Improve Insomnia Naturally with Dietary Changes: A Chinese Medicine Approach

Often times the a root cause of insomnia is a liver energy imbalance which can be corrected with proper diet.

Foods that balance the liver to promote deep sleep include:nn * Dark green leafy vegetables, particularly dandelion greens.nn * Burdock root and other deep root vegetables such as beets, carrots, and turnips.nn * Cucumber (particularly good for calming liver heat, which plays a role in the type of insomnia where one has trouble falling asleep). n n * Peppermint tea is also very cooling.nn * Chamomile tea—brew it for at least 20 minutes to gain benefits. Simply dunking a chamomile bag into water for a short period of time does not extract enough of the herb essence to benefit the body on a herb medicine level.nn * Soy and other foods high in calcium which help to produce l-tryptophan, a precursor to melatonin, one of the hormones that our brains need to induce deep sleep.

Before you buy melatonin supplements, keep in mind that they may have side effects such as nausea, abdominal cramps, irritability and daytime sleepiness, and depression.

Also try increasing these foods that naturally contain higher levels of melatonin. From highest to lowest content of melatonin, these foods include:

Oats, sweetcorn, rice, ginger, tomatoes, bananas, and barley.

Also it is important to avoid the foods that agitate the liver such as:nn * High amounts of carbohydrates especially simple sugars such as white sugar and corn syrup.nn * High fat and fried foods. nn * Very spicy foods such as hot chili peppers and jalapeños, salsa, spiced hot oil, and large amounts of black pepper.nn