Can Foods Help Cure Insomnia?

 
Insomnia is a big problem but most people do not want to take medications to get sleepy.  So they try to get sleepy with food.  Insomnia is a much more complicated problem than a single food can cure.

The recent home remedy for insomnia is to eat two pieces of bread.  This is for the type of insomnia where you sleep for a couple of hours, wake up and cannot fall back to sleep.

I've tried this home remedy and can report that it's a bunch of hooey.  According to the National Sleep Foundation, combining proteins and carbs make you sleepy.  Other foods that supposedly make you sleepy (and yet, somehow, do not work for me include):

• Cereal and milk (cereal needs to contain protein and not just sugars)
• Peanut butter on bread or crackers
• Cheese and crackers

Now, just because food does not get me sleepy doesn't mean it won't get you sleepy.  Here's one of my older blog posts on Foods that Make You Sleepy, which also includes a list of foods containing tryptophan.

Although alcohol can make you drowsy, it interferes with deep sleep, so you wind up not getting the quality sleep that you need.