Sleep Summary
Melatonin, the hormone that regulates sleep, is present in some foods in particular tart cherries. Other foods like grapes and peanuts contain melatonin in smaller amounts but have other beneficial nutrients for sleep like magnesium. Trytophan, an amino acid and another important sleep nutrient, is a precursor to serotonin and melatonin. Pumpkin seeds are high in tryptophan and other beneficial sleep nutrients like glycine. Additionally, colostrum and eggs have trytophan and glycine as well as vitamin D- a nutrient many people are deficient in that plays a major role in sleep. Herbs can, also, have profound positive impacts on sleep namely valerian, hops, chamomile, and lemon balm.
SOURCES
Cherries:
(
Burkhardt et al., 2001), (
Cubero et al., 2010), (
Garrido et al., 2010), (
Garrido et al., 2014), (
Howatson et al., 2012), (
Pigeon et al., 2010)
Melatonin:
(
Andersen et al., 2008), (
Braam et al., 2009), (
Carr et al., 2007), (
Chang et al., 2016), (
Garfinkel et al., 1995), (
Gupta, Aneja, and Kohli, 2005), (
Haimov et al., 1995), (
Jan et al., 2000), (
McGrane et al., 2015), (
Scheer et al., 2012), (
Skocbat, Haimov, and Lavie, 1998), (
Turk, 2003), (
Wasdell et al., 2007), (
Wirojanan et al., 2007)
Magnesium:
(
Abbasi et al., 2012), (
Chollet et al., 2000), (
Chollet et al., 2001), (
Depoortere, Françon, and Llopis, 1993), (
Nielsen, Johnson, and Zeng, 2010)
Tryptophan:
(
Esteban et al., 2004), (
Markus et al., 2005), (
Minet-Ringuet et al., 2004), (
Paredes et al., 2007), (
Riemann et al., 2002), (
Silber and Schmitt, 2010)
Glycine:
(
Bannai and Kawai, 2012), (
Chase, Soja, and Morales, 1989), (
Inagawa et al., 2006), (
Yamadera et al., 2007)
Vitamin D:
(
Gominak and Stumpf, 2012), (
Huang et al., 2013), (
Kim et al., 2014), (
Majid et al., 2017), (
Massa et al., 2015), (
McCarty et al., 2014), (
Mete et al., 2013), (
Shiue, 2013)
Valerian:
(
Bent et al., 2006), (
Francis and Dempster, 2002), (
Taavoni et al., 2011)
Valerian-Hops Combination:
(
Dimpfel and Suter, 2008), (
Koetter et al., 2007), (
Morin et al., 2005), (
Müller et al., 2002)
Chamomile:
(
Abdullahzadeh and Naji, 2014), (
Adib-Hajbaghery and Mousavi, 2017), (
Chang and Chen, 2015)
Lemon Balm:
(
Cernya and Schmidb, 1999), (
Müller and Klement, 2006), (
Taavoni, Ekbatani, and Haghani, 2013)
Other Important Information
Deficiencies in vitamin D and B12 are both relatively common and both of these nutrients play a major role in sleep. Dairy, eggs and some meats seem to be good sources of B12 and vitamin D. If you aren't getting enough, a vitamin D supplement and/ or a B12 supplement may be beneficial.
Sources
Vitamin D: (
Gominak and Stumpf, 2012), (
Huang et al., 2013), (
Kim et al., 2014), (
Majid et al., 2017), (
Massa et al., 2015), (
McCarty et al., 2014), (
Mete et al., 2013), (
Shiue, 2013)
Vitamin B12: (
Mayer, Kröger, and Meier-Ewert, 1996), (
Ohta et al., 1991), (
Okawa et al., 1990), (
Uchiyama et al., 1995), (
Zadeh and Begum, 2010)