Are you struggling to fall asleep? Welcome to the club. There are about 14 million Italians who suffer from insomnia, some more severely, some occasionally.
Certainly, blank nights are not good for your health or for your school or work performance the next day. For this reason it is good to try to remedy it.
Before going to the doctor and asking for pharmacological help, you can try correcting some habits that are certainly not good for sleep. First of all, food. Here is a list of foods and dishes to avoid.
Tea and coffee, better not
Caffeine and theine are exciting molecules. They help to wake up in the morning and give a boost of energy when attention and concentration are needed. For this reason in the evening it is good to avoid them. The risk is not being able to fall asleep. The same applies to those energy drinks, the so-called energy drinks, which contain caffeine.
A valid alternative for after dinner? A steaming herbal tea, perhaps based on chamomile. It calms the nerves and dissolves the tensions of the day.
Avoid chocolate
If you want to sleep well, it is better to forget about cocoa in all its forms: bars, chocolates, puddings and so on. Theobromine, a substance contained in cocoa, has been shown to have an exciting activity similar to that of caffeine.
In addition, chocolate-based desserts are also very caloric, and it is always good to keep energy intake under control, especially in the evening.
Chili & Co.
Are we going to the Indian restaurant tonight? Better not, we go there Sunday for lunch. Spicy foods, from pepper to chili, have the unpleasant side effect of delaying falling asleep.
Alcohol, no thanks
Wine, beer and spirits: better to be cautious. At most a glass of wine at dinner. If you go further you risk an embarrassing situation: an initial drowsiness and numbness, but that during the night is felt. In fact, alcohol interferes with sleep, not making us sleep well and causing frequent awakenings. And in the morning the classic hangover headache may arise.
Watch out for salt
Chips, cold cuts, kitchen cubes, pickled and canned food: they are all foods rich in salt. They are not good for your heart and blood pressure, plus they risk waking you up in the middle of the night to go drinking. So goodbye sleep. Kitchen nuts also contain a lot of glutamate, which seems to alter the natural sleep pattern.
Find out by opening the table below which are the foods richest in salt ever.
Joycelyn Elders is the author and creator of EmpowerEssence, a health and wellness blog. Elders is a respected public health advocate and pediatrician dedicated to promoting general health and well-being.
The blog covers a wide range of topics related to health and wellness, with articles organized into several categories.