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Dietician Sheela Seharawat

How to uniform your sleeping routine with help of food and healthy habits?

It is of paramount importance to treat our sleeping habits with greater attention and importance as a good night’s sleep helps in developing a healthy heart, reduces stress, builds immunity and enhances our memory and the ability to focus. It is very necessary to understand that a good sleep is very much under our control than we might think.
Studies conducted on the subject has shown that a variety of practices and habitual changes, also being referred to a ‘sleep hygiene’ can help maximize the hours we spend sleeping, and even for those whose sleep is affected by insomnia, jet lag, or shift work.

Foods that can help you to uniform your sleep routine
It’s your choice – whether you just want to doze off or wake up fresh and energetic, checkout the following foods that can help you have a better sleep:

Foods rich in dietary fibres: it has been said about fibre that – the more you eat, the better you sleep. It prevents blood sugar surges that lowers melatonin and is also associated with more of restorative slow-wave sleep.
Get your dose of fibre from beans, bran cereals, artichokes and quinoa.

Yoghurt: dairy products like yoghurt and milk are dense in calcium and it is a known that calcium deficiency makes it difficult to sleep.

Soy foods: such as tofu, miso and edamame are made of soy and are rich sources of isoflavounes. It helps in increasing the production of serotonin, a chemical in the brain that influences the body's sleep-wake cycle.

Honey: the presence of natural sugar in honey helps raisin insulin levels, thereby allowing tryptophan to enter the brain more conveniently. Just a spoonful before bed time with a cup of tea can help you with a good night’s sleep.

Walnuts: a good source of tryptophan, an amino acid known to enhance sleep quality and also helps make serotonin and melatonin, the “body clock” hormone that sets up your sleep-wake cycles. Walnuts contain its own source of melatonin, which helps you fall asleep faster and better.

Steps to improve your “sleep hygiene”
Just as we in routine brush our teeth and take care of our skin, it’s important to adopt some behaviours that can promote healthy sleep. The idea here is to avoid certain habits that interfere with a good night’s sleep and to follow the ones that promotes it.

• Keep a regular sleep schedule: practice going to bed and waking up at the same time every day and even on weekends. You might have a lot of excuses daily, but follow it and see the difference it makes to your sleep quality.
• Prepare your bedroom before sleep: ensure that is bedroom is cool and devoid of any noise or interference from any electronic devises. Darken the room by getting shades or masks.
• Reduce your caffeine intake: stop consuming caffeinated beverages and drinks all through the day. Instead have healthier non-caffeinated drink or food when you get coffee craves.
• Lighten up on evening meals: finish your dinner several hours before bedtime and avoid foods that can cause indigestion. If you fell hungry at night, snack on foods won't disturb your sleep, like dairy foods and carbohydrates.
• Balance your fluid intake: before going to bed fluid yourself enough not to get up in the middle of the night thirsty. It should not be so much and closure to going to bed that instead you wake up for a trip to the loo.