February 16, 2025

How to improve the quantity and quality of your sleep with diet.

The importance of sleep

Sleep plays a vital role in maintaining good health and well-being. Individual sleep practices and habits are now often referred to as “sleep hygiene”. Good sleep hygiene throughout your life is a key part of both mental and physical health, as well as a factor in reducing the risk of serious diseases. During sleep, your body works to support healthy brain, organ, tissue and cell repairs and functions. The way you feel when you are awake depends largely on what happens when you sleep. Some of the things affected by your sleep include:

Cardiovascular and circulatory system.

When you first fall asleep, your heart rate and blood pressure go down. Because your parasympathetic system takes over, part of the autonomic nervous system that controls bodily functions when you are at rest. The result is that your heart does not work as hard as when you are awake.

Metabolism

Circadian clocks in various organs and tissues, including your liver, fat and muscle determine the way your body handles fat. For example, by making sure your liver is prepared to help digest fats at appropriate times. Thus, sleep has a direct effect on how various parts of your diet are handled by your metabolism, and on the results of those metabolic processes in affecting your weight, energy and comfort levels.

Respiratory system.

When you sleep, you breathe less often and not as deep. Normally, this type of relaxed breathing enhances your overall state of restfulness, and sleep can provide a boost to your respiratory system. However, those with respiratory issues like asthma or COPD, can experience an increase in those symptoms during sleep.

Immune system.

Numerous studies and tests have confirmed that sleep boots your immune system. During sleep, the body produces proteins called cytokines, which target infection and inflammation, creating a positive immune response. Your body also produces T-cells during sleep, which are the white blood cells that play a critical role in immune responses to an infectious diseases. Studies have also shown that those who consistently do not get the proper amount of sleep are up to three times more susceptible to even common illnesses such as flu and colds. In short, sleep keeps the immune system strong and helps with healing.

Cellular repair and restoration.

There is growing scientific evidence that a series of biological processes, triggered when we sleep, are responsible for cellular repair and maintenance. When you are awake and going about the day, your cells are subjected to oxidative stress and molecular damage as a result of exposure to environmental toxins, free radicals, and other stressors. Sleep gives cells the opportunity to repair damage and restore a normal functioning state. Growth hormones that help repair and grow muscles are released during sleep. If you do not get enough rest, it also becomes harder for your body to recover from injuries.

Cognitive and brain function.

Sleep helps eliminate metabolic waste and toxins from the brain. The accumulated waste that is eliminated, beta-amyloid proteins, has been associated with the development of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s. This waste elimination process is crucial for maintaining cognitive function and preventing cognitive decline. Sleep also helps with the learning and formation of long-term memories. On a day-to-day level, lack of sleep can create problems in focusing and thinking clearly.

Sleep quantity and quality

In considering the right amount of sleep needed for optimal health and physiological benefits, both the quantity and quality of sleep are factors. The quantity, or amount of sleep needed, can vary with each individual. To function at your best and stay healthy, the number of hours you need to sleep depends on things such as age, occupation, physical condition, diet, and lifestyle variables, as well as genetics. A majority of studies agree on somewhere between 7 and 9 hours. However, some people function fine on 5 or 6 hours, while others may need 8 to 10 hours. The way and rate at which you process through the natural cycles of sleep accounts for some of these differences. Differences in the amount of sleep you need is also affected by the quality of sleep.

Studies on sleep quality started later than those on sleep quantity, beginning in 1989 when one study revealed that insomnia increases the risk of psychiatric disorders. And according to a nationwide research team on the quality of sleep, sleep quality is superior to sleep quantity as an index for assessing sleep needs and effectiveness. Good sleep quality is measured by characteristics such as restfulness, no sleepiness, no need for more sleep and sufficient sleep depth. Poor quality sleep can be described as not feeling refreshed after sleeping, or non-restorative sleep. While it is the same thing that is often used to describe insomnia, there is presently no definitive definition that can be used to assess sleep quality. It is most often simply defined subjectively as poor, if you are unsatisfied with the night’s sleep. In other words, you know it when you experience it.

Ultimately, the right quantity and quality of sleep is whatever it takes to have optimal energy, concentration, sound decision making and impulse control throughout the day. It is also important to follow the body’s reactions to the 24-hour circadian rhythms it is naturally attuned to.

Sleep and diet

The cumulative effects of getting inadequate sleep, in quantity, quality, or both, can raise the risk of developing chronic health problems. It can also have a negative impact on your ability to think, react, work, learn and get along with others. Unfortunately, busy lifestyles and responsibilities can make it difficult to get consistently good sleep. Ultimately, it can come down to a number of factors, including daily lifestyle habits, stress levels, exercise, diet, and even getting some sunlight exposure. Of these factors, one which you have the ability to control is diet.

Foods that help promote good sleep commonly provide things like magnesium, potassium, calcium, tryptophan and melatonin. Magnesium has a muscle relaxing effect, helping to promote overall relaxation for sleep. Potassium has a similar effect, and is also known to aid in a better quality of sleep. Calcium helps the brain use the amino acid tryptophan to produce melatonin, along with tryptophan itself releasing melatonin. Melatonin is the hormone that helps regulate your body’s internal clock, and initiates sleep when it is at a high level in the brain.

These, along with a variety of other elements, minerals and trace minerals can be found in foods that are known to help with sleep, and includes some complex carbohydrates as well as proteins. Some of the more popular ones are:

Nuts

Almonds, pecans, walnuts and cashews are a highly nutritious source of complex carbs, as well as protein and healthy fats. Almonds, in particular, are rich in melatonin and magnesium.

Sweet potatoes and bananas

Sweet potatoes and bananas are complex carbs that are also high in potassium, magnesium and Vitamin B6, which supports production of both melatonin and serotonin.

Oatmeal

Oatmeal is an excellent source of carbs and fiber, along with providing melatonin

Turkey

Turkey is a low-fat, high-protein food, well known as a rich source of sleep-inducing tryptophan.

Kiwi fruit, tart cherry juice.

These fruit sources contain magnesium, potassium and melatonin, with kiwis also providing folate and calcium – all beneficial to sleep.

Fatty fish.

Fish like salmon, sardines, tuna and cod provide fatty Omega 3 acids and vitamin D, helping to regulate serotonin levels, which in turn helps the pineal gland in the brain produce melatonin.

Yogurt. Yogurt is loaded with tryptophan, calcium and melatonin.

In addition to these foods, herbal chamomile tea and green tea can also be effective sleep aids. While some green teas contain caffeine, they also are a natural source of L-theanine, an amino acid that signals the brain cells to relax and wind down. It is also an antioxidant and increases levels of serotonin and dopamine. Its relaxing and mood-balancing effects can greatly improve sleep quality.

Additional, natural sleep help

The best way to get the nutrition, vitamins, minerals and everything your body needs for optimal health will always be through your diet. The same holds true for things that help you get the amount and quality of sleep that keeps you at your healthiest best. However, not everyone is always able to get the right amount of sleep. High stress levels, how you spend your day and what you do to wind down can all affect the quantity and quality of your sleep. Some people resort to sleeping pills, or other chemical means to essentially knock themselves out, but this is not the best solution or a long-term one.

Riize Sleep Strips provide a fast-acting, natural way to promote healthy sleep with a compound of the best sleep aid ingredients on an oral dissolving strip. Sleep Strips provide melatonin, L-theanine and Vitamin B6, along with Valerian root, combined in a pleasant tasting, convenient formula that dissolves on your tongue and is in your system within seconds. Along with the melatonin, L-theanine and B6 you can get from food sources, valerian root can help reduce the amount of time it takes to fall asleep, as well as improve the quality of sleep. It can also increase the effects of the other ingredients.