7 Midnight Snacks For a More Restful Night’s Sleep

Chances are your midnight snack isn’t something you plan. It just sort of, uh, happens, right? Well, how fair is that? You think about eating protein at breakfast, pack yourself a well-balanced lunch and stress to get dinner on time at seven. So why no love for that 4th (albeit smaller) meal that inevitably happens? Time to change that. Take a look at these 7 phenomenal foods that’ll fill your belly, tantalize your tastebuds and have you sleeping like a log in no time.

Almonds: Widely known for their heart healthy benefits, almonds are also rich in magnesium. Studies have shown that people that are low in magnesium have a hard time staying asleep. In other words, a handful of Bobalu In-Shell Almonds could be the real ticket to a better night’s sleep. Woot Woot!

Greek Yogurt: Mom may have suggested a warm glass of milk when you couldn’t fall asleep as a kid, but she never said why. While that ritual may have been soothing, science points to the fact that it’s the calcium and tryptophan in dairy products that help the brain create it’s sleep-inducing melatonin. Calcium also settles muscle movements for a more restful body. While a glass of warm milk still works, a creamy bowl of yogurt that’s lightly sweetened with natural honey is like an edible lullaby.

Figs: Just going on taste alone, there’s absolutely no reason to avoid these fabulous fruits. And then come the health benefits. A good source of dietary fiber, figs are excellent for the digestive track and can be nice and filling. When it comes time to say goodnight, they’ve deliver potassium to the body as well, which is said to help people stay asleep through the night. Sleeping in fits and spurts, maybe a Nature’s Bakery Mango Fig Bar is the snack of your dreams.

Plantains: Another good source of potassium, plantains are a terrific choice for that last meal of the day. Ripe plantains are starchy and inedible raw. That said, cooked just right into a crispy chip with a sprinkling of sea salt and they’re heavenly. Try Turbana if you’re not up for the cooking challenge yourself.

Kale: Of course, Kale is popping up everywhere these days. Well, it is just that good! Now, it’s not likely that you’ll toss together a kale salad like you did at dinner, but noshing on a few crispy kale chips before bed shouldn’t be out of the question. A non-dairy source of calcium, these leafy greens will trigger that tryptophan response in your brain and send you off to la la land.

Turkey: How can we discuss tryptophan without mentioning turkey? Remember last Thanksgiving when you fell asleep while watching football with your cousins at around 7pm? That was the turkey talking! Keep a few slices of organic turkey meat in your fridge and you’ll always have a way to catch a few extra zzzs.

Chickpeas: Chickpeas (aka garbonzo beans) are a powerhouse legume. Containing rockstar quantities of protein, folate, phosphorus and manganese, it seems unfair just to mention that they’re a also a good source of tryptophan and potassium. (But see there, we found our way around that!) Whether roasted, whole or pureed into hummus, a midnight snack based on these beans will have you sleeping well, knowing that you did your body right.

What’s your favorite midnight snack? Share with us in the comments below.