Struggling to get decent shut eye can impact your health and wellbeing dramatically but what if we told you there’s a fruity solution that can solve all your bedtime woes?
An expert has urged those who struggle with getting to sleep to try a delicious yet often overlooked piece of fruit before climbing under the duvet. Tossing and turning until the early hours is an all too common issue, but that absolutely doesn’t mean you should simply give in and resign yourself to drowsiness and regret in your waking hours.
As far too many of us know all too well, a night of sleeplessness can pretty much ruin your day, impacting your concentration, mood, and generally leaving you feeling as though you’re running on empty.
Alarmingly, insufficient sleep can also have a dramatic effect on your long-term mental and physical health, linked with weakened immunity, high blood pressure, and even increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Fortunately, a healthy yet tasty bedtime snack could make all the different, according to experts at BedKingdom.co.uk, who recommend tucking into a fuzzy kiwi fruit.
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They said: “Kiwi fruit has been a feature in many people’s bedtime routines for many years, and the science backs up the kiwi’s value as a sleep aid.
“Studies have shown that kiwi fruit can help improve sleep quality, sleep timings, and sleep efficiency after a month of regular kiwifruit consumption before sleep.
“Kiwifruit contains high amounts of serotonin and antioxidants, as well as vitamins like folate, and B vitamin, which can help to treat sleep disorders as well as help reset your sleep schedule.”
The experts also urged against consuming caffeine too late at night, as it can ‘take up to 10 hours to leave the bloodstream completely’, therefore interfering with your precious sleep time.
If you exercise at night time, it may be time to switch up your routine, as studies have found that morning to be the best work out time.
They continued: “A 2015 study by Yamanaka et al. found that vigorous exercise before bed disrupts the body’s natural rhythm and makes it harder to get to sleep.
“This then makes it harder to keep to a sleep schedule, as well as reduces the quality of sleep achieved after intense exercise performed before bedtime.
“This study found that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep was decreased by 10.5% in the people that performed intensive exercise before bed. REM sleep is important because it is the time when your brain consolidates your memories, committing things learned during the day to long-term memory, as well as being the time when you dream most vividly.
“The same study found that sleep quality was improved when the intensive exercise was done in the morning.
“Therefore, it is best to avoid intensive exercise in the run-up to bedtime, ideally moving the exercise session earlier in the day to accommodate the best quality of sleep and allow for the best sleep schedule.”
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