Oatmeal Based Diets Can Help You Sleep Better

BEACON TRANSCRIPT – Are you having trouble falling asleep? Then you should choose carefully what you eat before you decided to hit the sack and get in a couple of z’s. A team of nutritional scientists from the University of Columbia has discovered that oatmeal based diets can help you sleep better.

Getting plenty of rest is very important, not only for your mental health but for other bodily functions. During those hours of sleep, our body starts to regenerate. And we can all agree that a good night’s sleep can leave us feeling refreshed and ready for anything.

On the other hand, if we fail to fall asleep we wake up feeling woozy and even moody. The researchers working on the project have traced the problem back to our eating habits. They have observed that individuals who indulge in fatty and sugary meals before bedtime are more likely to have issues falling asleep. Moreover, these individuals have many waking episodes during the night and they wake up feeling tired.

The team said that the key to this problem is a rich diet filled with fibers and vegetables. Also, the scientists said that it’s probably not a good idea to eat a rich meal before you go to sleep. However, if you do feel the munchies, then you can go ahead and fix yourself a late midnight snack containing oatmeal and plenty of vegetables.

A team of researcher from the University of Columbia has concluded that oatmeal based diets can help you sleep better.

In order to test out their assumptions, the team asked a couple of volunteers to participate in a sleep study. Over 26 participants enrolled in the clinical trial, 12 men and 12 women. The sleep study extended over a period of three days.

In the first two days, the scientists asked the participants to eat a healthy meal before going to sleep. The late snack consisted in oatmeal and vegetables.

In the last day of the study, the team told the participants that they are free to eat whatever they like.

As results are coming in, it would seem that the team’s assumptions were verified. In the first 2 days of the study, when the members had rich and healthy meals, it took them approximately 17 minutes to fall asleep. However, in the last day of the study, when they were enticed to consume whatever they liked, it took them more than half an hour before they fell asleep.

The study’s conclusion is that an oatmeal based meal can help you sleep better. Also, be sure to eat plenty of vegetables and squeeze in a little session of physical exercises.

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