WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER:  These Snacks Will Help You Get Relaxed or Sleepy

Who would ever think that the classic hors d’oeuvre tray could help you get to sleep?  It’s certainly designed to relax us.

Here’s why:  You know that feeling you get, after a big turkey dinner, like the feast at Thanksgiving?  Sleep expert, Dr. Christopher Winter, says cheddar cheese has 60% more tryptophan than turkey.  Tryptophan is an amino acid.  It helps your body produce melatonin, the sleep hormone.

But your brain actually needs a combination of the cheese and other specific items, to trigger the spa-like effect.

By itself, protein actually keeps tryptophan from traveling to the brain, to make you relaxed and sleepy.  So, your brain really needs a combination of the cheese with carbohydrates – like a few crackers – to relax your mind.  The carbs help carry the tryptophan to your brain.  So, this is a great way to Eat or Sleep Smarter Not Harder.

Plus, it’s worth adding on the antioxidants from resveratrol.  That’s a chemical which is mostly found in red grapes.  So, that could go very well with the cheese and crackers…   Yum.  And good night!

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