5 Foods That Help You Sleep Better

Do you have trouble falling asleep? "Adding certain foods to your diet may help to increase your odds of a successful slumber, as reported in EatingWell Magazine. (Though these foods won't answer e-mails, clean your house or complete whatever to-do item is keeping you up late.) Here's what you can eat for a better night's sleep:

Fish-Most fish-and especially salmon, halibut and tuna-boast vitamin B6, which is needed to make melatonin (a sleep-inducing hormone triggered by darkness), according to an article published in theAnnals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Other B6-rich foods include chickpeas, bananas and fortified cereals. 

Jasmine rice-When healthy sleepers ate carbohydrate-rich suppers of veggies and tomato sauce over rice, they fell asleep significantly faster at bedtime if the meal included high-glycemic-index (GI) jasmine rice rather than lower-GI long-grain rice, in a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. While the authors aren't sure how it happened, they speculated that the greater amounts of insulin triggered by the high-GI meals increased the ratio of sleep-inducing tryptophan relative to other amino acids in the blood, allowing proportionately more to get into the brain.

Tart cherry juice-In a small study, melatonin-rich tart cherry juice was shown to aid sleep. When adults with chronic insomnia drank a cup of tart cherry juice twice a day they experienced some relief in the severity of their insomnia.

Yogurt-Dairy products like yogurt and milk boast healthy doses of calcium-and there's research that suggests being calcium-deficient may make it difficult to fall asleep. Other calcium-rich foods to try: leafy green vegetables like kale and collards. 

Whole grains-Bulgur, barley and other whole grains are rich in magnesium-and consuming too little magnesium may make it harder to stay asleep, reported the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine."

Source: Eating Well, Yahoo