If you are not getting enough sleep during the nights and feeling tired during the day then it may lead to serious health problems including depression and heart disease.
Millions of people in the US are sleep deprived due to stress and lifestyle disorder. Changing lifestyles and adding sleep inducing foods in your regular diet can certainly help many to get back the lost sleep quality. Walnut and other nuts can help you to sleep better.
Table of Contents
- Which Compounds in Walnut Help You to Sleep?
- How to Use Walnut to Induce Sleep?
- Other Tips and Precautions
Which Compounds in Walnut Help You to Sleep?
Let us first understand how our body prepares us for sleep.
Our body naturally produces a hormone called melatonin which regulates our sleep cycle. Production of melatonin in the body is governed by the blue light.
Melatonin is secreted by the pineal gland in the brain.
It maintains our internal clock. During the daylight melatonin production is reduced and when darkness begins the body produces more melatonin.
Melatonin induces sleep.
Walnuts contain an essential amino acid called tryptophan that converts into serotonin in the body. Serotonin in turn produces melatonin to get sleep.
Walnuts and other nuts are also rich in calcium and magnesium. Both these minerals reduce stress, relax muscles and reduce blood pressure. All these elements help to sleep well. Magnesium also.improves the quality of sleep. You get longer and deep sleep.
So if you are occasionally having sleep problems walnutnuts can resolve it. But if you have insomnia or sleep apnea then better consult a doctor as these conditions require more physiological and psychological answers than just food alone.
How to Use Walnut to Induce Sleep?
You can use walnuts in a variety of different ways to induce sleep. Whichever way you decide to consume walnut, do it one hour before going to the bed for best results.
1. Raw Walnuts
- Remove the walnut from the hard shell or buy shell removed walnuts
- Take a handful of Walnuts
- Eat the nuts one by one by chewing well as you want to get the maximum oil oil of the nut while chewing.
- Do it for a few days when you are not getting sleep temporarily.
- Stop it once your sleep cycle is back to normal
2. Walnuts with Salad
- Cut 1 cup of lettuce and 1 cup of kake. Both are rich in tryptophan to help you sleep
- Add ½ cup of boiled brown rice or quinoa. Both items also help inducing sleep
- Mix well and top it with small pieces if handful of Walnuts
- Eat this salad as your dinner daily for a few days and you will restore your normal sleep cycle back soon
3. Smoothie With Walnuts and Almond
- Sock a handful of Almonds in water in the morning
- Remove the skin of almonds and toss the white nuts in a blender
- Add a handful of walnuts
- Pour ½ cup of water and blend
- Add 1 cup each of cut lettuce and kale and blend again
- Add 1 cup of unsweetened yogurt and blend well
- Your sleep smoothie is ready to drink an hour before going to bed
Other Tips and Precautions
Walnuts can be allergic for some people with nut allergies. Avoid using walnuts in that case.
Following will help you to sleep better
- Go to bed everyday at the same time and wake up at same time next morning even on weekends
- Eat your dinner 2-3 hours before going to the bed.
- Exercise daily
- Do deep breathing for 15 minutes before going to the bed
- Stop using any electronic device like computer, tablet or mobile which has screen one hour before going to bed
Insomnia, sleep apnea and other sleep disturbing problems may involve physiological as well as psychological aspects, consult a doctor about your sleeping problems.