Yogurt, Chocolate, and Other Unexpected Sleep Helpers
'25.08.2022'
Source: Life.ru
German experts have found that food can help sleep, but not everything can be made a “sleepy dish”.
Yogurt and chocolate
German scientists have found that low-fat yogurt and chocolate will help overcome insomnia, says Life.ru. In their effects, they resemble warm milk and honey from grandmother, but the properties of these two products are in the other.
The secret is that milk and dairy products contain tryptophan and an amino acid. The first increases the level of serotonin, which affects not only mood, but also sleep, and also increases the content of melatonin in the body, which can help you fall asleep. The sugar found in honey and chocolate nourishes the muscles and improves the transport of tryptophan to the brain. In addition to milk, it is also found in meat, eggs, beans, soybeans, peas, and nuts.
The effect of yoghurt and chocolate lasts for 15 minutes after ingestion, which should be enough to fall asleep, experts say.
Blame the genes
Researchers from the University of California at San Diego have concluded that insomnia is caused by genes, or rather, changes in some chromosomes. To determine this, scientists collected more than 33 DNA samples from the US military and divided them into groups depending on European, African, and Hispanic origins.
The results of the examination showed that insomnia directly depends on depression and diabetes, as a result of which changes occur in the chromosomes.
“The genetic correlation between insomnia and mental disorders like depression, as well as diseases like type XNUMX diabetes, suggests a common genetic predisposition to these diseases that often occur together,” says one of the scientists Murray Stein.
In particular, we are talking about changes in the seventh pair of chromosomes, which are close to the gene AUTS2, associated with the use of alcohol.
Sleep in reserve
Head of the Department of Sleep Medicine of the First MGMU them. Sechenov Mikhail Poluektov notes that a person can get enough sleep without harm to health. From this we can conclude that a long sleep can also be useful and you can close your eyes to the insomnia that attacked you.
“Such studies have been conducted that have shown that if people are given the opportunity to stock up on sleep, sleep more, for example, during the week by two hours, and then drastically reduce their sleep time, for example, to three hours, then they will still show good performance” , said the expert.
Poluektov clarified that the effect of such a “reserve sleep” lasts no more than two weeks, and the advantage is that without harm to health, you can make up for the lack of sleep after lack of sleep, which occurs as a result of insomnia during the working week.
Of course, there are downsides. In particular, those who sleep for less than seven hours risk becoming ill with arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus and very badly worsen their immunity. When asked how much sleep he needed, the manager stressed: no less than seven and no more than nine hours.
Nature is the best friend of sleep
Australian physiologist Rick Hay, researching insomnia, called foods that help improve sleep. The best, in his opinion, are green and white teas. According to the scientist, they include L-theanine, which is the best way to calm the nervous system.
In second place, the physiologist put chamomile, which should be brewed before bedtime. It can reduce anxiety or fear. No less fortunate for people who suffer from insomnia, but love cinnamon, because it is able to resolve the fluctuations of sugar in human blood.
Ginger, liquorice, passion fruit, lemon or lime, and baobab fruits are also included in the list of beneficial sleep aids.
Need a goal
Scientists from Feinberg Medical School in Illinois found out that in order to have a healthy and sound sleep, people need to know why they get out of bed in the morning. They assure that if a person has a purpose in life, then there will be no problems with sleep itself.
This conclusion, of course, the researchers did not come without experiment. 823 people aged 60 to 100 took part in it. They answered the question about the meaning of their life and the quality of sleep. Feeling that their life makes sense, by 63 percent less often than others suffered from sleep problems.
According to Jason Ong, one of the authors of the research, helping people find a purpose in life can be an effective strategy for improving the quality of sleep without medicines.
No “Instagram” before bed!
Scientists from Belgium have shown that using a smartphone before bedtime has a very negative effect on the quality of sleep. Most of the 844 adults in the country who participated in the experiment complained of poor sleep and morning tiredness. The results were confirmed by special tests.
Belgian researchers note that this may be due to the fact that the bright light of the smartphone screen slows down the production of melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep.
It's very hard to force yourself to give up. Statistics say that 71 percent of Americans put their phone next to them when they go to bed. However, there are no hopeless situations. For example, The Huffington Post editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington stopped complaining about lack of sleep after she started reading books before bed rather than chatting with friends.
But still, if insomnia continues to attack you, and in the morning you need to go to work, in another collection of Life you can learn about 10 unusual ways to stay awake. Among them are “matches in the eyes” and “needles in the collar”.
