The Value of Sleep

Most of us love doing it but don’t get enough of it. Although much about sleep is still a mystery to us, one thing is certain: we need it. Lots of it. And if you don’t look like this girl every night – sleeping peacefully, calmly and effortlessly – then you may benefit from a little nutritional advice when it comes to sleep.

Things like impaired sleep, altered sleep patterns and sleep deprivation can significantly hurt mental and physical function, both in the short-term and the long-term. One statistic I read says that about 1/3 of all Americans experience insomnia on a regular basis, with about 10 million people using prescription drugs to help them fall asleep (Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine, Murray & Pizzorno). That’s shocking! Or, maybe not...

The most common causes of insomnia are depression, anxiety, grief and tension. However, there are also compounds in certain foods, drinks and prescription drugs that can interfere with sleep. Usually, it’s a combination of psychological factors and something in the person’s diet that cause the insomnia.

A lack of calcium and magnesium can really affect sleep. It may not prevent someone from falling asleep, however it can cause them to wake up after a few hours and have trouble falling back to sleep. Calcium has a calming effect, and magnesium helps relax the muscles. The magnesium helps calcium become absorbed, and when taken together they can improve sleep for some people.

There are some other evening habits that can improve sleep for many. Eating right before bed is not good. As I’ve mentioned before, your body doesn’t love multi-tasking. So, when you eat right before bed you are asking your body to make a decision: digest, or sleep? If it chooses to digest, your sleep will be restless. If it chooses to sleep, you may wake up a few hours later with an upset stomach. So, allow yourself about 2 hours after dinner to digest your food before you jump into bed.

Tryptophan is an essential amino acid, meaning it cannot be created by our bodies and must be obtained from food. It’s a precursor to serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter that converts to melatonin, which helps us sleep. I’ll talk more about melatonin tomorrow, but the point here is that we all need to include foods containing tryptophan in our diet on a regular basis. Foods high in tryptophan include oats, dates, bananas, figs, nut butter, tuna, turkey, whole grains, yogurt, eggs, fish, chickpeas, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. Oh, and let’s not forget chocolate! (But, unfortunately, chocolate also contains caffeine, which can impair sleep…).

Over the next couple of days I’ll talk more about the things that can help you obtain better quality sleep. It’s so important, and sometimes really small changes can make a huge difference.

Bananas!

Is anyone else completely dependent on bananas? We eat a lot of them at our house. I use them in smoothies, in yogurt, in hot cereal, and for baking. We top them with almond butter and cinnamon. I’ve even made almond butter and banana sandwiches. And my staple pre-race breakfast, whether it’s a 5k or a marathon, is a banana with peanut butter. When I ran the Chicago marathon with my sisters and brother, we bought our own bananas and peanut butter for our hotel room!


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Banana Pumpkin Pear Muffins

Even though it’s been happening around the 15^th of every month since March, it still catches me by surprise. The doorbell rings, I rush to see who it is, and find a box. A box beautifully packaged and full of something delicious: fruit. Yes, Ed and I are members of the Harry & David Fruit-of-the-Month Club, thanks to a very generous wedding gift from our friends Ben and Abby!

Now, unlike the Beer-of-the-Month Club microbrews or Stonewall Kitchen-of-the-Month Club sauces and muffin mixes (both also wonderful wedding gifts!), with fruit we have to use it quickly before it becomes overripe. So each month I am faced with a new challenge. I’ve done pineapple skewers for a bbq we hosted; apple pie and apple crisp and homemade applesauce; we even had papaya smoothies once for a week straight!

November brought pears. And I love pears, because they are high in vitamin C and vitamin C is not only an antioxidant, but it also stimulates white blood cells to fight off infection and it kills bacteria. Pears are considered a hypoallergenic fruit and are a safe choice for infants. They are also a good source of fiber, copper and vitamin K.

I have had two small pie pumpkins sitting on my living room mantle for a couple of weeks, just begging to be baked. So I came up with this recipe myself, and it turned out very nicely. I used some ingredients that may not be readily available in your kitchen cabinets, so feel free to use the (alternative) ingredient instead.

Recipe

1 ½ cups almonds, ground to a meal in food processor (1 ½ cups any type of flour product)

1 ½ cups steel cut oats, ground to a flour in food processor (1 ½ cups any type of oats, unground is fine too)

1 cup spelt flour (1 cup any type of flour, or flax seed meal would work well too)

1 tsp grated ginger (can leave out if you don’t have it)

1 ¼ tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

A few dashes of sea salt

1 ripe banana

2 pears, chopped

1 cup pureed fresh pumpkin (canned works well too)

1 egg

1 tbsp butter (optional)

1 tbsp unsulphured blackstrap molasses (1 tbsp raw honey)

¼ cup milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin tins. Puree chopped pears and ripe banana in a food processor, blender or by hand. Ed gives this step a big thumbs up.

In large bowl, combine almond meal, oats, spelt flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt.

In separate bowl combine molasses, egg, butter, pumpkin, banana, pears, and milk.
Add wet ingredients to dry and mix well. If batter is too dry or too wet, adjust with milk or flour accordingly.

Spoon into muffin tin and bake for 14-18 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Makes 18 muffins.

What is blackstrap molasses? I figured you’d ask.

Blackstrap molasses is the liquid byproduct

from the sugar refining process. It is one of

the few sweeteners that is actually good for you,

in that it boosts iron stores, is a good source of

calcium, and is full of the minerals copper,

magnesium, potassium and manganese. It does

contain sucrose so if you have blood sugar

problems you may want to avoid it.

These muffins are full of nutrients and make a great breakfast or snack. Ed and I had them this morning along with a mostly-veggie smoothie. And I’ll even let you in on a little secret: I added some chocolate chips to the last 6 muffins… and who can turn down muffins with chocolate chips???

Allison, if you’re reading this, yes, I saved you and Teddy some.

And before we officially enter the weekend, let me leave you with a few clues about Monday’s post, which could quite possibly be the best yet at Pierce Whole Nutrition:

1. I did not write it.

2. It’s funny. Very, very funny.

3. It will make you buzz over to your local market to buy the freshest raw honey available.

I am very excited about Monday’s guest blogger and you should be too. I promise she won’t let you down!