Food to give you a good night’s sleep

You don’t need a psychiatrist to tell you that partying all night or staying up until the early hours to watch a box-set of the latest u.S. TV drama series isn’t particularly good for your brain.

Your poor levels of concentration and fuggy head the next day will make the connection starkly clear.

But did you also know you could be doing permanent damage? If you get into bad sleep habits such as these and regularly deprive your brain of the sleep it needs, you could be setting yourself up for serious long-term problems.

Most people are sleeping a lot less than they did 50 years ago.

We live in a 24/7 world where everyone is scared they will miss out on something interesting, financially rewarding or fun if they go to bed early. Add shift work, young children, international travel and workaholism into the mix and you have a state of ‘normal’ that is continually pushing the boundaries of physical and mental wellbeing.

I’ve spent the past 20 years as a psychiatrist and I am fascinated by the workings of the brain, but I have found that just like poor diet, poor sleep can have a dramatic influence on our brain health.

All this week in the Daily Mail I have been revealing my expert blueprint for optimum brain health — now and in your future. Today, the focus is sleep.

Your body has evolved to spend one-third of its life asleep — cut that short, and you’ll end up with problems.

FOOD THAT CAN HELP YOU SLEEP

IT ShoulD come as no surprise that some food can help you sleep. After all, our gut and brain are closely linked because many hormones that influence our mood are produced there.

here’s the food that’s scientifically

proven to help you sleep. Try to add a portion about 1 to 2 hours before you go to bed.

A GLASS OF MILK: It sounds like an old wives’ tale, but any form of dairy product really can help you drop off. Calcium, a vital mineral found in dairy, helps the brain to manufacture melatonin, the hormone that lets us drop off. WALNUTS AND ALMONDS: Walnuts are an excellent source of tryptophan, a sleep-enhancing chemical, that helps the brain produce melatonin. Walnuts contain their own melatonin, too, giving you twice the benefits. Almonds are

also excellent as they contain magnesium, which has been found to induce sleeping (and which many of us are deficient in). Magnesium is present in many foods including, pumpkin seeds, wheat germ and green leafy vegetables.

CHERRY JUICE: Cherry juice is proven to induce sleep, based on a study at the louisiana State university — middle-aged adults drinking at least 8 ounces of tart cherry juice twice a day sleep longer and more deeply. useful if you suffer from insomnia. TUNA AND SALMON: Both fish are rich in vitamin B6, another

chemical that helps the brain produce melatonin.

JASMINE RICE: Research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that people who ate a meal that included jasmine rice fell asleep faster than when they ate other rice types.

CHAMOMILE TEA: Normal tea is high in caffeine so avoid it before bed. Try chamomile instead: drinking it is associated with an increase of glycine, a chemical that relaxes nerves and muscles and acts like a mild sedative. CHICKPEAS: These are also a good source of tryptophan and easy to

digest before bed. have them whole or enjoy in hummus.

OATMEAL: Another great source of melatonin — and mixed with milk, you get all the benefits of dairy, too.

FOODS TO AVOID BEFORE BED

TheSe sleep-saboteurs can keep you tossing and turning...

CURRY: Spicy food can cause heartburn when you lie down after eating it, which won’t help you get a restful night.

AGED CHEESE: Contains the amino acid tyramine, known to make the brain more alert, and can stop you from falling asleep. This is probably where the old wives’ tale that cheese gives you bad dreams comes from.

SALAMI: Contains high levels of tyramine — and is very salty, meaning you’ll be dehydrated and groggy in the morning.

CHOCOLATE: Full of caffeine, a natural stimulant. This causes alertness and restlessness, which can keep you up at night.

TOMATOES: These can cause acid reflux in the night and are hard to disgest SOY SAUCE: This has some of the

highest amount of tyramine — meaning soy sauce should definitely be avoided last thing at night.

UNDERSTAND YOUR SLEEP CYCLE

Sleep is made up of three different stages and each performs an important function to keep the brain healthy.

When these stages of sleep are disrupted or you don’t get enough sleep, your brain will not be as alert or as capable of learning or remembering things. The stages are:

. 1 ShalloW sleep occurs just as you fall asleep (this is called stage 1 sleep) — during this stage, you can be awakened very easily. each stage lasts around 15 minutes, and the entire cycle takes around 90 minutes before it starts again. 2 Deep sleep (stages 2 and 3) comes next as the parts of your brain involved in controlling muscle movement slow down. The sending of information to retrieve memories also slows down, and the alert for sensory information shuts off.

Your brain goes very quiet, although it starts storing the memories of things you learned during the day. Researchers believe this type of sleep enhances creativity. During this stage of sleep your energy reserves are replenished. 3 RapiD eye movement (ReM sleep) comes next, bringing dreams as the area of your brain that integrates visual information becomes active.

The areas that regulate muscle movement, breathing, heart rate and emotions all become more active, and vision, hearing, sensory and memory activity also increase. The brain continues to store memories.

each cycle of sleep has a specific function which influences your thinking, immune system, memory, growth and rate of ageing.

So if you try to squeeze something as important as sleep into a time that suits your schedule rather than when your body and brain require it, you will pay the price of sluggish thinking, poor mood and weight gain.

Researchers have found that when you are exposed to a lot of new information or experiences during the day, you tend to experience more ReM sleep.

This helps you to make memories of what you have learned or experienced during the day.

if you get lots of deep sleep, you should be better able to remember and be able to recall a new skill that you have learnt.

We also store and process emotional encounters (a fight with your partner, for instance) during this part of sleep — the more you get, the better you are able to regulate your feelings. Get plenty of sleep, and you’ll soon see your relationships improving.

last, you’ll see the details and vividness of your memories improve, too.

Some researchers believe sleep may be the time when the brain practises new memory patterns to transfer them into long-term memory. So sleep could be promoting brain growth or facilitating its ability to lay down memories.

another great benefit of getting all the sleep you need is that when you sleep, your blood pressure drops. This is very good for your heart, and what is good for your heart is also good for your brain.

When you’re sleep deprived, you increase your likelihood of heart disease, which will put your brain at risk of decline due to a lack of blood flow and oxygen.

let’s face it, your brain doesn’t respond well to the overstimulating and overwhelming world we have created for ourselves.

So, in addition to eating the right foods and trying to minimise the stresses in your life, i urge you to respect your brain’s desire for sleep.

energised thinking occurs only in a well-rested brain, so stop trying to pack too much into an ever-longer day and instead get ahead in whatever you are trying to accomplish simply by having a consistent, good, solid night’s sleep every night.