spicy food: items like chillies before bedtime can cause indigestion which makes it difficult to sleep well. It is speculated that this may be due to capsaicin, an active ingredient in chili peppers, affecting sleep via changes in body temperature. Eating spicy food too close to bed causes acidity and worsen symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Some studies have claimed that spicy food can trigger brain waves that cause nightmares and you end up tossing and turning all night. So it might not be a good idea to gorge on to those peri-peri fries for dinner.
  4. Caffeine: is a stimulant and increases your heart rate and alertness – the opposite effect you want when you’re trying to sleep. The role of caffeine (found in coffee, tea, chocolate, cocoa) is to make a drowsy soul active and attentive. Caffeine delays and shortens the sleeping duration of individuals. Dark chocolate has polyphenol, but it’s also a surprising source of caffeine. 20gm dark chocolate has about a quarter of the caffeine as a cup of coffee, and about half the caffeine as a cup of green or black tea. It takes 6-10 hours to eliminate caffeine, which means enjoy a dark chocolate treat at around 4 pm if you plan to sleep at 10 pm. 
  5. Alcohol: Suppresses melatonin – the hormone that regulates your internal clock and thus disrupts the circadian rhythm of the body negatively, the reason you wake up in the middle of your sleep. Alcohol also makes you dehydrated and often thirsty in the middle of the night with frequent washroom trips. It interferes with the body’s other sleep-wake regulator – its internal sleep drive. Alcohol increases levels of adenosine, a chemical that regulates sleep by rising naturally in the body. It’s adenosine-boosting effects make you sleep at times other than your natural timings, thus disturbing your natural sleep-wake cycle. 

We hope this article on 5 eating habits to avoid before you sleep helps you catch up on your much needed hours of rest! Let us know your thoughts in the comments below! 

For more articles on sleep, eating habits before bed and tips to sleep well, check out Healthy Reads. You can also get these healthy tips and suggestions directly from your GOQii Coach by subscribing for personalized coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

Sleep Well and #BeTheForce 

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Improve Sleep and Sleep Quality with these Lifestyle Changes

Improve sleep and sleep qualityWhile sleep requirements vary slightly from person to person, most healthy adults need between 7-9 hours of sleep per night to function at best. It has been estimated that more than half of the working population in India have experienced some or the other form of sleep deprivation or alteration during their lifetime.

Globally, the prevalence of insomnia ranges from 10-15%.

Sleep deprivation reduces your cognitive processes like thinking, learning, attention, concentration, etc. Chronic sleep deprivation increases the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, irregular heartbeat, etc. Over time, lack of sleep can contribute to symptoms of depression and kills your sex drive. And yes, lack of optimum sleep can make you gain weight.

How to Improve Sleep and Sleep Quality

1. Stay away from gadgets

Using electronic devices before bedtime can be physiologically and psychologically stimulating in ways that can adversely affect your sleep. The more electronic devices a person uses in the evening, the harder it is to fall asleep or stay asleep. Using TV, tablets, smartphones, laptops or other electronic devices before bed delays your body’s internal clock, suppresses the release of sleep-inducing hormones & makes it difficult to fall asleep. Along, with increase in alertness at the time you should sleep, it, in turn, delays the onset of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep and compromises energy levels the next morning. Over time, these effects can add up to a significant chronic deficiency in sleep.

2. Take a Lukewarm Bath Before Bed

Taking a bath or shower before bedtime is a well-known sleep remedy. This is because a warm bath can help us relax. Our body temperature tends to drop after a warm bath, which can induce better sleep. Research suggests that the best time for taking a shower is 1-2 hours before going to bed. The duration of the bath does not need to be longer than 10 min. This will improve blood circulation and stimulate “temperature circadian rhythm” helping you fall asleep, improving sleep and sleep quality.

3. Perform Deep Breathing Before Sleep

Breathing strongly influences physiology and thought processes including moods. By simply focusing your attention on your breathing and without doing anything to change it, you can move in the direction of relaxation. The 4-7-8 breathing exercise also called “the relaxing breath” promotes better sleep. Here are the steps:

  1. Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound.
  2. Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a mental count of four.
  3. Hold your breath for a count of seven.
  4. Exhale completely through your mouth making a whoosh sound to a count of eight.
  5. This is one breath. Repeat 20 times.

4. Sleep Inducing Foods

There are certain foods which can help induce better sleep.

  • A glass of warm milk is a perfect beverage to induce sound sleep. Milk contains tryptophan, an amino acid that converts into serotonin. Serotonin is known to have soothing effects in the brain and helps you sleep well. Adding a pinch of nutmeg, cardamom and some crushed almonds will improve taste and sleep.
  • Chamomile tea: Refreshing, revitalizing and fragrant chamomile tea has soothing effects on nerves and helps induce sleep.
  • Almonds could help you support sound sleep. Almonds also contain tryptophan and magnesium which are helpful in keeping your heart rhythm steady.
  • Avoid tea, coffee, alcohol and other stimulating foods after dusk.

5. Eat Your Dinner Early

When you eat late, you are unable to sleep because of improper digestion. An early dinner is good for digestion, helps in reaching your satiety value earlier and the body is able to utilize the food better and induce sleep. Eating late at night leaves the body on a high alert state which interferes with the circadian rhythm. Minimum 2-3 hours of gap between Dinner and sleep is good.

We hope these tips help you improve sleep and sleep quality! You can also try meditation and ASMR sessions on GOQii Play for better sleep. Do leave your thoughts in the comments below.

To get these tips directly from your GOQii Coach, you can sign up for personalized coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr 

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