Sleep is crucial in achieving optimum health and fitness. But millions of people around the world do not get enough rest due sleep disorders ranging from insomnia to sleep apnea.

While some sleep disorders require immediate medical attention, in most cases your health habits, particularly your food choices, can help you to not only fall asleep easily, but also get good quality sleep. A raw food diet is one route that has been shown to have a positive effect on sleep.

This diet will have you eating much more vegetables and fruits than a regular diet, and by doing so you will increase your fiber intake, which has been shown to improve sleep quality.

A Columbia University study on the impact of fiber on sleep revealed that higher fiber intake leads to “more time spent in a dreamless deep stage of sleep known as slow-wave sleep.” In other words, more fiber means better, more restorative slumber time.

Increasing your intake of raw food can have a positive impact on your sleep, especially for those who suffer from insomnia, due to the amino acid tryptophan.

The amino acid enhances the production of both serotonin and melatonin. The former is a mood regulator, while the latter is a sleep-inducing hormone released at night.

Recent Studies have shown that you increase your tryptophan intake by consuming more of these raw, tryptophan-rich foods: beans, hazelnuts, guava, sunflower seeds, and sesame seeds.

Certain raw foods that are rich in either calcium or magnesium have also been proven to improve sleep. Seaweed and cruciferous vegetables—broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, cress, and bok choy—are rich in calcium. Nuts, pumpkin seeds, and green leafy vegetables, on the other hand, are rich in magnesium.

Just as important, the raw food diet will keep you away from what Dr. Ariel Jones calls sleep dysregulators, which are foods that can make it difficult for you to fall asleep, adversely affect the quality of your sleep, or both.

These sleep dysregulators include caffeine, processed foods, sugary treats, heated food, and meat. Dr. Jones states that these types of food negatively affect the stomach, which is where 95% of serotonin is made.

But sometimes, doing all the right things—eating right, exercising often—just isn’t enough for some. There are people who find falling asleep very difficult.

If this sounds familiar, this better sleep guide prepared by Leesa can prove useful. The guide includes a dietary section, which recommends consuming melatonin-rich food like cherries, which are both staples of a raw food diet.

Other tips include cutting down on caffeine, especially within four hours of bedtime, and shutting off from technology.

To get better sleep, you can increase the servings of raw food in your diet. Better yet, you can go full on raw by adopting the raw food diet, which you can do easily and gradually by following our pointers in ‘How to Start a Raw Food Diet (The Easy Way)’. Our prescribed diet, as mentioned in the post, is back by the science of Orthopathy, or Natural Hygiene.

Eat Better, Feel Better

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